Yongala Question

[abuckfity]

So from what I've gathered, the Yongala is in 28 meters of water. My table is telling me that with regular old air, I'm gonna need to limit my dive to about 20 minutes to avoid decompression time. I'm asking because I live in Adelaide, and I'm not sure if I want to make the trip all the way up there and then be so limited in terms of time. I haven't used nitrox before, but I'd consider taking a course just for this trip. Anyone have any recommendations concerning this? Dive with regular air, or should I go ahead and do the nitrox thing? Cheers.

And a second question: I plan on doing two dive trips in the future: one in early December 07 and one in late February 08. The two places that I want to go are the Yongala and Cod Hole/Coral Sea. Does anyone have a recomendation on the order that I should do these trips in?

 

[Puzzlement]

I dived the Yongala in winter 2006 with Pro Dive Townsville. The deepest part of the Yongala lies in about that depth, but it's lying on its side and the top of the wreck is at about 18 metres. The pattern we did was to go to the deepest part on the first dive, come about halfway up the body and do most of the dive at around 22 metres. Then the second dive we did along the top of the wreck at 18 metres.

There's plenty to see at any part of the wreck: lots of fish life up top and you have more opportunity to peer into the surrounding waters where the rays hang out (or did the day we were diving). So you don't have to spend any dive entirely at 28 metres if you want a longer dive.

 

[abuckfity]

thats helpful. thanks puzzelement. guess i don't need to worry about get nitrox certified just for that dive. cheers.

 

[rickydazla]

I would heartily disagree. The Yongala is a ridiculously good dive and anyway you can extend bottom time on it is worth doing. A nitrox cert is good for more than just those dives so the extra cost will go towards extending your bottom times for a lifetime.

If you looked at doing a 28m dive with a 1:30 SI and then an 18m repetitive dive you'd be looking at:

20 minutes and then 26 minutes using air
30 minutes and then 32 minutes using EAN36
* using SSI tables

If you played with some multi level profiles and/or used a nitrox computer (which I know they can rent you) then you could extend these further.

Seriously, you won't be disappointed.