Yogi Diver
03-04-08, 18:21
On the eve of the CA Port Napier Trip, I thought I would share with you what has to be my most embarrassing "Incident" of all my dives.
As I prefer, this is a true representation of the events of that day, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. After all, I am publishing under a nom de plume so it's only fair the other numpties get some protection too.:D
It was the second day of a great October dive weekend based in Glenelg with the club inflateable, "The Baffy" as our means of transport. Launched from the Kyleakin ferry slip, we had dived Balamacarra Cliff and The Port Napier on the Saturday. Both dives had been spectacular, with perfect conditions and good visibility so we all agreed to return to the Port Napier for another dive on Sunday morning.
This time I was buddied with Dod, a Dive Leader of many years experience to hold my inexperienced Club Diver's hand and keep me from harm.:rolleyes:
(At the time I had 98 dives in my logbook but 58 of them were Cyprus or Gozo and this trip was my first real experience of diving from a small boat. We had previously used The Baffy to do Stallion Rock or Kenmore, the lazy way, but I'd never actually dived off it.)
It was another glorious Autumn morning, and I was about to do my second dive on the Port Napier, what could possibly go wrong?:rolleyes:
We reached the wreck about 11:00 am in millpond conditions and tied on to a buoy which someone said was used by one of the hardboats. We got kitted up, and Dod jumped in first. I went in off the other side of the boat and he swam around the stern to meet me. When I saw him, I signalled OK and "Lets dive" and dumped the air from my BCD to start my descent. Dod caught up with me and followed me down. The water in the first few metres was emerald green with visibility measured in centimetres rather than metres and we dropped down to find the sand at the bottom at a depth of 23 metres.
(Anyone spot the problem yet? Yes, we were diving a wreck with a maximum depth of about 20 metres and were already at 23!:confused:)
However, the vis had improved considerably from above and we could see a good 6 - 8 metres all around, but no sign of a dirty great ship!!
Dod looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, as if to say, where the hell do we go from here? I look back and shrug my shoulders as if to say, "How the hell should I know? You're the Dive Leader.:p"
Dod checks his compass so I look at mine as if to imply I might be able to help. Even if I'd known what I was doing this was a complete waste of time as it had fallen victim to the cylinder on top of dive kit in boat syndrome and was completely buggered! Dod's not having much more luck as the nearby presence of 9600 tons of steel minelayer does not make a magnetic compass the most reliable of instruments anyway.
He makes his decision and sets off in the direction he decides is right.
5 minutes later, at 26 metres, Dod decides, maybe he was wrong after all.
A change in direction and we set off again, back up the gentle slope at about 135 degrees from our previous heading.
We found a lovely little reef at 18 metres, with crabs, lobsters and various soft corals and anemones which we explored before continuing our search for the Port Napier. Continuing up the slope, we eventually reached a depth of 15 metres. Strange, we should have found it by now?
Eventually, after about 30 minutes dive time, we agreed to knock it on the head and ascend. Completing a 3 minute stop in the blue, (well, dark green,), as called for by the great god Suunto, we finally surfaced about 200 metres west of The Baffy which came to pick us up.
The boat cover had followed our progress by our bubbles in the Mill pond conditions and it turned out that we had managed to completely circumnavigatre a 150 metre long wreck without seeing so much as a rivet!
There had been a small current running when we dropped down which carried us away from the wreck, without us realising it. This, combined with the dodgy compass readings had sent us in completely the wrong direction. Once Dod realised our mistake and tried to correct it, we had headed back at an angle which must have taken us within 20 metres of the stern, only to complete our dive at the opposite side of the wreck from our boat cover, which even more embarrassingly, was tied on to the forward gun!!:o
If I had swam round to my Buddy after throwing myself in, we would have dropped down the shot line, straight onto the Bow!
There was never any danger involved in our error but the rest of the club regularily continue to remind us of the day we managed to miss a 150 metre long wreck, which clears the water at low tide, when our boat was tied to it!!!
:o:o:o
I think it says a lot for our club though that I am now the Training Officer, and Dod is the DO!!;). Expect many more reports on this forum in future:)
For those of you heading there tomorrow, have a good one. I'm not jealous at all.
B******s!!!!:mad::mad::mad:
:D:D:D:D:D:D
As I prefer, this is a true representation of the events of that day, only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. After all, I am publishing under a nom de plume so it's only fair the other numpties get some protection too.:D
It was the second day of a great October dive weekend based in Glenelg with the club inflateable, "The Baffy" as our means of transport. Launched from the Kyleakin ferry slip, we had dived Balamacarra Cliff and The Port Napier on the Saturday. Both dives had been spectacular, with perfect conditions and good visibility so we all agreed to return to the Port Napier for another dive on Sunday morning.
This time I was buddied with Dod, a Dive Leader of many years experience to hold my inexperienced Club Diver's hand and keep me from harm.:rolleyes:
(At the time I had 98 dives in my logbook but 58 of them were Cyprus or Gozo and this trip was my first real experience of diving from a small boat. We had previously used The Baffy to do Stallion Rock or Kenmore, the lazy way, but I'd never actually dived off it.)
It was another glorious Autumn morning, and I was about to do my second dive on the Port Napier, what could possibly go wrong?:rolleyes:
We reached the wreck about 11:00 am in millpond conditions and tied on to a buoy which someone said was used by one of the hardboats. We got kitted up, and Dod jumped in first. I went in off the other side of the boat and he swam around the stern to meet me. When I saw him, I signalled OK and "Lets dive" and dumped the air from my BCD to start my descent. Dod caught up with me and followed me down. The water in the first few metres was emerald green with visibility measured in centimetres rather than metres and we dropped down to find the sand at the bottom at a depth of 23 metres.
(Anyone spot the problem yet? Yes, we were diving a wreck with a maximum depth of about 20 metres and were already at 23!:confused:)
However, the vis had improved considerably from above and we could see a good 6 - 8 metres all around, but no sign of a dirty great ship!!
Dod looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, as if to say, where the hell do we go from here? I look back and shrug my shoulders as if to say, "How the hell should I know? You're the Dive Leader.:p"
Dod checks his compass so I look at mine as if to imply I might be able to help. Even if I'd known what I was doing this was a complete waste of time as it had fallen victim to the cylinder on top of dive kit in boat syndrome and was completely buggered! Dod's not having much more luck as the nearby presence of 9600 tons of steel minelayer does not make a magnetic compass the most reliable of instruments anyway.
He makes his decision and sets off in the direction he decides is right.
5 minutes later, at 26 metres, Dod decides, maybe he was wrong after all.
A change in direction and we set off again, back up the gentle slope at about 135 degrees from our previous heading.
We found a lovely little reef at 18 metres, with crabs, lobsters and various soft corals and anemones which we explored before continuing our search for the Port Napier. Continuing up the slope, we eventually reached a depth of 15 metres. Strange, we should have found it by now?
Eventually, after about 30 minutes dive time, we agreed to knock it on the head and ascend. Completing a 3 minute stop in the blue, (well, dark green,), as called for by the great god Suunto, we finally surfaced about 200 metres west of The Baffy which came to pick us up.
The boat cover had followed our progress by our bubbles in the Mill pond conditions and it turned out that we had managed to completely circumnavigatre a 150 metre long wreck without seeing so much as a rivet!
There had been a small current running when we dropped down which carried us away from the wreck, without us realising it. This, combined with the dodgy compass readings had sent us in completely the wrong direction. Once Dod realised our mistake and tried to correct it, we had headed back at an angle which must have taken us within 20 metres of the stern, only to complete our dive at the opposite side of the wreck from our boat cover, which even more embarrassingly, was tied on to the forward gun!!:o
If I had swam round to my Buddy after throwing myself in, we would have dropped down the shot line, straight onto the Bow!
There was never any danger involved in our error but the rest of the club regularily continue to remind us of the day we managed to miss a 150 metre long wreck, which clears the water at low tide, when our boat was tied to it!!!
:o:o:o
I think it says a lot for our club though that I am now the Training Officer, and Dod is the DO!!;). Expect many more reports on this forum in future:)
For those of you heading there tomorrow, have a good one. I'm not jealous at all.
B******s!!!!:mad::mad::mad:
:D:D:D:D:D:D