Posted by Steve on April 01, 2001 at 21:43:34:
I had a chance to dive saturday with some members of the California Wreck Divers from the boat Mr. C. They are hard core take no prisoners lets go have some fun divers.
Aboard the Mr. C we had a very limited load of 16 divers maybe a couple more but about 50 tanks were loaded on board with air, nitrox, trimix, oxygen, you name it we had it. This was a education in wreck diving rigs, I thought I carried a lot of equipment when I dive but now I need to add reels and strobes and more light. I was surprised with the popularity of the steel 160 tanks that many divers had but when you think of it how could you carry 160 cuft any more streamlined and take 20 lbs of lead off your belt? Some of them mounted in Ranger BC's. No DIR divers on board.
I checked the http://www.cawreckdivers.org/ web site and made note of the depths. My plan was to dive air on the Moody because of the 150', 32% ean for the Ace I and 36% for the Olmypic II. I staged an AL30 with 40% ean for my deco on the first two dives.
Divemaster Kevin gave us the briefing for the Moody, Capt Ray expertly dropped the anchor in the wreck and advised that with the surface conditions that the vis wouldn't be good. I dove wet steel HP100 scubapro airII, 36" primary routed under right arm with 360 swivel, 7' hose attached to octopus wrapped under right arm across chest then around neck and back under right attached to D-ring. AL30 40% ean staged from left D-ring. I don't usually dive with an octopus but I felt a strong possiblity that another diver could run short during an extended deco stop and I could easily share with the longer hose. A dive computer attached to D-ring on chest area positioned where I can just glance down for the psi, depth and deco info. Now I know why some tech divers wear a necklaced primary, when you switch to your deco gas just spit out the primary and inserts the deco reg. The primary would put at my chin in case I need to switch back for some reason. They set out extra hang bottles and some tech divers had O2 hanging.
Capt. Ray was right, the natural light disappeared as I past the 100' mark(plankton bloom maybe) on the way to the wreck Moody and I'm glad I brought a light otherwise I would have been a braille diver. It was like a nice peaceful night dive and I'll need to get back to see the Moody again I barely scratched the surface.
Dive Stats:
1) Moody 146' max 15min. bottom time 2min. stop at 75' and 13 mins. deco at 15' on 40% total dive 37 mins. air used 62cuft .49scfm 54 degrees.
2) Ace I 123' max 15min. bottom time on 32% 1min. at 66' 10 min. deco at 15' on 40% total 31 mins. ean used 50.4 cuft .49 scfm
3) Olympic II 96' max 25min. bottom time on 36% no deco required but stopped at 33' of 2mins. and 5 min stop at 15' total 32.00 ean used 56.5 .52 scfm
These dive computers they give me a ton of feedback and I feel I'm a safer diver and getting more bottom time with less hang time. If anyone wants to try to challenge that I can fax dive profiles to you, contact me.
Thank you Kevin and The California Wreck Divers. This was a Triple Crown wreck diving extravaganza that I would do again.
Thanks Capt. Ray, I bet you have some secret dive sites plotted out there the way you're recording and surveying that channel. Say hi to Lee, he's already talking about next lobster season.
These two laugh at all the gear we dive with, they dive with just a wet suit, steel 95 and no BC.
Steve