Joint Birthday / SCUBA-Stag

Back In The Day...

So on October 31st 2015 at 1400 hours, I took the metaphorical plunge and proposed to my partner (read here). She said yes! As part of every engagement, there must be a stag do. Mine was due to start on Friday July 1st 2016. I chose this date because my birthday is July 1st, I thought it would help make an even more memorable event by combining it into one-mega trip.

So a plan is formed and before we know it the time is upon us! I've got an excited-nervous feeling. It's another major milestone on the journey to becoming married that is flying by!

First job, get the car filled up and not just with fuel! I've got to pack a set of golf clubs, trolley, twinset plus all of my associated rig, stage and regulators, two HID lights, drysuit bag, undersuit bag ...

A very full Loki

Day 1 - Friday 1st July 2016

Today is the day! Stag day 1 begins with me driving down to Essex... yes that's right friends, I will spend my 28th birthday DRIVING ... to my friend Mark who lives just outside Stansted. Leaving at 0951, my day is all about the driving ...


I'll be going the un-highlighted route in the map above - the A1 route is notoriously slow in practise, so whilst the route is theoretically longer it really isn't - I've lost many hours going on the A1 because of being stuck behind HGVs on a single track road. My recommendation is to always stick on the M6.

Google says 6 hrs 57 minutes, but in practise it takes longer because of coffee / fuel / food breaks and horrific traffic going past Preston and Manchester which ultimately ended up taking 10 hours. Seeing Mark and Faye's house was bliss and I could get out of my car at last!

The awesome Faye had made a lovely Fish pie with scallops which Mark and I ate on the "Romance Bistro Table".

Dinner on the patio!

Coming inside we had Mojitos and Faye then gave me my birthday treat: Carrot Cake!

Carrot cake!!!

We ended up staying up until 130am chatting and catching up!

Day 2 - Saturday 1st August 2016

0700 and the alarm is going off. Mark and I get some tea and toast down our necks and then get on the road to Swanage.


We stop at Fleet Services, I run in to the services to pay for a days parking, £15, and get more coffee. I'll be leaving my car here and jumping in with Mark to Swanage. Then on the way back to London, I'll jump out again, pick up my car and bring it to London to stay at Rob's house.

Jumping into Ellie, Mark and I head onward to Swanage. We don't get far and we end up coming off at the Winchester services to meet up with Rob and Chong where Rob gives me the first of many treats: some antlers!

Hitting the road again we continue on the way. The weather gets worse the closer we get. But coming into the harbour , the weather finally breaks and we have lovely sun shine.

We were diving the Aelion Sky, but the mark was changed to the Kyarra because it's closer. Normally I write a separate blog article about the dive, but this time I didn't think it was worth it.

Leaving the harbour ... and calm waters behind

We were diving off the Skua catamaran. A very wide dive-boat which was comfortable, until we hit the open sea - there were white caps everywhere. When Mark and I arrived in the harbour, he had been saying how if you can see the waves breaking like that its usually a sign to can it. The skipper said we would drive out, see what its like and decide there.

I'm wary of the upcoming dive!

Mark you handsome devil!

Chong ... always cool!

Rob, being Rob!

On the boat ride out, it was rough, 4m swells. The ride was only supposed to take 10 minutes, but took closer to 20. I started getting into my kit pretty much straight away. Arriving at the site, it was horrific. The swells were getting bigger. I was asking Mark, Rob and Chong how they felt - I was 50:50 about skipping this. Mark asked the skipper who said he was was happy. So in we jumped!


The descent took nearly 5 minutes! The shot line was at about a 40 degree angle running down tied off to what appeared anchor bollards. Mark was a little unsettled upon arriving at the wreck. I personally felt like I was heavily narked ... but I was at 24m! We stopped for a minute to catch our breath.

Anchor bollards (?)

We were on the bow and we headed off around the wreck. I don't know where we went, we poked about wherever we could. It wasn't long until Chong and Rob dropped down and met us too.

Rather than narrate the dive like normal (I couldn't!), I've put together a little gallery which are just still frames from the GoPro Hero camera that was running throughout the dive.

Underwater plant

The wreck is covered in life

There are some interior areas that could be explored 

Mark from Dive Signs

Another cargo hold - too tight to get in safely

Mark and his EPIC light

Rob and Chong are in the distance and we are following

It looks like tiles.

Close up of Mark's newest 'alien' Glow In The Dark stickers

Spider Crab!!

Underneath a piece of the wreck

Mark

The hull of the Kyarra

Hull and team

Some kind of pipe

After around 35 minutes, I was down to around 120-110 bar in the set, I felt like I had seen enough. The skipper had also told us that our maximum run time was to be 50 minutes, so we would need the rest of the time to make our ascent.

I found a bit of wreck to hang on to with my knees and launched the DSMB. Letting go of the DSMB it went off at a 45 degree angle because of the currents! It was attached to a 45m spool so I felt reasonable happy it would make it to the surface ... and it did with plenty of line left.

Getting ready, we swam off the wreck and went drifting. Looking down the wreck was flying past below us, 20 mph maybe?

My over-zealous weighting was making my ascent harder and I was heading up but slowly, our way to the surface was a broadly minimum deco ascent (1 minute stop at 15m, 1 minute stop at 12m, 1 minute stop at 9m. The 6m stop didn't really exist it was more of a continual ascent, by 3m we were basically pulled up to the surface).

Upon hitting the surface, the conditions had settled down marginally. I surfaced facing Mark, looking around in front of me I couldn't see the boat, and it looked like Mark was looking about, my first thought was "oh god where is the boat". I was relieved when I saw it was coming up behind me! Mark got on first, I passed up my DSMB. I got on second. Panting. Crashing back down on the bench, feeling very seasick and generally awful. We just sat there continuing to breath off our 32% enriched oxygen mix in the twinsets while the skipper went around picking up other divers. Chong and Rob came up next. Followed by the rest of the divers (unknown to us).

The skipper blasted back to a bay to shelter us and give us 10-15 minutes of respite in calmer waters, and we had a brew of hot chocolate. Then we motored back into the bay. We got the kit off the boat and got changed.

After de-kitting from the boat we went over to the town, The Fish Plaice to get some chips to eat.

Bellies full we jumped back on the road to head to Rob's.



Just like on the way down to Swanage, we stopped at the Fleet services, I jumped out of Ellie, run over the bridge to the southbound services, drive down a junction and back up in Loki (my car!) where I then unloaded my dive gear from Mark's car back into mine. Unloaded, we hit the road once again to head to Rob's house in Camden.

The Night Out

Arriving at Rob's at 930pm, it is time for a rapid get-ready! We jump in the shower (not together, one after the other!) and get cleaned up. Rob now reveals some of his stag-night tricks! So the first thing is a sash that says "Groom To Be". Then there is a rosette which also says "Groom To Be", on the two tails, it says "Kiss Me" and "Buy Me A Drink". Next is a bag of badges with things like "Keep Calm - It's A Stag Party", Rob chose "Stag Wars"!

Well I'm ready!

So is Mark!

Its now almost 11pm. So we jump in Rob's lightning fast BMW X3 and tear arse through Camden to Shoreditch where he drops the car off at his Paragorn gym.

First things first - we need food! We go to a take away where Rob and I have a chicken swarma (an Israeli wrap) and Mark has chips! Chong arrives and the team is re-united.

First things first we get some cash and head to a gentleman's club: Rainbows Sports Bar (God knows how its calling itself a sports bar though!)



Next we went to Trafik which had a GREAT atmosphere I loved it there. Chong bought us a round of shots to kick things off. I also had my first Sol beer thingy!


We then got one of the best pictures of the entire trip.

Me with the guys! Chong, Rob, me and Mark (L-R)

Unfortunately Trafik shut at around 130, so we went back to Rainbows for one last treat for me!

It's now 3 am, I'm feeling pretty energised, asking the guys they were feeling full of energy too, despite us being up at 7am to go diving so we went to Aquarium.


Descending the stairs, the place is bouncin'! We grab some drinks and have a walk around - Rob tells me about this place and it has a swimming pool! Seriously?! So we head down to the basement and sure enough there is a large pool and hot tub. Wow!

We stayed in the club chatting with various people and drinking and a little bit of shuffling / dancing. By about 5am I was starting to feel pretty tired, checking with the others and we were all on the same boat ('scuse the pun) so we decided to call it, climbing the stairs out of the club we enter the streets of London into bright sunlight! Dang! Some people are starting to open up shops for the new day and we are bouncing around after a night out!!

We caught a taxi home and proceeded pass out in bed! An incredible night!

Day 3 - Sunday 2nd August 2016

Rob has booked us a game of golf with a tee time of 1339. After a very slow morning, we head over to a Greasy Spoon cafe for a fried breakfast. Chong joins us.

We head back to Rob's where we say goodbye to Mark and we bolt off to the golf course. We are playing at Bush Hill Golf Club. We arrive with about 5 minutes spare to tee-time. Fortunately there is a 2-person group in front of us so we ask them to go ahead of us which gives us a little breathing room.

Golfing-selfie!

We all have a very good round, but I'm clearly a magnet for balls as no less than 4 land within two feet of me during the day!

I went round with a good score for me. A couple of holes went really wrong, but generally a good score and an amazing day in the sun.

We say goodbye to Chong and head home. On the way we get pizza and getting home I get to meet Rob's girlfriend, Xana. I've known of her but this is the first time I've met her in nearly 9 years!!

We have a really nice, chilled evening and go to sleep around midnight. I have about 8 hours sleep.

Day 4 - Monday 3rd August 2016

Waking up at 9am, we have a lazy morning. we take Honey for a walk and go for another fried breakfast. The Londoners love baked beans as the plates are always half-full with beans!

After an epic weekend with my great friends, all good things must come to an end so I start the long drive home leaving at 11am. The weather got progressively worse as I got further north. I eventually arrived home just after 7pm, the journey took around 8 hours which is pretty good going.

Bloody awful weather ...

Arriving home, I did a very quick unload - diving gear has been left in the garden to be rained on to start rinsing the salt off. I've had an amazing time with my friends, even writing this now I think about the trip and I can't help but have an ear to ear grin. A total of 1,200 miles were travelled, and I now have memories that are going to last a lifetime and friendship bonds that have been made even stronger.

I've put together a short video to capture the celebrations.
 

Dive Report: Karwella

About the wreck

The Hellespont is a paddle steamer that was converted to be a minesweeper during WW1.

Dive Report

Descending down the shot I was starting to prepare my GoPro as I wanted to get some video of the descent, but looking at the screen I could see that I still had video on the memory card - curses! I know I pulled off the video last night, so time to do an SD card format, all whilst descending at about 15m/min, clearing my ears, equalizing my mask! By the time I had reached 30m I had the card cleared and the video recording started, so I started my continual recording of the dive now including the last part of the descent. (I had hoped to get more of the descent so that you can see the wreck appearing in the blue).

The wreck appears below us

Getting settled and achieving neutral buoyancy at the stern, Rob was already waiting for me and settled. Dropping all the way down to the seabed we saw the massive triple rudder and the propellers.

Triple rudders

At first I shot some video looking from behind the propellers while Rob waited a few meters back and above.

From the propellers

Then I passed the camera to Rob who then recorded me at the propellers and ascending back up to the stern where we then entered the main deck area of the ship.

Me heading off to inspect the propellers

It was wide open, probably a communal area. Along the length there were metal supports for the deck above. Approximately 1/3rd and 2/3rds of the way along in this compartment there were hatches that led into the compartments below.

Main deck

A quick look back, I gestured to Rob about going in, he's OK with it so I descend head-first down through the hatch. It was just a simple square room, Rob and I swam a lap around the room and then ascended back on the main deck.

Back on the main deck, I took the GoPro back off Rob, did a gas pressure check. This is a two part process: firstly we check our bottom gauges - this will tell us depth and time. As a diver we know the rate we consume gas so it is a simple case of rate x time x depth which will then give us the amount of gas consumed. Then we check our pressure gauge which tells us the remaining pressure - the two should be close, they are which means the dive is going according to our plans.

Current depth: 33.7m, current time: 12 minutes, max depth 42.6m, temperature: 24 degrees!

We are 12 minutes into our dive plan and we are mid-ship now, as we swim through a compartment the regulator on my side-slung decompression cylinder gets caught on a lip so I had to take a moment to get tidied up. We continue on where we come to the stairwell. Here there are two sets of stairs - one leading up, one leading down.

Heading to the stairs

Annoyingly there was a pair of divers kneeling down at the top of the stairs, so it was a faff to move past them - they are wearing just a single cylinder, whereas I have three! I ended up having to rise to the roof of the room to get above them and then follow the roof of the stairs down as opposed to a nice glide down the stairs. Oh well.

The room is a another simple square room. Rob does a lap and swims under the stairs before we ascend back up.

Rob swimming up the stairs

Leaving the stairwell, we continue to head forward. The next compartment has some degradation because the roof has collapsed in, a quick check of the computer: dive time is now 18 minutes. It feels like it has been far longer! I flash Rob (with my light!) and check he's OK.

Leaving this compartment we head towards the bow.

Arriving on the bow

We are hovering above the anchor lifting mechanisms. Looking back we can see a large structure: there are two more decks above the deck that we swam along, so we head back up over the structure.

Heading towards the bridge

Arriving on the next deck, we look in the windows and see an open structure, so decide to ascend to the next deck. There are several groups of recreational (single-tank) divers on this top deck (at about 30m) so we swim around them where we can and crossover to the starboard side. There are streams of bubbles coming up through holes and vents underneath us which makes the wreck look like it is alive and breathing.

Rob and I have a quick chat about what way to go, and to check pressure gauges and bottom time. We are approaching our planned bottom-time and (based on some quick sums) my pressure gauge is telling me that I don't have much longer left until I have to start the ascent (for completeness: this is not my guage reading almost zero, far from it! Rob and I have agreed a volume of gas / pressure the previous night that we are reserving for emergencies, such as entrapment, team separation etc, we have to start our ascent before we reach this pressure). Rob then takes the GoPro off me to record me for a little while.

Yours truly!

I swim off the wreck a little, this gives me a view of the whole wreck (and gets me out of the way of the other divers).  I'm heading aft and around the back of the main structure on the top deck. Roger is on the very top deck with his team above us.

Swimming around on the main deck

I've swum around to the starboard side again on this penultimate deck and I'm looking at the entrance to the picturesque stairwell. I ask Rob if he wants to go in to get some more pictures... He gives me the hold / stop sign... He tells me that my breathing regulator on my side slung decompression cylinder is hanging loose and needs tidying. So I quickly fix it prior to entering the wreck.

Teamwork: tidying up

With the regulator tidied away we entered the room. I was a little confused at first - this stairwell seemed so much lighter than the one Rob and I had gone down earlier... That's because this is the stairs on the deck above! I descended the stairs and did a 360 at the bottom. Rob was waiting for me at the bottom, he wanted to record me swimming up the stairs.

Swimming up the stairwell

I left the stairwell through the same door we came in. Before heading off towards the bow, I checked my SPG - I'm only a few minutes away from hitting my reserve pressure, so decided to tell Rob to turn around and lets head back towards the shotline to head home to the boat.

So I headed off in the direction I thought the shotline was in ... we dropped onto the wreck near the stern and we mostly came down the shotline, so surely it should be somewhere around there - it will come visible as I get closer to it .... surely.... won't it?

Anyone seen a shot line around here?

We had a little underwater debate because I couldn't see the shotline and Rob thought we still had to swim to the reef to meet the boat (at the last minute the skipper said he would wait instead - lesson here - any 'plan' changes, confirm with the team don't just assume they heard the skipper).

I was getting flustered, but couldn't see the shotline, so I just ordered a straight ascent - I was expecting to get a shred torn from me because the skipper asked that if making a free ascent EVERYONE launch an DSMB (a floaty marker). At the last second before jumping in I had detached mine because it was getting tangled and not staying stowed. I figured a pissed off skipper and being alive with everyone was worth it. Because of my flustering, I had now consumed the last of the gas before hitting the reserve, so ordered the ascent. I led the way (so that Rob knew I wanted us to get moving). As we ascended Rob unpacked his DSMB and launched it.

By the time we arrived at 21m we switched onto our decompression gas and started watching the minutes tick by ... I like to give the first stop about 5 minutes, whilst I worked out the profile, Lee appeared! He asked why we launched a bag ... he then turned around to point at ... the shot line ... so in 30m+ visibility I failed to find the shotline!

I slapped my forehead to show I admitted the navigation failure, and he double-checked we are definitely OK - yeah we were just got lost :)

Rob is looking after the DSMB.

Rob on deco

Meanwhile I'm trying to take selfies with the other team in the background!

Selfie! The team is about 30-40m away behind me!

Dive Video

I have managed to pull together a short video of our fantastic dive - check it out below! If you like it, let me know! Follow me on Vimeo for more of my videos!