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Logbook for Vance Stevens, Padi OWSI 64181

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Personal Dive Log Record

Date: March 3, 2000

Dives # 333-4

Location: Khor Fakkhan

Diving with: Sandy Beach

Dive site: Martini Cove and The Pinnacles

Dive buddy: Robin Lunden

Others on dive: Dave Propst and B ill Maurice, and Scott Benson

Others present at dive site: Nigel

Sea condition: Calm in a.m. to slight chop p.m.

Water temp: 22

Visibility: mediocre, 5-7 meters

Wetsuit combo: thick farmer john and 3mm typhoon top

Weight: 10 kg

 Data from dive computer:

Dive 333 – 20.5 meters for 34 min.

Surface interval: 1 hr. 31 min.

Dive 334 – 10.9 meters for 49 min

Profile tracking chart

Planned time

Depth

PG

Actual time

Depth

PG

Pressure group in

1st dive of day

See chart below

 

Air in: 200

 

 M

Surface Interval

1 hr 30 min

 

 

 

 

B

B

Second dive

 

 

Air in: 150

 

 

Time at bottom (NDL)

45 min.

12

 

42 min. /1:15 ndl

 

 N

Safety stops

 3 min

 5 m.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments:

This was an advanced open water training deep and underwater naturalist dives for:

Also along on first dive, Scott Benson , already Advanced certified

The usual hassle at the dive shop in the a.m. getting all the divers there, signed on, briefed, kitted, and on the boat with their kit in the time the shop wants them to do it so they can get them back for the next load of divers. To do an advanced deep dive, I have to refresh everyone on working out minimum surface intervals off the PADI tables. It takes a couple of rounds before I can get everyone fluid on the task, at which point if I give them a grid of 4 numbers, they can interpret from that that it means first dive x meters for t minutes, second dive y meters for z minutes and figure out from the chart what the minimum surface interval should be Underwater, we use this as our cognitive task to see if there are any depth or general environment effects that make things noticeably more difficult to do at depth in the water. Usually, there's little depth effect at 22 meters, the projected depth of our dive, though other factors can kick in, inability to see for example. The purpose of the exercise is to make the divers away of what effects there are.

Nigel had a bit of engine trouble off anchor which gave me a few extra minutes to work with them on the boat. On the ride out, we planned our multilevel deep dive on the wheel, waves washing over us, and wind whistling in our ears. I explained how to work the wheel and had them line up the yellow piercing arrows and the white touching ones and check each other's work. We filled out a chart as follows (first 4 columns):

Depth

Projected time spent at that depth

NDL assuming profile followed

Pressure group

Actual time spent at depth & PG

22 meters

20 min.

 37 min

 J

11 min./D

16 meters

5 min.

 7 min.

 S

4 min./G

12 meters

25 min.

 45 min.

 X

15 min./L (or M)

5 meters

3 min.

 

 

3 min.

Total dive time

 

 

 

30 min. + 3

So, how did the dive go? I entered the water without a compass and had to have one handed down to me. The compass was sitting atop my bag where I'd left it, intending to put it on, but it was an omen. We grouped and headed down the anchor line which was right on the rock. Nigel had pointed out in his briefing that the fish would likely be schooling on the south side of the rock, so I led the divers up through a crevice to drop to the south side of that part of the rock. Then I headed east along sandy bottom till the rock petered out. Looking for greater depth I decided to continue east over sand. Momentarily I came to a fishing pot with a taut line and followed that still in an easterly direction. I noted my depth gauge indicate deeper and deeper at about the right rate. When it hit 20 meters I turned around and faced the divers who had all followed. So far, so good.

We compared gauges. All read 20 except Scott's which said 18. We did the cognitive exercise. Everyone was fine but I figured we'd better beat it from there considering how air consumption had gone the evening before. So we headed back over the sand and came to the taut line. We followed that to its end and headed west. I showed everyone on my computer when we'd reached the 16 meter level 11 min into the dive. The rock seemed a little distant, but soon a dark shadow loomed. When we reached it I realized I wasn't at Martini rock since it was all rubble and nothing like the rock which is covered in soft corals. I'd been there before in fact, having led my divers on a compass exercise from rock to shore on a preceding dive some weeks before. On that dive, we'd had to descend to the sand bottom to get back to the rock, and of course I wasn't sure of the heading from this particular part of the coastline. Another option would have been to have surfaced and found the rock and swam over to it and descended on it. But surfacing and redescending with novice divers consumes air to the point where there's likely little diving left, so I figured we'd have to make the best of it.

It wasn't a complete waste of time. There were the usual attractive fish. Scott had found a flounder on the fin back. Bill eagle-eyed a ray under a rock. There was yet another unusual eel, yellow with brown spots, covered with processes, looking sort of like a snake but with unmistakable eel face and head. We headed pleasantly south (toward the rock I figured) and westerly (no telling, rounding the headland I supposed). We went like this for a quarter of an hour till the first diver went low on air, and I signaled I was going up with him. The others came up just a minute later.

We were by this time well away from the dive boat in the cove and almost to the beach. It was a little embarrassing to have missed the rock and led everyone so far away from the boat, but at least we got a successful "deep" dive in, properly executed as far as that went. There had even been a tank hanging at 5 meters off the boat, though I had led us on our safety stop in the shallows at 5 meters.

The second dive at the Pinnacles was more like it. Scott demurred so it was just my advanced divers, Robin, Dave, and Bill. Ann had come on the boat but had to abort on descent when a mask she had borrowed leaked uncontrollably. For the rest of us, the dive went very well, especially for a naturalist dive. The bottom was speckled with pipe fish. A flounder wriggled its way over the rocks. There were plenty of morays, greens and greys. Goat fish lounged on rocks hoping to be unobtrusive. Gobies guarded their holes, sentries for the crustaceans living within. Lots of little wrasse were about, and one that caught my attention was cleaning a batfish. The batfish angled over the sand and finned almost in our faces. Huge schools of yellow grunts lent color, and barracuda lurked among them. We could swim right up to them and at least once we were surrounded by a school of them. The usual tropical fish were in abundance. Puffers were about, boxfish. Have I named 5 already?

Invertibrates: starfish, varieties of starfish including the puffy red ones and crown of thorns. Sea cucumebers. Cauliflower corals. Anenomies with clownfish.  Coral flowers that pop shut when you swim up to them. Clams.

Created by Vance Stevens, PADI OWSI 64181, July 1999

May be used freely as long as this credit is retained

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Last updated: March 5, 2000