Diving, running, sailing, travel… and stuff

Gaius' Adventures

Northern Lights, September 2018

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Gaius

I had previously seen the Northern Lights in Sweden in Winter 2004 on a trip dogsledding between log cabins before arriving at the Ice Hotel. That was a spectacular display; directly overhead and almost bright enough to read by! But I was mostly shooting Kodak Tri-X at the time so I didn’t take any photos. I might dig out some of the others from that trip and post them on here sometime. But on the most recent trip to Iceland, on the East coast, we were lucky enough to see them again

Mostly 4 second exposures, ƒ/2.8, ISO 4000 if I remember correctly. Settings tested at Aurora Reykjavik beforehand! Where we also learnt about Kp index and other useful facts. Readers of my other blog will see that this is ripe for modelling with a 1D RNN 🙂

Silfra, August 2018

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Gaius

Some friends of ours had dived Silfra and told us, it’s only two twenty-minute dives, and the rental drysuits leak, and you’re in a huge group, but I am happy to report that it was nothing like this with dive.is. The drysuits really were dry, we dived for 30 and 35 minutes, there was one guide for just B and I, who described us as the most in-trim couple she’d ever seen 🙂 As we were only diving for one day we just brought our dive computers and masks and rented everything else. Max depth was 17m and I surfaced with ~120bar each time, so we could have gone for longer and perhaps would have done in our own kit but overall very happy with the experience.

Some images taken by the guide:

Touching two continents

Red Sea, 11-18 December 2015

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Gaius

This time B and I were able to join our ~~dive gang~~ fellow diving enthusiasts The Sons of Narky (Red Sea Original) on Blue O’Two‘s MV Blue Horizon for Northern Wrecks and Reefs. We hit a snag almost as soon as we arrived at Gatwick; our 2× additional baggage tickets just said “diving equipment” on them rather than “30Kg” that we had booked and paid for, so we had to argue at the check-in desk (and again at Hurghada on the way back). More about Hurghada airport later…

Of the 21 (I think) possible dives, we did 15:

Dive	Location	Description	Max/Avg depth (m)	Runtime (min)
1	Poseidon Reef	Check dive on air, then switched to Nitrox	14/11	51
2	Emperor Fraser	I know someone who was aboard at the time!	28/14	50
3	Shark & Yolanda	Current – did not make it round to toilets	22/14	55
4	Shark & Yolanda	Ditto	24/12	42
5	Alternatives / 7 Pinnacles	Night dive	12/8	37
6	Dunraven	Strong current	29/18	33
7	Thistlegorm	Outside	30/17	42
8	Thistlegorm	Inside	25/17	47
9	Carnatic		25/18	52
10	Giannis D		22/14	49
11	Rosalie Moller	Another leisurely lap around the upper deck – would love to come back with mix and spend a whole day on her. BO₂ wanted us back at the shotline with 3 mins no-deco remaining, but we have plenty of gas left in our twinsets.	34/22	34
12	Ulysses		27/18	39
13	Siyul Kebir	Dived Siyul Soraya last time	19/12	35
14	Shab El Erg	Dolphins!	12/8	50
15	Umm Gamar		19/11	52
	Total	runtime:		668

Perhaps we dived a bit less than last time such as only one night dive, but that was fine, with a large group of friends there was plenty of hanging out to be done and beer to be drunk 🙂 Kit-wise pretty much the same, Argonaut, manifolded twin AL-80’s, about 3.5Kg weight, with merino baselayer. There were 5 of us in drysuits and 6 in wetsuits (plus a dozen other guests on the boat, all of whom were in wetsuits). One thing that struck me is that there is plenty of great diving to be done in the ART/R3 range; I still intend to complete Normoxic or T1 but have no real urgency to do so.

On the way back, we were told to disconnect batteries from electrical devices, which is contrary to usual airport requirements at the moment that devices must be able to be switched on for inspection. Also it is usual that lithium ion batteries be carried in hand luggage not in the hold. But we did, only to discover at the airport that they were confiscating all batteries! A bit of fast talking meant we got to keep our Light Monkeys, but they made us check the heads into the hold (why?) and just take the batteries in hand luggage. We only lost the AAs from backup torches and the 18650s from the video lights so in total about £30 worth, plus all the stress. On the other side of security, we found a bunch of infuriated people it had happened to as well. Later discussion with local contacts indicated it was just to show the world that Egypt was finally taking security seriously after recent events. I am more than happy to comply with reasonable security measures, I just don’t see how this one helped…

Anyway, it was a great trip with great people on a great boat, would recommend to anyone.

GUE Tech 1, Malta, March 2015

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Gaius

The first thing I should say before going any further is not to read too many blogs and writeups about T1. Going into the course with preconceptions, will only slow you down getting where you need to be. You should probably stop reading now.

The story begins in October last year when JK mentioned on his Facebook that he would be teaching at Techwise in Malta again the following March. Within hours a team had formed for Tech 1, GUE’s equivalent of Normoxic Trimix. I began preparing soon afterwards, taking advantage of my GUE membership to download the course materials, got my Fundies upgraded to Tech pass, did a dive trip to the Red Sea. Why T1 given that I already have ART which takes me to 48m and 15 mins deco? Isn’t this an expensive way to get another 3m? Not if you see your diving future as diving with GUE teams and participating in GUE projects. Then it makes perfect sense.

I am not going to write too much about the course; all 3 of us got Provisional ratings for reasons that JK explained in the debriefing that were entirely fair and accurate. A number of things conspired against us such as unseasonably bad weather in Malta that greatly restricted our choice of sites and blew us out altogether for 2 days; would that have made a difference to the end result? Well an extra 6 or 8 hours in the water couldn’t have hurt, but there is no point wondering what-if. We all have detailed plans going forwards to upgrade to full passes which I hope we will all manage in less than the 6 months allowed by GUE. We learnt all the skills, it will just take a little time to bed them in and get fluent in operating as a team. In the meantime we all have Rec3 cards (which allow 40m max depth, 21/35 backgas and a 32% stage for deco).

I will say tho’ that the gap between Fundies exit point and T1 entry point was much bigger than I expected; the 25 dives between courses that GUE requires, really do need to be in comparable conditions to the next course, and maybe should be 50 dives. Speaking for myself only, I did most of mine in the bright clear water of the Red Sea, where visual references for depth and natural navigation were plentiful, and I struggled with the task loading of executing the new skills “in the blue” with limited viz. It is actually surprisingly hard to use a teammate (+ gauge + compass) as visual reference, especially in a current, what tends to happen is vertical and directional oscillations ensue as each individual diver overcorrects. That too will come with time and a few more dives.

For future reference, the water was around 14℃, I wore merino baselayer and my Santi BZ200 undersuit, with 3Kg of v-weight. I started out with a lightweight hood and 1.5mm gloves but was glad I’d also brought a 5mm hood on the longer (2-3 hr) in-water times, near the end of which I was getting quite cold. Also very glad of my p-valve…

2014 in Diving

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Gaius

Another good year for diving, tho’ like every diver every year, I wish I had dived more in it! Particular highlights in no particular order were:

Looking forward to next year already, plans afoot for GUE Tech 1, and places booked at TEKcamp (which is going biennial, alternating with EuroTEK), and hopefully lots of just diving! Also perhaps getting involved in some Project Baseline initiatives.

Red Sea, 20-27 October 2014

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Gaius

B and I dived the North & Brothers itinerary on MV Tala, flying into and out of Hurghada. Red Sea Explorers handled the transfers, taking us straight from the airport to the boat, and from the boat to the airport on the last day. We booked the diving directly, and the flights separately with Easyjet from Gatwick North direct, tho’ another option would have been EgyptAir via Cairo, which would have included 2×23Kg bags each, rather than the 32Kg bags that Easyjet charged us a fortune for (I think we could have managed with the very slightly cheaper 29Kg option). We chose RSE simply because they are the GUE facility in the Red Sea, which is the guarantee of quality. Of the 18 planned dives we did 16, sitting out 2 night dives to chillax with a beer 🙂

Dive	Location	Description	Max/Avg depth (m)	Runtime (min)
1	Fanous East	Checkdive to sort out weighting and thermal comfort	13/9	47
2	Salem Express	A penetration into this famous wreck, surfacing just after sunset. Shot some video inside.	30/18	56
3	The Brothers	Small Brother, saw sharks	31/16	60
4	The Brothers	West side of Small Brother	31/18	46
5	The Brothers	Small brother again, with more sharks	30/15	54
6	The Brothers	South plateau of Big Brother. Nice but uneventful.	30/18	48
7	The Brothers	North plateau, wrecks Numidia and Aida. Would be good to come back on mix and have a proper look at them, they were just below MOD for 32%. Negative entry off the RIB to 10m.	36/18	53
8	The Brothers	South plateau	22/12	50
9	Abu Nuhas	Wreck of the Giannis D, which I have done before, but its a good one 🙂	20/13	62
10	Thistlegorm	Strong current and unfortunately bad viz. Penetrated the forward section, saw the locomotive lying off the portside. Every time I dive her, I am dismayed at how much she has deteriorated since the last trip.	30/17	56
11	Thistlegorm	Night dive	22/15	42
12	Thistlegorm	Down the shotline to the bow, through the holds to avoid the current, then around the stern	31/18	50
13	Rosalie Moller	Down the shot amidships, around the bow, back around the stern then up. Only around the top of the deck at 34m – would love to come back and do this as a mix dive.	34/21	38
14	Gubal Island	Wreck of the Ulysses and many, many friendly dolphins	24/15	46
15	Siyul Soraya	A gentle drift dive with lots of life	23/14	60
16	Carless Reef	Double pinnacle with lots of life	15/12	63
	Total	runtime:		831

The skill of the guides and captain was very apparent in that we often had the dive sites completely to ourselves, the only boat there. I have been on Thistlegorm for example on dayboats where there are over a dozen boats tied on, and 200-odd divers in the water, it’s insane, but having the leisure to explore it without anyone else was infinitely better. Definitely worth paying the premium for! Another thing worth a mention was the trip onshore to visit the lighthouse on Big Brother. Kit wise, I wore my Argonaut drysuit with Icebreaker 200 baselayer, no hood or gloves, and identical to the UK kit configuration otherwise. The cylinders were twin manifolded AL80s (11.1ℓ each) with which I used a 3.6Kg v-weight, so pretty much the same weighting as I’d have with a BZ200 undersuit and a steel twinset in the UK or Malta, which is very handy to know for the future. My SAC averaged about 18ℓ/min, which is normal for me, we were often surfacing with 100 bar in our twinsets limited more by 1hr dive times or no deco limits (or currents). All this might seem like odd kit configuration for a recreational trip in warm 25℃ water, but it’s what we’re used to now, and gave me the opportunity to practice a few skills ready for a Fundamentals upgrade to Tech pass evaluation, the weekend after we got back.

2013 In Diving

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Gaius

2013 has been a good year for diving. In January B and I went to Mexico for 2 weeks on a trip organized by LSD, we dived a few days in Cozumel, saw some bull sharks and lots of coral, one day locally in Playa Del Carmen, and the rest in the world famous cenotes with Aurelien Naudinat as guide and instructor for the PADI Cavern Diver cert.

On that trip I met a few more LSD people, including some instructors, and was inspired when I got back to sign up for Divemaster at LSD, starting in March and finishing in July, doing almost every weekend. My experiences of that are chronicled in this blog, but in summary I found it a very rewarding experience, and got to meet lots of interesting people, esp. my fellow DMTs. I did some work for LSD so am officially a professional diver. I added another pro qualification later in the year, EFR Instructor, in October.

August was a busy month, with a week’s holiday in the West Country with B, diving at Vobster in the mornings and visiting National Trust properties in the afternoons. While there we dipped a toe into the mysterious world of GUE taking the Primer course. Also in August, again with LSD we dived for a few days in the Farne Islands, with the seals. This was my first time in the North Sea, and B’s first in the UK, apart from inland. The following month in September, I added IANTD ART, the first step into technical diving. Unfortunately 2 dive weekends planned in October to exercise these new skills were both blown out, so I still have a twinset of 32/15 that I need to use! I have also located a local source for fills.

Now for the bad news, I had planned to continue diving all throughout the winter, but in November at Wraysbury I slipped on the ramp and ended up breaking my leg in two places. At first I thought it was just a sprain and tried to “walk it off”, then went to the pub, but it wasn’t getting any better and so B drove me to A&E where an x-ray showed what had happened. Weirdly, I couldn’t even feel one of the breaks. Next month hopefully I will be getting the screws out then can properly heal, and insh’Allah will have enough strength and mobility in my ankle to manhandle a twinset on land and on deck, and do a back kick! Otherwise it might need to be sidemounts.

This has been quite a training-heavy year, but I feel that my diving has come on leaps and bounds, next year we have GUE Fundamentals in April in Malta and Tekcamp but I want to get a lot more “just diving” in, and perhaps a nice easy Red Sea trip with my regular dive gang the Sons of Narky (Red Sea Original), which I missed this year due to a scheduling clash.