Saturday morning was opening day of our dive season while we have been getting wet it has only been in local lakes. The plan was to dive the Hennepin she sits in 230' of water eleven miles east of South Haven in Lake Michigan. The divers where Jeff B, Tracy X and myself our dive was planned for a 25 minute bottom time and around an 80 minute runtime. Each diver had the same bottom gas 17/40 but our deco gases where different. My tables where generated using V-Planner VPM-B +3 conservatism. Using 17/40 bottom gas with 40% AND 100% for deco gases. Below is what the V- Planner tables looked like. I had planned for the water to be very cold having no thermo cline (both computers show 39f). I use a crushed neoprene dry suit and was wearing a base layer of Fourth Element Xerotherm and then Arctic over that.
The dive started with a bubble check at 20' we then descended to the deck at the bow which is about 210' Tracy lead we started with some light penetration going in just aft of the machinery on the bow. We then swam aft along the port side checking out the conveyer system and the massive A frame. Next we continued aft still along the port side to the stern where we looked around the debris field. We then took a nice slow swim forward along the starboard side back to the bow arriving around 21 minutes into the dive. We all swam around the bow looking at the machinery and into some small port holes to finish out the bottom time. At 24 minutes we started to collect our bottles and head up. I was 20 off the deck when I realized Jeff B was having a little trouble with his bottles so I slowed a bit to make sure all was ok, he then started his accent shortly after.
My first three stops where on back gas and all went smoothly, at my 110' stop I checked my 80 which contained 40%, the gauge was at 2000psi I turned the valve on and watch the gauge go to 3000psi all appeared fine. I pulled the reg out and secured it around my neck preparing for the switch at 100'. Arriving at 100' I put the reg in my mouth and it immediately free flowed. I then turned the valve off and prepared to feather it for the rest of my deco to 20'. This is where the dive got really interesting, I turned the valve back on to take a breath but nothing not a drop of gas came out! At this point I switch back to my primary reg as I needed a breath badly, I swam back to the line. I check the gauge and it still showed 3000psi, I am thinking ***! By this time Jeff B had realized there was an issue and was right in front of me ready to help. I put the reg between us and held in the purge button seeing just a few very small bubbles come out. Now I am thinking this sucks and start to run scenarios in my head of how I am getting out with no deep deco gas. The back gas to 20' would work but I really did not want to be in this cold water for that long. I then remembered Tracy was using three gases and would be switching to 50% at 70' I could then use his 32% this would work but would still have me in the water longer. Knowing I had a good back up plan so I decided to try and get my reg working. I took the first stage and shook it hard, a puff of gas came out so I beat it on the side of my 80 until it started to free flow. I turned it off and back on trying it in my mouth again and was able to get some gas. It was now free flowing but feathering the valve was a welcome relief at this point.
I checked my timer and looked at my tables realizing this all happened in less than one and a half minutes, I was still on track so I started up doing my normal stops. At my 60' or 50' stop I am not sure which the reg stopped free flowing and I was able to breathe it without feathering the valve. The rest of the deco went fine and I did an extra five minutes on O2 coming up very slowly from 20' and then floated in the water for a few minutes breathing O2.
When I was on my 20' stop I was thinking to myself that I was a little colder than I should be. I just started using the Fourth Element under suits and had done some dives in Lake Sixteen a local lake that has a bottom at 80' and is 39 degrees this time of year. I had been spending an hour at depth in this water and was amazed that I could not even feel the cold using the Fourth Element suits. So I surprised that I was getting a little cold but it really was not bad, I have been much colder on dives. When I climbed the ladder back on the boat the first thing I noticed was that my chest felt wet. I took my gear off and realized I was soaked from chest to my crotch which explained why I was cold but I never felt the water coming in. I suspect the dry suit inflator but have not check it yet.
Well after all that it really was an awesome first real dive of the year, the vis was over 100' and the wreck was just awesome to see after a long winter! The boat ride back in is about an hour, we made it to the dock around noon and unloaded. After getting loaded I started to feel a little tired so I put my O2 bottle in the front seat and drove home hitting the bottle from time to time. After getting home I felt very tired so I drank some caffeine and did some house work nothing strenuous. Around 6:00pm I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder that would come and go. It felt like someone was putting a large needle into the ball of my shoulder and would then pull it out. By 7:00pm the pain was getting worse and more often. I called at DAN at 7:15pm to see what they recommended. Well I got the answer I thought I would and was off to the chamber. Saturday night I received a table 6 and I did not get home until 5am. The next day I slept till around 3pm and woke up feeling fine. At 7:00pm I started to feel some sourness in my should again. I called the HBO doctor and he had me come back in and ran a table 5 on me. He also added twenty minutes at 66' and did some other small tweaks to the table 5. It is now Monday night and I seem to be pain free.
I am trying to download the dive profiles off my Versa Pro's but both units fail when trying to down load those dives. I have never downloaded these computers before but the dives before Saturday seem to download fine. The only difference in Saturdays dive is that the computers were in gauge mode. I do have Jeff B's profile which is close to mine I will post it below.
Oh I almost forgot about the reg and what the hell happened to it. Well this was a new Scuba Pro MK17 with an R295 second. I have used it in the lake twice and it worked great but my first thought when it froze was this POS Scuba Pro reg is going in the trash. I took the reg apart Saturday afternoon and it was full of water. I pressurized both bottles on the boat they were then clipped on while I was standing on the swim platform. I did not look at the gauges at this point which I should have. On the way down I always turn on and off all my deco gas but I do not always look at the gauges first. I know the bottle had pressure when I was at 110? So the only thing I can think of that happened was the reg got purged while being clipped on and then I pressurized it on the way down? I cannot think of any other way water could have got inside the first stage.
Jeff B's dive from Nitek HE.
My plan from V- Planner
V-Planner 3.84 by Ross Hemingway,
VPM code by Erik C. Baker.
Decompression model: VPM - B
DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 5 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 572ft (c)
Conservatism = + 3
Dec to 200ft (2) Trimix 17/40 75ft/min descent.
Dec to 215ft (2) Trimix 17/40 75ft/min descent.
Level 215ft 22:08 (25) Trimix 17/40 1.24 ppO2, 101ft ead, 115ft end
Asc to 140ft (27) Trimix 17/40 -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 140ft 0:30 (28) Trimix 17/40 0.87 ppO2, 60ft ead, 70ft end
Stop at 130ft 1:00 (29) Trimix 17/40 0.82 ppO2, 55ft ead, 64ft end
Stop at 120ft 1:00 (30) Trimix 17/40 0.77 ppO2, 49ft ead, 58ft end
Stop at 110ft 1:00 (31) Trimix 17/40 0.72 ppO2, 44ft ead, 52ft end
Stop at 100ft 1:00 (32) Nitrox40 1.57 ppO2, 67ft ead
Stop at 90ft 2:00 (34) Nitrox 40 1.45 ppO2, 60ft ead
Stop at 80ft 1:00 (35) Nitrox 40 1.34 ppO2, 52ft ead
Stop at 70ft 2:00 (37) Nitrox 40 1.22 ppO2, 44ft ead
Stop at 60ft 3:00 (40) Nitrox 40 1.10 ppO2, 37ft ead
Stop at 50ft 4:00 (44) Nitrox 40 0.98 ppO2, 29ft ead
Stop at 40ft 5:00 (49) Nitrox 40 0.86 ppO2, 22ft ead
Stop at 30ft 7:00 (56) Nitrox 40 0.75 ppO2, 14ft ead
Stop at 20ft 23:00 (79) Oxygen 1.57 ppO2, 0ft ead
Surface (79) Oxygen -30ft/min ascent.
Off gassing starts at 166.5ft
OTU's this dive: 106
CNS Total: 50.3%
122.7 cu ft Trimix 17/40
31.1 cu ft Nitrox 40
18.2 cu ft Oxygen
172 cu ft TOTAL
The dive started with a bubble check at 20' we then descended to the deck at the bow which is about 210' Tracy lead we started with some light penetration going in just aft of the machinery on the bow. We then swam aft along the port side checking out the conveyer system and the massive A frame. Next we continued aft still along the port side to the stern where we looked around the debris field. We then took a nice slow swim forward along the starboard side back to the bow arriving around 21 minutes into the dive. We all swam around the bow looking at the machinery and into some small port holes to finish out the bottom time. At 24 minutes we started to collect our bottles and head up. I was 20 off the deck when I realized Jeff B was having a little trouble with his bottles so I slowed a bit to make sure all was ok, he then started his accent shortly after.
My first three stops where on back gas and all went smoothly, at my 110' stop I checked my 80 which contained 40%, the gauge was at 2000psi I turned the valve on and watch the gauge go to 3000psi all appeared fine. I pulled the reg out and secured it around my neck preparing for the switch at 100'. Arriving at 100' I put the reg in my mouth and it immediately free flowed. I then turned the valve off and prepared to feather it for the rest of my deco to 20'. This is where the dive got really interesting, I turned the valve back on to take a breath but nothing not a drop of gas came out! At this point I switch back to my primary reg as I needed a breath badly, I swam back to the line. I check the gauge and it still showed 3000psi, I am thinking ***! By this time Jeff B had realized there was an issue and was right in front of me ready to help. I put the reg between us and held in the purge button seeing just a few very small bubbles come out. Now I am thinking this sucks and start to run scenarios in my head of how I am getting out with no deep deco gas. The back gas to 20' would work but I really did not want to be in this cold water for that long. I then remembered Tracy was using three gases and would be switching to 50% at 70' I could then use his 32% this would work but would still have me in the water longer. Knowing I had a good back up plan so I decided to try and get my reg working. I took the first stage and shook it hard, a puff of gas came out so I beat it on the side of my 80 until it started to free flow. I turned it off and back on trying it in my mouth again and was able to get some gas. It was now free flowing but feathering the valve was a welcome relief at this point.
I checked my timer and looked at my tables realizing this all happened in less than one and a half minutes, I was still on track so I started up doing my normal stops. At my 60' or 50' stop I am not sure which the reg stopped free flowing and I was able to breathe it without feathering the valve. The rest of the deco went fine and I did an extra five minutes on O2 coming up very slowly from 20' and then floated in the water for a few minutes breathing O2.
When I was on my 20' stop I was thinking to myself that I was a little colder than I should be. I just started using the Fourth Element under suits and had done some dives in Lake Sixteen a local lake that has a bottom at 80' and is 39 degrees this time of year. I had been spending an hour at depth in this water and was amazed that I could not even feel the cold using the Fourth Element suits. So I surprised that I was getting a little cold but it really was not bad, I have been much colder on dives. When I climbed the ladder back on the boat the first thing I noticed was that my chest felt wet. I took my gear off and realized I was soaked from chest to my crotch which explained why I was cold but I never felt the water coming in. I suspect the dry suit inflator but have not check it yet.
Well after all that it really was an awesome first real dive of the year, the vis was over 100' and the wreck was just awesome to see after a long winter! The boat ride back in is about an hour, we made it to the dock around noon and unloaded. After getting loaded I started to feel a little tired so I put my O2 bottle in the front seat and drove home hitting the bottle from time to time. After getting home I felt very tired so I drank some caffeine and did some house work nothing strenuous. Around 6:00pm I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder that would come and go. It felt like someone was putting a large needle into the ball of my shoulder and would then pull it out. By 7:00pm the pain was getting worse and more often. I called at DAN at 7:15pm to see what they recommended. Well I got the answer I thought I would and was off to the chamber. Saturday night I received a table 6 and I did not get home until 5am. The next day I slept till around 3pm and woke up feeling fine. At 7:00pm I started to feel some sourness in my should again. I called the HBO doctor and he had me come back in and ran a table 5 on me. He also added twenty minutes at 66' and did some other small tweaks to the table 5. It is now Monday night and I seem to be pain free.
I am trying to download the dive profiles off my Versa Pro's but both units fail when trying to down load those dives. I have never downloaded these computers before but the dives before Saturday seem to download fine. The only difference in Saturdays dive is that the computers were in gauge mode. I do have Jeff B's profile which is close to mine I will post it below.
Oh I almost forgot about the reg and what the hell happened to it. Well this was a new Scuba Pro MK17 with an R295 second. I have used it in the lake twice and it worked great but my first thought when it froze was this POS Scuba Pro reg is going in the trash. I took the reg apart Saturday afternoon and it was full of water. I pressurized both bottles on the boat they were then clipped on while I was standing on the swim platform. I did not look at the gauges at this point which I should have. On the way down I always turn on and off all my deco gas but I do not always look at the gauges first. I know the bottle had pressure when I was at 110? So the only thing I can think of that happened was the reg got purged while being clipped on and then I pressurized it on the way down? I cannot think of any other way water could have got inside the first stage.
Jeff B's dive from Nitek HE.
My plan from V- Planner
V-Planner 3.84 by Ross Hemingway,
VPM code by Erik C. Baker.
Decompression model: VPM - B
DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 5 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 572ft (c)
Conservatism = + 3
Dec to 200ft (2) Trimix 17/40 75ft/min descent.
Dec to 215ft (2) Trimix 17/40 75ft/min descent.
Level 215ft 22:08 (25) Trimix 17/40 1.24 ppO2, 101ft ead, 115ft end
Asc to 140ft (27) Trimix 17/40 -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 140ft 0:30 (28) Trimix 17/40 0.87 ppO2, 60ft ead, 70ft end
Stop at 130ft 1:00 (29) Trimix 17/40 0.82 ppO2, 55ft ead, 64ft end
Stop at 120ft 1:00 (30) Trimix 17/40 0.77 ppO2, 49ft ead, 58ft end
Stop at 110ft 1:00 (31) Trimix 17/40 0.72 ppO2, 44ft ead, 52ft end
Stop at 100ft 1:00 (32) Nitrox40 1.57 ppO2, 67ft ead
Stop at 90ft 2:00 (34) Nitrox 40 1.45 ppO2, 60ft ead
Stop at 80ft 1:00 (35) Nitrox 40 1.34 ppO2, 52ft ead
Stop at 70ft 2:00 (37) Nitrox 40 1.22 ppO2, 44ft ead
Stop at 60ft 3:00 (40) Nitrox 40 1.10 ppO2, 37ft ead
Stop at 50ft 4:00 (44) Nitrox 40 0.98 ppO2, 29ft ead
Stop at 40ft 5:00 (49) Nitrox 40 0.86 ppO2, 22ft ead
Stop at 30ft 7:00 (56) Nitrox 40 0.75 ppO2, 14ft ead
Stop at 20ft 23:00 (79) Oxygen 1.57 ppO2, 0ft ead
Surface (79) Oxygen -30ft/min ascent.
Off gassing starts at 166.5ft
OTU's this dive: 106
CNS Total: 50.3%
122.7 cu ft Trimix 17/40
31.1 cu ft Nitrox 40
18.2 cu ft Oxygen
172 cu ft TOTAL
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