Diving Thoughts

On 24 Jan 2010, I went out with Hong Kong Underwater Club. The boat left from Tso Wo Hang up near Sai Kung at 09:30. I have to admit that I wasn’t feeling 100% after a fairly late night involving an excellent curry and one or two more beers than were perhaps strictly necessary. But the tanks were delivered to Mr. Chan’s junk by speedboat, and then we were off. Bruce the DM has chosen Basalt Island as the first dive site in the hope it would be sheltered. When we got there there was quite a swell running and the visibility wasn’t looking all that inspiring. To make matters worse, he’d put me on the 2nd wave, which I try and avoid at all costs. Like SCDC, HKUC do their diving in two waves or flights, to ensure that there is always cover available in the event of a problem. So if you’re on second wave you have the luxury of more time to get ready before you need to dive as you can start kitting up once the first wave go into the water. Many people see this as an advantage, but I prefer to have more time to sort my gear out after I’ve finished diving, so I can relax on the way home. Consequently it must be about 5 years since I’ve been on the second wave. So after roundly abusing Bruce for that decision, I went to sleep for an hour.

I woke up to find we’d arrived and the first divers were regarding the water with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. This seemed to be justified when Lucy came back with ear trouble and told the rest of us just how bad the visibility was. The trouble was that the deeper you went the worse the vis was, but the shallower you were the worse the surge was. Mike reckoned that 10 metres was the optimal depth.

Rita and I started kitting up, and we had a reprise of the getting into the drysuit hilarity that she pioneered 2 weeks earlier. This time it did seem to be slightly easier, but the neck seal didn’t seem to seal very well on her neck. Although she was OK unless she looked down. Anyway we finally got kitted up separately. She was inside getting help from anyone who was there. I was at the front of the boat. So once I’d got myself sorted out, why wasn’t I helping? Because I was diving independent twins, and I found it really difficult to get through the doors into the main cabin area. Instead I waited for her to put in an appearance so we could do a buddy check.

This week I’d dispensed with my cheap and nasty wing – the Wing with No Name. I was using Calvin’s OMS wing which I borrowed last year and have still got because I haven’t seen him since! Now I remember why I stopped using it. Partly it was because I got the No Name Wing, and partly it was because the inflator valve sticks open on Calvin’s, rather like the one on my Halcyon. So I was forced to disconnect it and inflate the wing orally. In addition to Calvin’s wing, I was wearing Andreas’s semi-dry, Andrea’s boots, Andreas’s hood. Oh and  Catheryn’s Jetfins (which I wanted to try out). Meanwhile Rita had my fins because the foot pocket was bigger than hers and could accommodate her drysuit-clad foot better than her own. She also had Steve P’s hood. So while we’ve both got a fair amount of dive gear, not a lot of it seems to be our own!

We dropped into the water and Rita immediately started to notice cold water trickling down the back of her neck. Actually so did I, but I was expecting it. We pressed on, using the anchor line as a guide, and the visibility got worse as we went down, and finally we came off the line at around 12 metres. We headed inshore and started to get shallower. Visibility was around half a metre and the bottom was littered with urchins. Rita kept off the bottom to try not to put any holes in her dampsuit. Unfortunately we got separated in the poor visibility and had to surface. It turned out that Rita had drifted up slightly and as the air expanded in the drysuit, she was forced to focus on that instead of following me.

We regrouped on the surface, and since we’d not gone very far, we went back to the boat and got her an extra weight. Dropping down again to 12 metres, this time I decided to head along the shore line along the same depth contour rather than taking us in shallower to where the surge was more of a problem. Despite the conditions, there quite was a  lot to see.  Some nice orange soft coral, some of the purple broccoli coral, lots of shrimps, many attracted to the light from our torches. We also found a nice  big filefish, as well rockfish and a few crabs. It was actually far more colourful than I’d been expecting.

We surfaced after 40 minutes and went back to the boat where we decided to be lazy and skip the second dive. We weren’t the only ones, although we did seem to be in the minority that had actually enjoyed it. But then I suppose our goal was different from most people, as we were really there to re-test Rita’s drysuit, which she handled very well. But it was still quite wet inside, but at least now we’re confident that a lot of the water is coming in past the neoprene neck seal.

Bruce moved the boat to the south-west corner of Kau Sai Chau, which was much more sheltered. The people who dived all said that the second dive was better. But by that stage, I’d stowed all my gear and was warming up over a cup of soup. As the divers got back, Rita broke out the hot sake, which went down very well. Certainly the 2 litre carton didn’t last long, and this could be a popular innovation during the winter. Hats off to the Japan Diving Club, who had done it the previous week as they celebrated the first dive of the year. Several SCDC people were on hand for that, which is how the sake idea got back to us. Meanwhile Bruce and Lucy from the Underwater Club provided Dundee cake and gingerbread, which was really good.

Next Thursday remember to ask Catheryn what the hood on her coat is for, as I found it a very convenient place to put the empty beer cans to save me walking to the bin. But I think Joerg got the blame.

Thanks very much to the Underwater Club for making us so welcome.

Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh took the bathyscaphe Trieste to 10,900 metres deep in the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench. This was in 1960 and they are the only people to have reached such a depth. As they reached the bottom they were surprised to see a flatfish swimming by, which means that there is life at these huge depths.

Now the BBC has got a good article on the different types of life that live in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans. There are 37 oceanic trenches around the world and they are narrow canyons on the sea floor, beyond the abyss (3,000 – 6,000 metres), going down to around 11,000 metres.

Over the past few years, the Hadeep team at Oceanlab has been exploring these trenches using a remotely operated vehicle called the Hadal Lander. The life they have found doesn’t look as unusual as the creatures from around 1,000 metres deep. This may be because there is more food and organic matter that has sunk to the bottom of the trenches, compared with what fish would find in mid-water much shallower.

You can see some video of these creatures and a good article on the BBC’s website.

You can see the results of Super STAR Network’s survey on BCDs by going to their website. It showed that 50% of respondents had had a problem with their BCD, 42% rarely and 8% occasionally. The most common problems are stuck inflator valves and accidental button operation / confusion.

28% of people never get their BCDs professionally maintained, and a further 18% only do when a problem happens. I have to admit to being in that 28% who have never had their BC professionally maintained, although I have cleaned up the inflator valve whenever I’ve had trouble with it. I have problems with a stuck inflator valve on a Halcyon Eclipse wing almost every year. Mine is the old metal inflator which Halcyon did seem to have trouble with and don’t use any more. What tends to happen is that it sticks slightly open, but not enough to be obvious. Gradually I find my buoyancy is off and I have to dump some air to maintain it. Eventually it dawns on me that I’m having to dump air while my depth isn’t changing, at which point I realise what’s happening and disconnect it. Then I have to take it apart and clean it up. On a Philippine dive trip soaking the bits overnight in vinegar seemed to do the trick.  I really should change it to the newer plastic one, but I quite like the response of the metal one – the plastic one doesn’t feel quite the same somehow.

More recall news, this time from Cressi, who are recalling Cressi Ellipse Black MC5 regulators distributed between March and August 2009. The problem is related to the high pressure port being partially blocked which can lead to an inaccurate reading on the pressure gauge. this from their website:

The words “Cressi Black” appear on the cover of the regulator’s second stage, and the words “Cressi MC5” are visible on the regulator’s first stage. (See photo above.) Retail price ranges between $280 and $309.

Hazard: Partial obstruction of the High Pressure port can produce an inaccurate reading on the pressure gauge, resulting in a slow descent of the needle in the pressure gauge. The inaccurate reading on the gauge poses a drowning hazard to divers.

Remedy: For a free repair, consumers can return the Cressi Ellipse Black MC5 Regulator to any Cressi-authorized dive shop or directly to Cressi- sub USA at One Charles Street, Westwood, NJ 07675.

For more information, call Cressi-sub USA at:
(800) 338-9143
between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, or visit the website www.cressi.com

For more information, please visit their website.

After Halcyon’s problems with Over Pressure Valves last year, this time it’s the turn of Dive Rite.  The following quotation is taken from their website:

The Over Pressurization Valve (OPV) springs found on Dive Rite wings manufactured between June 2006 and October 2008 may rust and fail allowing the buoyancy compensator devices to leak. The wings may be red, blue or black in color and have serial numbers falling between 42000 and 72000. The following models are affected by this recall: Travel, Venture, Rec, Trek, Classic, Nomad and Super Wings It does not affect EXP or 360-branded wings. The recall does not affect lift bags, surface marker tubes or other Dive Rite inflatable devices.

Due to the serious implications of an OPV spring failure, consumers should stop using the recalled diving equipment and have the OPV spring immediately replaced by a Dive Rite authorized dealer or distributor.

We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage Dive Rite wing customers to contact your local Dive Rite dealer or Dive Rite directly at 800-495-1046 with any questions.

You can find out more, including instructions on how to replace the spring,  from Dive Rite’s website.

While it might not be snowing here, Hong Kong has been a little chilly recently. So when I looked out of the window on a grey and frigid Sunday, I really didn’t fancy diving. But I’d signed up for a dive with South China Diving Club, so there was very little choice. Besides, Rita was going to try out her “new” drysuit for the first time, which was bound to be entertaining. We’d picked up a custom-made suit from Seaskin when we were in the UK in April, and by the time we got around to diving in Hong Kong again, it was far too warm to contemplate wearing it. It was bad enough trying it on in the apartment with all the aircons going full blast, especially when the undersuit arrived. The undersuit had been slightly delayed, so Seaskin delivered it to Hong Kong at no extra cost, which was very good of them. In fact Seaskin were very helpful throughout and their custom-made suits are very good value. But this was its first outing, and since neither of us had ever dived a drysuit before, I was expecting a lot of laughs.

We picked up Marcus and Dive Marshal Catheryn, and headed up to Tai Mei Tuk. This was also going to be the first time I’d seen Hong’s new boat, bought to replace his previous one which had been wrecked in a typhoon last summer. It’s a different style of boat from the old junk, with a large interior cabin and a steering position up on the top deck. Unfortunately the forward and rear areas are quite small which will make it very crowded for a large number of divers. But on Sunday there were only 6 divers and one non-diver, so it was fine.

We headed out to Crescent Island, which offers a very sheltered dive site, and a nice environment for Emma, our non-diver, to relax on the boat. While the corals along the shoreline and around the island in the middle, offer shallow, but very colourful, diving with lots of hard corals.

That's the way to do it! (John Hurt, Alien)

Rita started kitting up 45 minutes in advance, which looked a bit premature until she tried putting her head through the neoprene neck seal. To say it was a bit tight is an understatement. Stretching the seal seemed practically impossible, in fact it would have been easier to compress her head. After several attempts, copious quantities of talcum powder and  the judicious use of a headscarf, she finally managed to get it on. All of which made us realise just how hard it was for Alien to burst forth from John Hurt’s stomach. The only real difference I suppose is that Alien wasn’t too worried about the damage it was doing on its way out, whereas we were trying desperately not to tear the seal. Although you’d need to be superman to tear this seal.

Anyway, with the suit on, she and Catheryn were ready to do a buoyancy check. Catheryn was wearing her new, thicker undersuit for the first time, so it took both of them a while to get their weighting correct. Meanwhile Joerg and I left them to it, and dropped down to the sandy bottom at around 13  metres. From here we headed into the island in the middle of the bay, where we came across a wide variety of hard corals. There was also a massive school of thousands of small shrimp floating at around 6 metres. It was a shallow, but pretty dive. Joerg did a superb job of navigating us back almost to the boat, although the bit where he wrote “got lost” on his slate had me a bit worried.

The dry suit was a qualified success. Rita hadn’t come back shivering uncontrollably as she does after most winter dives. But she hadn’t come back completely dry either. It’s going to take a couple more dives to try and work out whether there is a small leak, or whether the water on the inside had sneaked past the neck seal, which, having finally been persuaded to stretch over her head, didn’t seem to want to contract around her neck. Also with the thick undersuit, she found the external boots and fins were a little too tight.  The good news was that she was able to dive with the suit without too much trouble. While she found it more difficult than diving in a wetsuit, she was able to cope, and properly weighted, and with boots and fins that fit, will hopefully enjoy it more next time. One thing we might have to add is a female pee valve because getting the neck seal off is even more difficult than getting it on, so it looks as though she’ll have to keep the suit on for the entire winter! Apart from the neck seal it looks a good suit. In fact Alex and Vicki subsequently ordered suits from Seaskin and are very pleased with theirs. For some reason they went for latex though.

While Scott and Marcus did their dive the rest of us had a relaxing lunch watching a wild boar wandering up and down the beach, and played with Hong’s dog.

Having escaped from the drysuit, Rita was in no mood to put it back on again, so for the second dive, Catheryn  came along with Joerg and myself. Joerg led again, and took off like a train with Catheryn and I struggling unsuccessfully to keep up. Initially I thought it was going to be easy enough to follow the trail of silt that Joerg’s powerful fin kicks were disturbing. But eventually we concluded that we’d lost him, or more accurately that he’d lost us. So we surfaced and he finally reappeared about 100 yards away. Perhaps it wasn’t just the athletes that the old East German authorities were busy doping!

Reunited we tried again, and this time we headed to the north-west shore of the bay, where there was a rocky reef, and some more hard corals. There was a variety of different fish, but the high point was a dragonet in about 5 metres. Unfortunately none of us had a camera, so you’ll just have to take my word that it was really pretty.

Back on board and it was time for a recuperative beer. All in all an excellent day’s diving. I’ve always liked Crescent Island. It’s usually very sheltered and calm and is also a very pretty, remote environment. The diving is easy, but there is a lot of colourful hard coral, and usually a large variety of small fish. Many years ago I did some really good night dives here and it might be worth us trying to do that again.

Thanks a lot to Catheryn for organising it all.

The BBC website has a video of the wreck of the Centaur, an Australian World War 2 hospital ship. It sank in May 1943 with the loss of 268 lives after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.

You can see the video on the BBC website.

The Guardian has got some great photos of humpback whales feeding off Chatham Strait in south-east Alaska. You can see them on Guardian’s website.