Doomba

Photo from Michael McFadyen’s Scuba Diving Web Site

It’s been while since I got wet as well as posting on the blog again.

This time we went to the double wreck  SS Dee Why and Meggol (ex HMS Wexford, SS Doomba and HMAS Doomba).

It was quite exciting as there are few penetration and 2 different wrecks on one dive!  We spend most of time on SS Dee Why and swam over to Meggol to have a quick look. I also tried Dive Rite Gator and a camera housing and both worked fine, so I will take my camera and start taking few shot and video next time.

Dive Data;

Max Depth; 48.4 metre

Dive Time; 62 minutes

Visibility; 12 metres

Temperature; 15.4 degrees

Photo from Michael McFadyen’s Scuba Diving Web Site

I was on my rotation day off. Most of people enjoy the sleep in for your day off, but I was up quarter to 5 this morning getting ready for a dive on the SS Birchgrove Park.

Weather was perfect, picked my buddy up and arrived at the boat pick up point Little Manly at 6am. Gear up and suit up for a 6:30 pick up, talking with other divers about the dive, 6:45 still not sign of the boat, keep talking, 7:00 still not, everyone start wondering if the trip was cancelled. 7:10 finally boat arrived.

10 divers total. Everyone knows everyone even new Tec diver like me knew most of them.

4 in my team, dive was great. It was my first dive on this wreck, so I was trying to picture myself which part is which. Did I success? No. I was so excited and went in where ever I could get in and just had fun.

It was over 40 metre dive so I didn’t take my camera but one of my team member took Sony Cyber Shot with 40 metre rated housing with him and saying it’s been no problem. I might take the housing only next deep dive to see if it works. If it’s OK then I can take photos on those wrecks around Sydney!

Photo from Michael McFadyen’s Scuba Diving Web Site

I realized I haven’t been diving for more than 5 weeks. Last dive was the last training dive for my DSAT Tec Deep Diver course. It actually was at Coolooli.

So I booked 2 dives on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was with my buddy AB and Sunday was with guys from my course.

Both days happened to be Coolooli again. I was expecting somewhere else on Sunday but end up the same.

But you know, I like Coolooli!

I enjoyed both dives.

So what’s next?

I went to China Town for Yum Cha 飲茶 with my share mate last weekend.

Where is the photo of the foods?

Sorry I was so hungry and all foods were gone by the time I remember about camera. It has been a while since I had Yum Cha last time. I think I got to have more often.

After the Yum Cha, we wondered around Darling Harbour for a while and saw this Unicycle performer. He talks a lot of jokes which wasn’t a good one but performance wasn’t bad.

I got new toys!

As you can see, Dive Rite NiTec Trio. This is a 3 gases switchable Dive computer. You can pre-set the 3 gases air to 99% O2 and you can switch these gases during the dive. I received it just before the last Tec Deep course training dive last week. I set one on the gauge mode as we run the dive with a table created by Deco software (V Planner) and set on as computer mode for back up.

I have set air for bottom gas and deco gases 50% and 100% (99%). We went on the wreck Coolooli and dive went well till first switching gas. The dive table I had on my arm was wrinkled and hard to read, so I was too busy concentrated for the depth and finding the correct time on the table and guess what? I totally forgot to switch gas on my new computer. When we surfaced, the computer was beeping away. I didn’t utilise new toy, did I?!!

I will use it correctly on the dive this coming Friday. See how it goes!

Finally!

I got my dry suit back from repair (Zipper replacement). It took more than a month but Oceanic Australia sent me a free hat and key ring for the delay, good on you Oceanic!

Anyway I went for a dive today for a trim and weight check, I took my camera but didn’t use much and no-good photo.

I was bit confuse. I was using the Apollo Neoprene Dry Suit for the DSAT Tec Level One course and I needed 5kg weight with near empty twin tank. Today I had same weight and I thought I might be able to lose 1kg because my suit is tri-laminate suit but no, I even need one more kg. mmmhh why???. Even trim has changed which I was expecting. I need to adjust my harness for setting the back plate lower.

I hope this works. I might try on Sunday again so I will be ready for the rest of Tec Deep Course starting next weekend.

We went to Mt. Victoria again.

Please see DSAT Blog for the last Blair Athol dive.

I was there for some more photos because I was so tired from carrying the dive gear last time, but I end up carrying the tanks again. I couldn’t watch my buddy suffering.

I think he will write a report on the DSAT Chat so keep eye on it!

Oh! I didn’t write anything last week but I have completed the DSAT Tec Level One on the last Sunday.

We had 4 boat dives on last week end. All skills went really well. However, my buoyancy wasn’t so good few occasions. I need more practice and experience.

2 weeks off and the rest of Tec Deep Course will start 17 July and finishes 26 July. I will  become Tec Diver if everything goes well.

This DSAT Tec Deep Course is challenging but lot of fun at the same time. I would recommend this course if you looking for more in diving adventure!

Hey Guys!

It’s been raining for some time now and didn’t do much so no photos.

I have started the DSAT Tec Deep Course last week.

We had some academic session and Tec gear configurations on Wednesday and Friday night and dives on weekend.

Saturday, 2 dives

Dive one; Max depth 3.7 m for 62 minutes

Dive two; Max depth 4.6 m for 76 minutes

Sunday, 3 dives

Dive one; Max depth 3.7 m for 46 minutes

Dive two; Max depth 3.7 m for 55 minutes

Dive three; Max depth 4.3 m for 80 minutes

During all the dives we were required to hover horizontally all the time.

I thought I am pretty good on trim in the water but wasn’t good enough.

Skills were mainly Hover, Gas shut down drills, decompression and stage cylinder handling, Gas sharing exercise and gas switch procedures. The mastery for technical diving course was deferent from usual recreational diving course you will keep doing until your body remembers it.

Our Instructor is great. He dose push your limit so I got frustrated/annoyed by him but it made a deferent on my skill mastery and realised how much I got better. Hmmmuuuu he is good.

Now I got muscle ache on my back from horizontal positioning underwater and shoulder from gas shut down drills. I hope I will fully recover before this weekend for more torture.

If you interested in DSAT Technical diving take a look the DSAT Tec Blog!

I thought I have introduced my new camera gear before.

Here is the new set!

Canon IXY Digital 920IS

Canon WP-DC26

Inon Strobe S-2000

Inon Wide Conversion Lens

Inon Fish-eye Lens

Inon Macro Lens double

Inon Mount Arm set

I can’t wait to get back in the water with the set. I hope my dry suit coming back from repair this week.

I went to Blue Mountain last Saturday.

My usual dive buddy wanted to dive the Blair Athol Mine No.4, a Colliery Incline and I went with him to help carrying gear and take some photos.

Walking down to the entrance wasn’t too bad. His dive plan was max depth of 66 metre for 25 minutes and 50-60 minutes deco. I jumped in to 6 metres to see buddy at deco for some photos, but I realised that this kind of diving needs a special training and I wasn’t quite comfortable in the water so I came back after 7 minutes. Water visibility wasn’t too bad til I stuffed up with my buoyancy.

Anyway, it was an experience. Actually coming back up with the gear was a bit of work we took almost 2 hours (Because I had to stop so many times to get my breath back). Difinitely I need some regular excercise.

Before                                                    After

BTW, I found a leak on my dry suit and it is on repair so I can’t dive for little while til it comes back. So photos might be next weekend!