Our club's resident mega-keen diver (Max from Nevada) was enthusiastic to go diving on Saturday so I had my arm twisted & took him (it didn't take much persuasion to be honest)! We decided to make an early start to the day so that we'd hopefully get back home before the afternoon was over. So we met at our 07:30 and made good time: arriving at Conger Alley at the north end of Loch Long before 09:00.
We'd already rigged up our kit before leaving, so I turned on the hazard lights and stopped the car right beside the site to unload our rigs. Then drove on to the caravan site entrance, hung a U-turn & parked in the trusty big lay-by. Nobody else was parked there although there was a white van along at the "parking space of death" beside the white wall. Turned out that they were 2 divers from Hamilton ScotSAC club. We got suited & booted, decided upon our dive plan & made our way to the entry point. Everyone (including the Hamilton guys) was instructed to look for Gus' lost blue knife but to no avail.
Our plan was to head down towards the bottom reef and then zig-zag back through the standard reef. I would practise deploying my new dSMB. During the buddy check it transpired that Max's suit inflation hose was a bit dodgy: he had to push the hose towards the valve to allow it to work. Although not ideal, we decided that it wasn't worth curtailing the dive for as it was inconvenient but not unmanageable.
We submerged at 09:39. Viz was crystal in the shallows. Going a bit deeper the viz was about 5m: not as good as reported the previous week. I led us down to our max depth of 31m and we swam in the direction where the reef should be. Unfortunately the viz at this depth dropped dramatically to less than 1m.
We didn't reach the reef. Max attracted my attention & pointed to his suit inflation hose which had become detached from the suit valve. I approached him & we knelt facing each other. We were at 30m at this point. I had a go at reattaching it but it was tricky. I was trying to manipulate it with my left hand and the hose was quite short meaning that there was very little slack to play with. I spent a couple of minutes trying to complete this task but then decided that the best course of action was to head up the slope: after all, Max shouldn't need to pump air into his suit if we were ascending. I stopped us again at 25m and completed the task quite quickly and easily.
I can only assume that there were a few factors that conspired to make me unsuccessful with my first attempt at reattaching Max's hose.
We'd already rigged up our kit before leaving, so I turned on the hazard lights and stopped the car right beside the site to unload our rigs. Then drove on to the caravan site entrance, hung a U-turn & parked in the trusty big lay-by. Nobody else was parked there although there was a white van along at the "parking space of death" beside the white wall. Turned out that they were 2 divers from Hamilton ScotSAC club. We got suited & booted, decided upon our dive plan & made our way to the entry point. Everyone (including the Hamilton guys) was instructed to look for Gus' lost blue knife but to no avail.
Our plan was to head down towards the bottom reef and then zig-zag back through the standard reef. I would practise deploying my new dSMB. During the buddy check it transpired that Max's suit inflation hose was a bit dodgy: he had to push the hose towards the valve to allow it to work. Although not ideal, we decided that it wasn't worth curtailing the dive for as it was inconvenient but not unmanageable.
We submerged at 09:39. Viz was crystal in the shallows. Going a bit deeper the viz was about 5m: not as good as reported the previous week. I led us down to our max depth of 31m and we swam in the direction where the reef should be. Unfortunately the viz at this depth dropped dramatically to less than 1m.
We didn't reach the reef. Max attracted my attention & pointed to his suit inflation hose which had become detached from the suit valve. I approached him & we knelt facing each other. We were at 30m at this point. I had a go at reattaching it but it was tricky. I was trying to manipulate it with my left hand and the hose was quite short meaning that there was very little slack to play with. I spent a couple of minutes trying to complete this task but then decided that the best course of action was to head up the slope: after all, Max shouldn't need to pump air into his suit if we were ascending. I stopped us again at 25m and completed the task quite quickly and easily.
I can only assume that there were a few factors that conspired to make me unsuccessful with my first attempt at reattaching Max's hose.
- Max is a recently qualified diver so I thought it would be better to rectify the problem sooner rather than later to avoid any stress: this put some psychological pressure on me.
- We were at depth meaning that I felt under time pressure due to air consumption & deco limits.
- The viz was almost zero.
- Although I didn't feel mentally impaired, I was obviously not as dexterous as normal. This is backed up by the fact that upon ascending slightly up the slope, the task was completed easily.
- I therefore conclude that I was affected by nitrogen narcosis brought on by physiological & psychological factors.
This is interesting as I didn't perceive any signs of being narked. I didn't feel tipsy or euphoric & I have a good recollection of events. I guess it's a level of narcosis that could be compared to one or two Martinis on an empty stomach!
Anyway, once Max's hose was sorted out he informed me that he was down to 100 bar. So no time to linger. We followed the slope, hitting the regular reef en route including the hiding spots of a couple of conger eels. I'd promised Max some congers, so at least that part went to plan!
I deployed my new yellow Kent Tooling CO2 dSMB from about 8m. It was an absolute doddle. The finger spool was also easy to use by means of a double-ended bolt snap for reeling in the line. Should be great as a back-up on boat dives.
The 2nd dive was a typical Conger Alley one. Found the regular reef without any bother. Headed to the north margin of it and decided to go down the slope in search of the deeper reef. Went to 26.5m but no sign of it. Were we too far north? Will need to explore this again some other time.
Saw some nice congers and the ubiquitous group of friendly ballan wrasse. Max had his first chance at deploying a dSMB and completed it well. He dealt with the reel adeptly. I practised firing up my yellow one using bubble inflation this time. Not quite as quick as the CO2 canister method but still fine.
All together it was a useful day's diving. We also got back to Stirling at about 15:00 which is probably a SUSAC record!
Just incredible that the site was so quiet on such a beautiful day.
Anyway, once Max's hose was sorted out he informed me that he was down to 100 bar. So no time to linger. We followed the slope, hitting the regular reef en route including the hiding spots of a couple of conger eels. I'd promised Max some congers, so at least that part went to plan!
I deployed my new yellow Kent Tooling CO2 dSMB from about 8m. It was an absolute doddle. The finger spool was also easy to use by means of a double-ended bolt snap for reeling in the line. Should be great as a back-up on boat dives.
The 2nd dive was a typical Conger Alley one. Found the regular reef without any bother. Headed to the north margin of it and decided to go down the slope in search of the deeper reef. Went to 26.5m but no sign of it. Were we too far north? Will need to explore this again some other time.
Saw some nice congers and the ubiquitous group of friendly ballan wrasse. Max had his first chance at deploying a dSMB and completed it well. He dealt with the reel adeptly. I practised firing up my yellow one using bubble inflation this time. Not quite as quick as the CO2 canister method but still fine.
All together it was a useful day's diving. We also got back to Stirling at about 15:00 which is probably a SUSAC record!
Just incredible that the site was so quiet on such a beautiful day.
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