22nd Aug 07:30
Aeolian Sky,
30m, vis 4m, temp 18 degrees
Joe and Marcin
Diving from Top Gun
32% & 50%, 40min bottom time (well, that was the plan...)

This entry comes with a warning. It contains a few naughty words and should not be read by unacompained minors.

Yesterday had been a good dive for me. Apart from the poorly communicated and executed team ascent it had all gone well. I felt comfortable with all of the gear, bouyancy was good, reel work not bad, so this was set to be a decent dive. Better than the last dip on the Aeolian Sky, which saw my torch give up, a ripping current and a rather dismal effort all round.

The boat was full, but we managed to kit up early and get in first - this was going really well. Our plan was to spend 40mins on the bottom, heading straight for the machine room to have a poke around in there. We got to the wreck, sort of worked out which way to head and made our way towards the superstructure. It took us a while to find a likely looking hole to head into, but a nice 20mins past plenty of interesting bist of twisted wreck, some encrusted with fabulous jewel anenomes.

Marcin took Joe's small reel and tied it off, headed in first, Joe behind and me at the back as I have the 'light sabre'. We did not get very far before it became apparent that this was not the right penetration point, so we turned around and headed back out. Maybe next time.

Then the fun started. Marcin continued to lead the dive once the reel was re-stowed, Joe behind, and me at the back. We headed up over an innocuous looking bit of wreck and turned left. We were pretty much in the open, not tight, not overhead, yet somehow I managed to find and bruch against - very lightly - the sharpest part of the wreck. I felt water in my suit, just to the side of the right knee. Quite a lot of water. Not a torrent, but enough to know that I was going to have a decent suit flood.
Some frantic torch waving and an insistent thumbs up and I pulled the dive. I shone my torch on the one inch gash in the suit, Joe took care of the bag and 10 mins early (at about 30mins) we headed for the surface. At 21m we slowed and Joe asked if I wanted to gas switch. 30mins, most at around 27m on 32%, the water now up to my nuts and entering my left leg. No need to switch, we could still do a very safe semi-bail out.

I kept indicating that I was fine, and I was not getting cold. By 10m the water was to my waist but was not coming too far up my trunk as I kept my head up. My main concern was not the temperature but a loss of bouyancy. With hindsight this was not much of a concern as the top part of the suit was intact and the C4 undergarment made me inherently bouyant. We had done a slow ascent to 9m where we stopped for a minute, then we slid to 6m where we did the gas switch now it was clear that everything was OK. Then ascent had been very good; controlled and all three of us on one level, facing. See, we can do it!

We finished a little deco - 5mins - and then made it to the surface where my fist word was 'shitfuckcuntbollocksfuck!' or similar. Graeme swung around to pick us up - I jumped the queue and that was that. I took next to no ribbing on the boat, but there were a few of those 'TLS trilaminiate, just not up to UK conditions' glances. Joe was nice enough to say 'oh well, at least it's not a flash made to measure DUI...Oh.' Ah well.

So today the suit looks like a repaired bike tyre. Ten quid for a repair kit and an excuse to finally wash the undergarments then the cold water kit gets stowed for a few weeks. Caribbean here we come!