Timing is everything. I was just is the process of getting my kit ready at 7.00 last night for the dive today and I get a text saying the dive was cancelled. So all had to go back and be stored away.
The reason was the sea fog. I understand the reason why fog is such a problem. Not that the boat might hit something or miss the dive site but both of those cannot be dismissed. The major reason from my point of view would be that the skipper could not guarantee being able to see the surfacing divers, even with our big red SMBs and torches.
I have a very nice warm dry suit but I still really don’t fancy attempting a surface drift in 7ºC foggy seas across the busy English Channel to France, if I was lucky!
I have never seen so much fog for so log, Sherlock Holmes, Victorian London eat you heart out!
This was my last planned dive before my trip to New Zealand in February and I have diving booked there. I hope to dive on the Rainbow Warrior, and felt that I needed to keep dive fit to get the most out of my New Zealand diving.
I will see if I can sort out a shore dive somewhere, possibly.
Thursday 30 December 2010
Sunday 19 December 2010
The Far Mulberry Night Dive 12th December 2010
Now this is a dive I really enjoy, but to be honest I was not feeling my best and in some ways not having dived since September a lack of diving motivation. Don’t get me wrong I know I will enjoy the dive and feel great about it afterwards, which is my motivation when feeling less than keen on going out on a cold day for a dive!
I have previously dived at night on the far mulberry on two occasions and those have been fantastic. All the crabs and lobsters came out to play!
This time it was much later in the year so maybe a different night life to be seen.
The surface water was calm and still with an air temperature of 7°C according to my dive computer. I was diving with Adrian and Simon as a threesome, which can be a tricky combination. Simon was diving with a re-breather, with Adrian on Nitrox and me on air, what a group, but it was just a 10 metre dive.
Going down the shot line it was a bit of a shock to find an odd rectangular metal mesh object caught on the shot line. I have caught the object on the video and it is 3 by 2 feet in size and appears to be some sort of crushed lobster pot sort of thing. Worryingly this object had what appeared to be sharp spikes coming out of it and it was about a metre from the bottom.
With the normal practise of keeping eye contact with ones buddy during descent, difficult during a night dive, one would not be paying full attention to anything on the shot line below you.
I saw this object as did Adrian and we were both worried that Simon who, with his re-breather was be coming down slower than us, might get caught on it. So it was lit up with our torches, Adrian’s torch being the big beam.
The water was very clear with a viz of better than 8 metres and a temperature of 9°C and with my extra layers under my dry suit I was warmish.
Sadly I did not see any lobsters or edible crabs but the fish were around and the sea snails were out mating! Not quite my thing but interesting.
Another worrying object was under the ‘bow’ of the Far Mulberry, on the left of the ‘bow’ as one might look at it. It seemed to be a 6 by 4 foot version of the one caught at the bottom of the shot line. I enjoy this ‘sort of tunnel’ with the fish in the corner. This time we were drifting along and came face to face with the ‘tunnel’ blocked with this spiky object. No video taken as I was too busy turning round and signalling to my buddies that this was not the way to continue.
Not a lot of life but what was there was easy to see, mainly Pollock, and not moving much staying close enough to have a good look.
Apart from that an excellent dive, with Adrian and Simon always in perfect formation, well they are regular dive buddies, so minimal stress keeping together.
As with previous videos of a night dive it never comes across looking as good as it was during the dive.
Or click on the link to the website The Far Mulberry Night Dive
I have previously dived at night on the far mulberry on two occasions and those have been fantastic. All the crabs and lobsters came out to play!
This time it was much later in the year so maybe a different night life to be seen.
The surface water was calm and still with an air temperature of 7°C according to my dive computer. I was diving with Adrian and Simon as a threesome, which can be a tricky combination. Simon was diving with a re-breather, with Adrian on Nitrox and me on air, what a group, but it was just a 10 metre dive.
Going down the shot line it was a bit of a shock to find an odd rectangular metal mesh object caught on the shot line. I have caught the object on the video and it is 3 by 2 feet in size and appears to be some sort of crushed lobster pot sort of thing. Worryingly this object had what appeared to be sharp spikes coming out of it and it was about a metre from the bottom.
With the normal practise of keeping eye contact with ones buddy during descent, difficult during a night dive, one would not be paying full attention to anything on the shot line below you.
I saw this object as did Adrian and we were both worried that Simon who, with his re-breather was be coming down slower than us, might get caught on it. So it was lit up with our torches, Adrian’s torch being the big beam.
The water was very clear with a viz of better than 8 metres and a temperature of 9°C and with my extra layers under my dry suit I was warmish.
Sadly I did not see any lobsters or edible crabs but the fish were around and the sea snails were out mating! Not quite my thing but interesting.
Another worrying object was under the ‘bow’ of the Far Mulberry, on the left of the ‘bow’ as one might look at it. It seemed to be a 6 by 4 foot version of the one caught at the bottom of the shot line. I enjoy this ‘sort of tunnel’ with the fish in the corner. This time we were drifting along and came face to face with the ‘tunnel’ blocked with this spiky object. No video taken as I was too busy turning round and signalling to my buddies that this was not the way to continue.
Not a lot of life but what was there was easy to see, mainly Pollock, and not moving much staying close enough to have a good look.
Apart from that an excellent dive, with Adrian and Simon always in perfect formation, well they are regular dive buddies, so minimal stress keeping together.
As with previous videos of a night dive it never comes across looking as good as it was during the dive.
Or click on the link to the website The Far Mulberry Night Dive
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