Yesterday was a good day. I went for a morning beachwalk. I went into town and took care of some business, (but not all of it). I went to the beach with my dog. I don’t think I got my 3 hours of studying in, there aren’t anough hours in the day.
Yesterday I couldn’t post, I couldn’t get on to blogger.
This post is from the comments you left on the last two posts.
My camera is rated to 130 feet because any deeper, the housing could crack or water could squeeze past the O-Ring seals and flood the camera. My old camera was rated to only 100 feet, but I took it to 170. At 170 feet, it didn’t work though, I got a weird error on the screen and it wouldn’t take a picture. I think it was being squeezed a bit. Maybe when the new gets worn off of this one I’ll take it a little deeper, but I’ve flooded cameras before and it’s no fun and expensive. I don’t know why it’s only 130 feet, it’s just what the manufacturer says.
For the dive to 100 meters, the plan was 330 for 5 minutes, as we had an open circuit diver with us. (Two Inspirations and a tanker.) We used 10% oxygen and 50% helium for our bottom gas. (the open circuit guy had 12/60). 10/50 really wasn’t really optimum for a dive of this depth on a rebreather, 8% O2 and 60% helium would have been better. Using a PO2 of 1 atmosphere, 10/50 should only be used to 298 feet.
It also should be noted that the open circuit divers gas bill was about $2000 CI ($2400 US) for 6 dives. Us rebreathers paid less than $100 for all our breathing gas for all our dives.
As you go deeper and deeper, nitrogen becomes more and more narcotic and oxygen becomes more and more toxic, so helium is added to reduce both oxygen partial pressure and nitrogen partial pressure.
Our runtimes were about 90 minutes, with the rebreathers clearing deco about 30 minutes before the open circuit diver. Run time is the time from when your head goes underwater till it comes back out of the water. It includes dive time and deco time. Our run times while planning the dive were about 60 minutes and his were about 90. Dive time is the time from when your head goes underwater till you begin your ascent, (330 feet, 5 minutes). But we stayed at 330 for about 5 minutes. (It takes about 3 or 4 minutes to descend to 330 feet) Everybody had computers and the profile was generated on land, and is really just a backup in case of problems. We stick to the profile, but the dive computers and the open circuit divers gas consumption gave us some flexibility.
The extra weight from the “Love Boat” helped me descend faster.
I’m not realy sure if we hit the sponge belt or not. I guess we did, but I’m not sure of the definition. At 330 feet, the dropoff is very vertical, so the sponges that like flat areas, like barrel sponges, are scarcer and not as big. But the sponges that attach to the wall and hang, like elephant ears and tube sponges are HUGE.
My friends left yesterday and today I’m studying and I really really want to go to the beach. Plus I have some personal business to attend to.
The more you dive, the more you want to dive more.
I’ll get some pictures too
Yesterdays dive was so good, we’re doing the exact same dive today. I think one of my dive buddies wants to go a little deeper this time, but I’m for an exact repeat, maybe with a little more time at depth.
I flooded another flashlight.
My camera is good to 40 meters, 130 feet.
Todays dive is 100 meters.
It will tie my deepest depth on my rebreather. For the other two guys, it will be their deepest.
Not much to write today. Just diving yesterday, too deep for my camera. Double diving today.
Last night a large group of us went out for Sushi. OI Girl and I ordered “Love Boat For Two”. I expect to get some grief about that today. Imagine that! A big tough gnarly mean guy like me ordering a “Love Boat For Two”. I’m ruined! Ruined I tell ya!
Yesterday was quite hectic, I picked up my friends, took them to their hotel, and we went diving. It was kinda late when we finally got in the water, and getting dark. But it was OK for a test run. Today we will do a deeper dive. I woke up at my regular time to do some studying, and then diving at 8:30 ish. Well, I pick them up at about 8:30, all the dive gear is here, at my apartment. So we’ll come back here and put everything together and then go.
I found my bluetooth earpiece, it was in a pair of pants in the drawer. Finally! I was going crazy, loosing one hand every time the phone rang. I had the OI Girl call me, and then I walked around thehouse – “Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?” Then I got near the dresser, she could hear me. So I started digging. Yippee!!!
Yesterday, I took the OI Girl to work, then stopped on the way back home for a beach walk. Then I came back home and the phone was ringing. The OI Girl received her money for her car (did I mention she found one and we put a down payment on it?) and we went and picked it up, got insurance and licensed it etc. Then she drove to work, I came home and ker-splash! Water started pouring from the front of my car. My water pump broke. So I filled it up with water, and made it down to the shop. They fixed it, and dropped it back off to my apartment in four hours. Talk about sevice!
So I’m back on track, ready to pick my friends up at the airport in just a few hours.
I heard it snowed two feet in Buffalo New York…
My vacation starts today, my friends arrive tomorrow! it’s a BEACH DAY!
Today is my last day before some days off. I have some friends coming down for a rebreather trimix instructor course, and I’m the students student again.
Most people look forward to time off. I do, but I worry about work.
Pretend that work is going in every day, and painting a painting. When you go on vacation, a co-worker who sees you painting every day and knows how you like to paint covers for you while you’re gone. It’s not too bad, because the person sees you painting every day, knows your style and what you’re painting.
When I go on vacation, an outsider comes in, and I don’t like the way he paints on my painting.
It seems like a really stupid way of describing it.
I have to think about it some more.
I don’t feel comfortable when I go on vacation because I worry about work. I don’t want any new projects started while I’m gone, I don’t want anyone working on my existing projects while I’m gone. I don’t want any surprises when I get back. If something breaks, I want my “replacement” to fix it to keep the station running, and that’s all.
When anyone else goes on vacation, someone “in house” fills their place, but when I go on vacation, someone from outside comes in. I rekkon I’m the only one who considers him an outsider, because the only time he’s there is when I’m not, and I DO know the guy, so maybe “outsider” is poor word to use.
It costs the station a lot of money, and having someone there in my place makes me feel insecure I guess.
I have a bluetooth headset. It is great because I don’t loose a hand while talking on the phone. Also, I can keep my phone on silent and when someone calls, I get a bentle blooping sound in my ear. I can go to the beach and have my phone in a waterproof box in my backpack and still take calls. Someday, the phone part will be gone and all everyone will have is the earpiece, which will be the entire phone. The bad thing is, that when you’re using it, people think you’re talking to yourself, but also, when you’re talking to yourself, people think you’re talking on your headset. (This has happened to me more than once!)
I can’t find mine right now. It’s been gone a few days. It’s here, because my phone connects to it when I get a call, but I can’t find it. I was looking for it in the dark last night. I called my cell phone from my house phone, I was walking around, looking for the blue light.
Nada
It’s around here somewhere, but I can’t find it.