Under Pressure

Or how Cumbernauld Sub Aqua went to Ullapool, well two of us did anyway….

This was a last minute trip for me after a few disastrous events.Originally I was meant to be going to Scapa Flow then due to unforeseen circumstances I had to call that off then I was meant to be going to a wedding for a good friend and again I had to call that off.

So at the eleventh hour two of the original CUSAC members pulled out the club trip and I managed to get a space.

To say I was excited was an understatement, the only diving I have done since getting back from Mallorca last August has really been training dives with a couple of warm water holiday dives thrown in. I hadn’t seen any ferrous oxide or done a decent dive in about eight months!

I was getting really fed up with Sea lochs and silly shore dives, I really needed to do a decent dive and I don’t mean an epic dive, that would be stupid because I don’t have the skills to do an epic dive, I can only dream. I just mean a normal run of the mill nice dive.

I also hadn’t managed to dive with the lads and lassies of CUSAC in a long time due to my schedules and their insistence of doing early Sunday morning starts. Why is that? Why do divers on a day off insist on starting so early in the morning? I could see the point if the tides mattered but most of the time the lads and lassies dive the sea lochs and to be honest visibility is generally the same all the time and the tides don’t affect the dives around these areas and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard any of them plan to go for high water slack to get the best of the vis….

Right so where was I….

Bob organised the trip this year, a lot of the guys had done it last year and I couldn’t join in as I was away in Mallorca.
After a shaky start the club managed to fill the spaces and then even have a reserve list.

More trips could be organised but for reasons that I believe will become obvious, the club doesn’t like opening trips up to non members…..

The trip was booked with a couple of nights in the bunk house and a days hard boat diving on the MV Rebecca Ann with Creag Ard Charters.

MV Rebecca Ann

The plan was to organise transport and head up Friday afternoon, evening meet at the bunkhouse for a few beers, get to bed and go dive one scenic dive then the wreck of the Fairwether V.

Transport duly arranged, food and snacks bought…
Stevie picked me up Friday 30th May at five pm from Hamilton. Stew travelled solo from Macduff where he was working in his latest commercial diving job. Fran, Billy & John all travelled in Bills magic van, Derek, Anne and Kirsty travelled up together, Scott & Yvonne managed to get a weekend without the kids and that left Bob, Gerry and the twa dugs (Angus & Dylan) to take the slow boat to Ullapool.

All the way up we had perfect teams comms with random txt messages and phone calls checking everybody’s progress and distance from Ullapool, Stevie and I hadn’t been on this trip before and the sat nav refused to take the postcode.

We checked, will we head to Dundonnel as per the directions, Dundonnel hotel? “No that’s no use” so we put into the sat nav the part of the postcode we could and headed off via Perth Asda for Apple Pies and skooshie cream.

I check with Fran , her report “twenty miles fae Ullapool” , Stevie and I had just left Inverness so we where not that far behind.

The Drive up was very scenic

Stevie and I arrive in Ullapool, his wee fiesta car straining at the door hinges with the gear we had with us and the food. I called Fran, “right where do we go now?” The response “where are you?”, us “we are in the harbour”, them “what harbour?” Fran passes us to Stew, Stew laughs and says we are not meant to be in Ullapool, Stevie and I look at each other blankly, “How can the Ullapool trip not be in Ullapool?” Anyway the bunk house is in Camusnagaul or as we put into the sat nav Dundonnel…. Pity cause Ullapool looks great, lots of people drinking at the harbour walls, sun shining…

Stevie turns the car around and we head back in the opposite direction ten miles the way we just came and turn off a side road fifteen miles to Camusnagaul…..

So we arrive. Its now about ten thirty pm and the Midges are out in force, I feel like I am feeding a family of twelve thousand, its still pretty light.

Richard the Skipper is here, asking who wants packed lunches, Bob and Gerry arrive last behind Stevie and myself, we all settle for pack lunches.

We all settle in grab a bunk, argue about who snores most, I head off to bed and cant wait till Saturdays diving.

<night time>

strange noises, voices, laughter, snoring………

</night time>

Richard is getting us at the slipway at 9am, I get up at eight, have a shower and make some bacon and bagels, yummy! most folk are up and getting ready.

We head to the pick-up point and Richard comes to get us complete with packed lunches, lots of water and his Quad and trailer to move our kit to the shore.He have a nice relaxing time, paddling in dry suits, moving the kit to the RHIB, walking the dogs, just chilling, a nice morning relaxing.

We chill and relax on the ride out to the dive sites.

MV Rebecca Ann

The trip out was smooth, the morning mist didn’t lift though.

Morning Glory

I fettled and adjusted kit, fixing my bungie straps on my compass and Dtimer, Adjust torch, discussing my kit config as I hadn’t seen a lot of folk for a while they showed interest in my moves to a DIR Config. The pressure is on me to set an example. I had some healthy discussions about choices and training. It felt good to be amongst friends that I have known since I was a trainee and it felt good to be on a nice boat heading for some nice dives.

John & I where to buddy, John dives a single cylinder and I had to squeeze two dives out my twin set and a stage without a fill in between, fine for loch shore dives.

I didn’t technically need the stage as we wouldn’t be doing any deco diving but I wanted it to use in the shallower depths to get some more time in on the dives.

My doubles have EAN32 and the stage EAN50, On the boat trip out I used my analyser and checked these, I then reapplied labels. I have a decent Fill 230 Bar on the double twelves.

I haven’t been using my computer as a computer only as a timer in gauge mode, today I felt nervous and was the only diver here that has had any if only a little GUE training I thought id just go with the flow and do the club diving thing.

Kirtsie is the only one who is not going to do any dives today, she has come along for the boat ride only.

There is a small chemical toilet on board at the front of the wheelhouse, I decide to make some splashes over the side and send some golden rain into the sea.

Yvonne & Angus

I am drinking lots of fresh orange juice and plenty of water, I need to make some rain over the side again.

Dive1: Waterfall - Start time: 11:43 - Dive Time : 44 minutes Max Depth: 29.3metres

John and I followed Gerry & Stevie in with Scott and Yvonne behind us.

We roll over the side, we just surface swim to the edge of the wall and as advised keep the wall on our right hand side. Down we go. My D9 gives a low battery error and wont go into dive mode even though I checked it in on the boat. Torch on. Signal OK. I’m not fussed about the dive mode of the D9, I haven’t been using it recently, I am diving on EAN32, I can do 30 minutes at 30 metres without doing more than “minimum deco”. Johns on Tyre Gas or Air as its commonly known. So no matter what, I can have a longer bottom time if I stay shallower or at the same depth and worst case we do stops based on his bendometer (Aladin pro), not exactly setting an example but that or bin the dive, mmh nah it is OK, mmh could it be the start of the incident pit?

I’m concentrating on looking around, double checking my trim, watching others position in the water, I fee like I am all over the place, knees sagging, I see some others and think maybe I am caring too much, I settle down and do what I can to stay level, head back, bum clenched.

We spend a good thirty minutes below 20 metres averaging around 24 metres, just relaxing, looking around, almost weightless, ahhhh Bliss…..

The wall is pretty, there is not much life, the visibility is not quite the thirty plus metres everybody said it would be but it was a good 15-20 metres which was nice. we could see the divers in front of us and behind us. We gave nice clear OK’s with the torches between groups every now and again.

The dive was pleasant even though there was little fish life, a small rainbow wrasse, a nice big bright orange cuckoo wrasse, a few large starfish some squat lobsters a few empty lobster pots, some nice rock formations, a nice wee swim through, off course I had to get through it and come out the end. <grin>

Wee thumb the dive after thirty odd minutes, I Ascend with a stop at 15 metres, one at twelve, one at nine, we gradually ascent, we certainly don’t do any set ascent rates, just slowly .

At Six metres, I clip off my light to my right shoulder and get my spool and blob from my left dry suit pocket, John just sort of moves out my way and goes above and behind me into my blind spot. Gerry and Stevie swim below me as I’m taking my time to assemble my blob and orally inflate it, it takes me two goes to inflate it.

I’ve dropped back down to about eight metres too, oh joy. I slowly wind in the line with my spool. I stop at 6 metres for a minute, I then stop at three metres with John hanging about near me for two minutes and then we surface.

Not exactly perfect not exactly wrong defiantly not Doing it Right. Does nobody care about getting it perfect? Am I too anal even thinking it should be elegant and easy? I Finish the dive on 140 Bar. Johns got 50 bar left in his single.

Bob,Fran, Bill, Gerry and Dylan

We have a good two hour surface interval with the packed lunches provided, Yvonne swaps my tuna sarnie for a nice ham one I keep my biscuits, fruit and crisps for later.

Plenty of fluids drank, talk of a Scallop dive after the wreck, I’ve decided I want to go home tonight and am not wanting to be hanging about again, Stevie agrees that he is up for the journey home again too.

I’ve got the side slung seven litre with EAN50 to take along on this dive, there was no opportunity to get a fill between dives, If I come here again I will need to get myself another set of doubles.

Dive2: Fairweather V Dive Time: 36 minutes Max Depth: 26.5 metres

This is the dive that we had come on the trip for, I could not wait for it. I knew I was going to need the EAN50 in the seven litre for the shallower parts of the wreck, I decided to descend on the fifty cent and then change back to it any time I was on the deck levels near the bow above 21 metres, pushing it as EAN50 shouldn’t be used for diving when at ppO2 of 1.6. Once again John and I rolled backwards off the MV Rebecca Ann, this time I get caught in a current straight away and get dragged to the stern, I cant even fin against it, I’m going nowhere, John gets close to the hull and manages to follow the shotline to the bow.

Richard throws me a buoy and tells me just to hold on, he pulls me round the starboard side to the bow and the shot line. John warns me he wants to do a slow descent as his ears may have trouble. we give the signal , yet again down we go, following the shot to the bow of the Fairweather V, She looms out of the green in front of us, oh oh, grin, smile!

Some Ferrous Oxide, just what I’ve been looking for. I check depth and switch to back gas after giving the reg a quick purge. I then shutdown the sideslung but leave it pressurised, an excuse to practice as well as use it. Oh this wreck is lovely, we have decent viz, basically we follow the divernet wreck tour down the port side to the rudder and prop. we ascent a little and come up to the lower rear deck. I shine my torch inside, what a lovely site. So inviting, it just begs to be penetrated, I can see passage ways and doorways. We come level with the deck and over the hardware, looking down into the holds, he see some of the others, everybody looks happy!

My Halycon HID Torch dies on me, I flick the switch and restart it, it goes back on for a few minutes then off. I Clip it off and then switch to my Salvo backup torch, Actually that’s probably enough light with the decent visibility.

Divernet Wreck Tour

Its about this time I reckon a four hour burn time is roughly five - six dives and I haven’t charged the battery in a while, doh, How stupid do I feel? All the gear no Idea. <blush>

We go over the decks, past the wheelhouse, looking into the holds, shining torches, I switch to the side slung again as I am shallower. we have a good look around the derrick and the masts. We go round the bow and start heading to the stern again down the port side. I switch back to the doubles, we go back to the lower deck at the stern, I so want to go inside, I have no reel and John shows no interest in going inside, we come up to the wheel house, I am at the starboard side door on the deck, I signal to John I am going inside. He goes round the front ot the deck and I can see him through the large window frames.

Ullapool Sub Aqua Club Fairweather V

I am inside! hehe, its great, what a feeling, a nice dive, plenty of space to move around nice visibility, I turn around after a discussion with the window frame and go back out the door, I kick up a bit of silt <oops> John is outside waiting on me. The wheel house was small and had lots of light coming in through the doorways and the window frames. We go back up on the deck, I switch back to the side slung. we have a mooch around again looking in the holds then we head towards to the shot line. I Stop and slowly ascend defiantly not doing 9m per minute, much slower, I stop at 12 metres for a minutes, John heads up slowly on his bendometer, Anne and Derrick are on the line to, I stop at nine metres and six metres, I spend a couple of minutes at 3 metres than I switch back to my back gas for the surface.

John and I surface together, we wait on the shot line for Anne & Derrick to get up the ladder before we swim round the starboard side of the Rebecca Anne.

I Surface with 60 Bar in the doubles and 100 bar in the side slung. Again John has 50 Bar in his Single. I know that I was not doing it Right yet again, I needed that nice dive though, I’m not justifying it, I know I was wrong, I want to Do It Right, its so hard when it takes so much effort to get the right gasses and to do it right here I would have needed another set of doubles, I think that’s my next purchase, argh! more money! I wish I had easier access to GUE trained Buddies too, it’s also about diving with people with a similar mindset, in fact its not even diving, I’ve not been to the gym or for a run in ages, because I’m not socialising or working with others that do at this point and its so hard to motivate and push oneself without having somebody like minded to bounce off and to feed each other with inspiration. Maybe I should do it their way and just accept that If I want to dive regularly I have no choice but not to do it right?

What a stonking wee wreck, very pretty, lots to look at and nice 15- 20 metre visibility.

I would do this three and half hour drive every weekend to do dives like that.

Back on board, Richard cruises up Little Loch Broom and to a location near a muscle farm, A few of the guys decide to do a shallow Scallop Dive, I decide not to push my own stroke luck with little gas left in my doubles or the Side Slung.

Scott & Derrick go in (grand master food divers….), they surface not more than ten minutes later, one scallop, Fran and Stewart go in, Bob & Gerry drop in.

Stewart and Fran Surface fifteen minutes or so later with one Scallop. Now Gerry is pretty much the eco hippy of our group, well as big an eco Hippy as any of us. He is more likely to be putting the Scallops back in the water, Bob well Bob is Bob. We dont hold much hope, but no they are the last up and Richard spotted their bubbles and stayed close by after everybody else was out the flat calm waters.

The Surface with a Goodie back bulging to the brim, full of Scallops and a large edible crab….. They get that silent respect from the rest of us, well it may just be folk muttering under their breathes….

We all unload and get our kit back in the RHIB to be ferried back to the shore.

Billy & John decide to head back, Scott & Yvonne head home and Stevie and I head home.

Richard offers to take everybody else out in his Rhib Tomorrow. Bob Decides to make a curry for everybody staying the night, Annie is going to do the Scallops and Crab, Sounds like they are in for a good night.

I pay my money to Bob £40 for the dives and £10 for my night in the bunkhouse great value, do that again no problem.

Stevie and I have an easy drive home, sharing the driving, Stevie even hangs around while I have a shower and he drops me off in Glasgow for ten to eleven, I end up out with some mates having a great chilled night in some dodgy Glasgow Frankensteins theme bar…

Davie.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Dive Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.