Our big dive. Thankfully not blown out so as usual I am well hydrated so get into my suit as soon as possible, connect and feel the arcadia.

With everyone on the boat as well as all their kit, we trundle out of the port and head over to our usual site, racing to kit up as usual because we have a short transit and lots to do. Frankly though I do not want to be in full kit for longer than I have to be as it is still rather warm.

With all kit on and our pre dive briefing done we arrive at the site, shuffle over to the stern and drop into the relative cool of the sea.

The usual bubble check on the descent followed by a short swim over to the wall and down we go. Passed the mating octopus, the morays in their homes watching two rather strange objects descend past them. If only animals could tell us what they think!

Arriving at 90m as we had two days previously, we arrived at what I call the pulpit but descend a bit further, hitting 100m, then 105m then 108m. Our bottom and my intended max depth.

We were using 7/71 as our gas which has a density of 6.01 g/litre at a PO2 of 1.3. An acceptable limit at this but I would normally prefer a little lower, perhaps 5’s. I had a nice clear head for this one which I am happy with as there was so much to see in the torch light. Yes it was black but there was still lots of interesting things to see.

We did our usual swim along the wall until our max bottom time was reached 13minutes and then started our ascent.

Our first stop was at 39m for 1 minute so off we go, ascending the wall, up to the net hanging off it, the huge gorgonians catching food as it blows past, and of course, more morays and octopus. This time we even had three or four groupers between 40m and the shallow last stops who were happy to just stare at us as we swam past.

The water temperature also increased which was pleasant. Somewhere around 25m my loop suddenly felt very warm, like breathing warm air in a bath house and the first few drops of sweat reappeared under my J2.

One of the nicest things on this particular dive was the bait ball that appeared as we passed 20m, swimming around the ledge down to 30m. Thousands of colourful little fish all swimming around in a cordinated manner was simply incredible. I am not into fish as the reader will know but I am always impressed by things like this. Some in our club would be extatic. Sadly though, the same blue iradescence I had seen a few days earlier did not repeat. Presumably then this must have been psychologcal or some other such mental incapicitation?

My last stop was 34 minutes at 6m so I pumped up the PO2 and just swam around, looking at the rocks, swaying in the growing swells above, even seeing a few fish I had not seen deeper.

Max Depth: 108 m.

Minimum Temperature: 15 degrees.

Dive Time: 115 minutes.

Gas Used: 7/71.

PO2 used on the bottom: 1.3

Gas Density: 6.01

END: 28m

CNS: 58%.

GF: 40/75.