Bermuda Diving in October - Piers Boileau Goad
In the dark I left my house, drove 15 minutes and met Abi at Devonshire bay. Twilight was just starting so the clouds were coming visible with the pink and yellow hues of spun gold and Bermuda’s famous pink beaches. I was, and still am at the time of writing, very much full of cold, having had fever, plenty of mucus and of course blocked sinuses…
Having previously discussed a dive plan, stop at 40 to see if we were both ok, move ahead to 60 and do the same, then move to 80 and explore. We had PLENTY of gas with us, having three bailouts each and more than enough to get 1.5 divers back to the surface. It’s still warm despite not being hot here in Bermuda and as I was cold (gibbering) last weekend I opted for an Arctic in addition to my J2. I’ve not worn an arctic for nearly 20 years mind you but there were no holes which was awesome! So it was bliss to immerse ourselves in the cool water.
Kneeling in the balmy water and cooling off was bliss. Clipping off bailouts and scooter felt like I was becoming a Christmas tree but, needs must. We agreed that we were both good and headed off, following the usual cable out of Devonshire bay at 2m, ascending to 1m and then heading out beyond the breaking waves. The surge of which we did feel in that usual stop start way.
My sinuses were already grumpy at this stage (2-3m) but I felt they would sort themselves out if I kept on equalising. If there is a doctor reading this please do not chastise stupidity, you can take a horse to water but not make it drink.. We headed out further still, across the 20m sandy plains up over the rock formations, passing lots of pretty fish, until we found our slowly ascending ‘ramp’ that signifies we are close to our desired area.
This ramp is a gentle slope from about 18m which then goes up to 15m, over the space of 10 minutes of scootering, before heading down at the start of the drop off. It’s beautiful to see so many different fish calling this place home. As we came to the end of the ramp the clarity improved as we started our descent, 20,30 and then 40m of water. Here I was forced to stop. My head was full of a searing pain around my right eye, as though someone was forcing a hot knife into the area. I kept equalising but to no effect so this called for a radical solution.
I whipped off my mask and blew my nose multiple times (pretty nasty I know) an then equalised a few times before the pain stopped. Sticking my mask back on and relatively pain free I motioned to Abi that we could continue. Continue we did until we got to the edge of the drop off where the light starts to recede and the bottom slowly disappears to multiple zero’s of depth. 67m was our bottom depth, we had planned 80 but oh well, things happen. I told Abi that my head was on fire and the searing pain was back and that I would not be descending anymore. She accepted this and began snapping photos, I hope she got some good ones!
We were joined by a school of Jacks which were happy to come within arms reach and simply examine us which was pretty fantastic, I have never been into fish but these jacks are starting to become regular and a welcome sight on this sandy, black coral festooned area. While Abi was snapping away at some random twirly floating tree I noticed something in the corner of my eyes and starting shouting through my loop and sticking my hand on my head vertically..SHARK! Fully aware that I am making it sound like this was some giant jaws type thing, it wasn’t, it was a juvenile black tip I believe but still, pretty cool to see a shark down there about a mile offshore. At one hour and eight minutes into the dive, with a time to surface of 85 minutes we started heading up, scootering gently up to the star of the ramp and back to our entry point.
As we hit the 33m point we had our first stop, weirdly enough we were joined by a lionfish lurking menacingly at the entrance to a small coral cave, hunting for his next meal. Sadly we didn’t have a spear between us, nor a box so couldn’t catch the blighter. Here I first noticed that my unit’s battery is running low (a yellow battery symbol next to my time). Heading further away from the depths our stops lengthened until we had 64 minutes of deco at 6m. The swell was definitely picking up so we do most of this at 8m on a PO2 of 1.4.
It was sometime during deco that I noticed one of my cells producing a higher read out of O2 than either I expected or than the other two. Cell 3 would read as 1.8 while the other two would be 1.3-1.35 for example, due to the voting logic the unit would given me a probably PO2 based on the two cells with fairly similar results, assuming that the third cell was faulty. It was confirmed (in my mind at least) that something was wrong with this cell when I checked the milivolts. Cells one and two were similar while three was different again. I guess I’m having a cell shipped to Bermuda! Between shallow deco stops we did some scootering along the cable to get closer to shore, and of course I had to vent my loop.
Due to my cold a rather voluminous globule of mucus popped out of my left nostril and sat facing me. Not something I wanted then or now, against my mark 1 human eye ball! Off came my mask rather sharpish and into my left hand, scootering essentially blindfolded I caught up to Abi, rubbed my mask, gave it a shake to make sure as much of the globule was out as possible and returned it to its rightful position. Nasty!
It was at some stage here that I received my next warning – “Stack time” meaning that the CE approved 4 hour sorb/sofnoline limit was approaching and currently one hour away. I knew this would come up but not be an issue as 4 hours is predicated on breathing 120 litres of gas per minute. Not something I am doing on my scooter! Acknowledge that alarm and move on.
Next was my CNS alarm saying that it was at 92%. Not much I can really do about so let’s acknowledge that one too. A seizure was something I did consider as possible but after reading the article below I am reassured. If a reader is interested “dives with an inspired PO2 of 1.3 atm consisting of up to 240 min of working dive activity followed by up to 240 min of resting decompression are associated with an acceptably low risk of cerebral oxygen toxicity. This recommendation was promulgated and endorsed at a recent workshop convened by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) involving technical and scientific divers.”
With deco now done, and clear on both computers we set off back to the beach having a bit of a race when we renter the bay and use up the remainder of the battery! Following up the cable to the sand and into knee deep water, bailouts and scooter off, all back in the car. God that felt good! A truly enjoyable dive despite the lack of metal!
Gases:
Diluent: 12/57.
Gas consumption:
O2: 80 bar, 240 litres.
Diluent: 70 bar, 210 litres.
Bailouts between us: 2 x 14/40, 1 x 32%, 1 x 50%, 1 x 21%, 1 x 100%.