Training Day 5 Dive 2:
After lunch, chatting, and warming up with my propane heater, we prepped our gear and hit the water. To illustrate how much warmer the water was compared to the air, when I was prepping my tanks I had about 4,000psi, they sat in the water for about 30 minutes before I clipped them on, when I clipped them on the pressure was close to 4,250psi.
We swim out to the ear, and we went over our plan for the dive, we would spend almost all of it in the Catacombs doing line drills, with a line cut drill in the eye if we have time. First would me touch contact only. Second would be touch contact but Reggie ran out of air. And the third would be touch contact but I was out of air.
Down the ear and into the catacombs we went. When we reached the drill start point he handed me the mask. We make one circuit and Reggie makes it very clear under water that I wasn’t keep my arm out and back. So we go back to the start of the catacombs and repeated the drill, this time I made sure to keep my arm out. Back to the start, go a short distance into the catacombs, now Reggie signals that he is out of air. I unclipped my long hose reg and hand it to Reggie, deploying the rest of my hose out of my bands. After a bit he hands me the blindfold, and we proceed the rest of the way in touch contact.
Touch contact is so much easier with an experienced leader, the hardest part was fitting my wide cylinder through some of the restrictions, and knowing when to switch from knees to arm touch contact. We completed the drill without much drama. Probably the hardest part of re-rigging my long hose not just underwater but in the cramp cold confines of the Catacombs. After about a minute or so, it wasn’t as pretty as I like it but it was close enough.
We swim back to the start of the catacombs for the final line drill, I’m out of air. We get a little way into the catacombs, and Reggie gives me the signal, handing me his long hose. I start breathing on his reg as I clip off my long hose reg. And we start down the catacombs getting to the point that he hands me the blindfold. Compared to the time when Reggie led it felt like a constant struggle between the cave, the hose, and the line. We get to the end of the drill, and I can tell that Reggie wasn’t happy. He signals turn the dive, so we pull the reel from the ear and exit through the eye. We do our safety stop, surface, and prepare to get an earful of everything that I did wrong.
First line drill I didn’t keep my arm straight enough and back so he had room. But I corrected that on the second run through, which was good. But I wasn’t feeling on the other side enough to proactively move into that area, I was also kicking too much, it was practically giving him a concussion. I needed to pull more as leader, and of course the final issue I need to read the cave more. We check air, and if I felt enough warm enough to give it another try. I did so we entered through the eye, which is so much easier than the ear. And on to the catacombs, this time I tried to kick almost none of the time and pull more. Once we got done I could tell he was less annoyed than the last time.
We exit back through the eye again, once there we compared dive computers and Reggie had a couple of minutes of deco. So we did the line cut drill to kill my safety stop and his deco. Pretty straight forward drill, he lays out a line, and purposely tangles your valve up on it. You need to cut the line with your eyes closed without losing the exit side. Untangle yourself from the line, without losing the exit side, and retie the line back together, preferably without opening your eyes, but it is permissible to tie the knot with your eyes open. I don’t know if it is harder for the backmount guys, but it was pretty easy for me. I had to open my eyes to tie the knot, but only because I got my pinky stuck in the knot. I help him clean up the knotted mess of a line, and we swim back up the run to the stairs.
Whiling drying off and getting my leg back on I listened to some of Bird’s (as in Bill from Bird’s Famous Manatee Tours) stories about various topics. Like Harry he is filled with some great stories, most of them hilarious. After I was dried off, we bid good bye to Bird who went to his RV, and we debriefed. My line cut drill was fine, he said I should’ve gripped the exit side a little tighter, but I didn’t lose it so I pass. On the other hand while second attempt at leading the line drill was better, but not good enough to pass, he said I need to slow down and pull more. Also that I should get a hood so perhaps my cold tolerance can be extended longer. He also mentioned that I might want to consider a Harry loop (basically a bungee loop that is easier to stick your long hose into) for hose stowage.
My Thoughts:
Of course I am slightly dejected that I have to do the final line drill once more, but I will take it slow and spend more time pulling next time. I’m not entirely sure about the Harry Loop, thinking about it privately I just don’t myself having to be the donator much more in training. I would think that most of the remaining air share drills are going to be with me as the recipient so I have to lead. But I could be wrong.
I will be purchasing a hood despite how much I’ve disliked all the ones I tried in the past. I will probably give the K-01 a try as everyone raves about it, and it is one of the few hoods that I can find actually stocked locally. But I am ready to take another crack at it, just another three to four weeks away.
Dive Profile:
Dive Time: 111 minutes
Bottom Time: 94 minutes
Average Depth: 50ffw
Max Depth: 69ffw
