Sat 17-Tues 20 July
TDI Deco Procedures and Advanced Nitrox courses
Portland
Dive: Countess x2, Dredger, Lulworth Banks, M2, Aeolian Skye
Temp: 17/18 degrees
Vis: From zero to maybe 5/6m
Weather: Mainly clear and calm

On Saturday we (we being Marcin, Adam, Joe and Adam-known-as-Tim-to-keep-it-simple) met up with Izzy for day one of classroom work and kit config and a bit of planning for day 2. So I will skip forward to day 2.
 
And  won't spend much time on day 2 as I am sure we are getting bored reading about the Landing Craft and the Countess, so I will keep it to the highlights. Or rather lowlights. The day was for skills and drills. So we went through out of gas, shutdowns, buddy communication, shooting a bag, ascents and descents, gas switches, clipping on and on stage bottles and so on. For me the highlights were having a stage in the first place - something new and surprisingly not too dramtic - and no-mask line following, which was straightforward and quite pleasant in the clearish (5m vis maybe) water. The lowlight was rather amusing and came during an out-of-gas drill. In the warmth of the morning I had put the long hose in place with my hood down. Up goes the hood, which traps the long hose, the mask strap makes sure it is locked in place and we descend. Izzy had, of course, seen what had happened and stayed diplomatically quiet. So we come to the drill and m long hose is a dramtically shortened hose which twists my head as I attempt (several times) to donate. So off comes the mask, hood down, sort it out, have a good laugh and continue.
 
The other skills were OK, although my bouyancy stil needs a lot of work. That said I think I am more harsh on myself than others would be, so maybe it was not as bad as it felt. Shooting a lift bag is the skill from hell, but that is a practice thing - damn you Australia and your benign seas and permanent shots! The no mask swim was fun. We didn't kick the silt up so vis withnout the maks was blurry but good enough to see the line. Even with a stage it was a doddle, so even when I got to the end of the line I didn't bother putting the mask back on until  was back with the rest of the team. But then I did have some no mask practice earlier with the hood thing.
 
Monday meant a couple of 'real' dives starting with the M2 and the addition of Jay to the team as a second instructor . We had planned the dive as a staged deco dip with 10minutes at 34m, 30 at 30 a and then a switch from out EAN32 backgas to 50/50 at 18m. We chose 18m instead of 21 to maintain a safety margin - a good call given my bouyancy lapses when task loaded. A 45minute steam out to the site to find a couple of other boats already there, which lead to an amusing-yet-potentially-dangerous situation for team 1 of Jay, Adam, Tim and Joe. They picked another boats shot instead of ours only to find that at 23m the shot stopped going down and started to go back to the surface. The owner of that shot has bagged it while divers were in the water - very poor practice. So team 1 returned to the surface and had a truncated dive on the sub itself.
 
Team 2 of Marcin, Izzy and me had no such problems and picked the right shot and made it straight to the murky depths of the M2. My cannister light had failed to fire on the surface but decided to work a depth, so yet another minor-yet-frustrating hassle had be introduced. I was leading the dive, which meant I was 'timer man' and in charge of making sure we ascended to plan. The dive itself was nice. The wreck is covered in life, both fixed and free swimming, and it is so sub-shaped and upright that you have no doubts as to what it is you are diving and where abouts on it you are. With the exception of heading to the bow first when we had planned to head to the stern (I misjudged the side of the wreck we had shot and no-one seemed to mind when we headed the 'wrong' way) the at depth portion passed off without incident. I thought team contact was good, although Izzy later said that we neded to work on our torch skills far more.
 
The ascent goes straight into the could do better basket. Bouyancy at the gas switch was iffy - probably as bad as 18 to 22m bounces, and then once I'd lost the plot the ascent phase, while at a controlled speed was more vertical than horizontal. So the least said about that the better.
 
In the afternoon we switched instructors. Marcin and I did a drift over Lulworth banks with Jay hunting as we went. The skills were controleld ascent and descent and buddy communication, which went better. The dive itself was dullish, the drift having no real pace and the site having no great wealth of life. Jay got a couple of scallops and a small plaice. Team1 instructor Izzy did far better and grabbed a bagful of scallops. Those are the breaks I guess.
 
And then day three was over. I finished in a foul mood, hamering myself for general lack of skills, but as I said, the day was almost certainly not as bad as I had thought it was and the rest of the guys were great, chipping in with plenty of advice and observations drwm from their extra UK experience.