Road Angel vs Drive-smart
Just thought I’d let you know about my latest toy.
I have had a road angel now for 18 months, the database has been out of date for the last 12 months, but it is still ok for most of my trips. I originally got it for the GTO, kph speedo, but have used it when I travel up country in my other vehicles. This Saturday I am off to the dive show in London, I had been looking at getting a second road angel rather than swopping all the time between the GTO and now the Delica, and thought if I could get a combined update service it would be worth it (£99.99 for a lifetime of updates). I contacted road angel and they said that the updates were unit specific and I would have to buy 2 lifetime contracts. SCREW THAT!!
My Ultimate Dive Truck.
I’ve been looking around for a vehicle that is practical for everyday use and for diving use.
My criteria was
- 4×4 with low ratio for launching the boat
- Should be useable for everyday use
- Should be able to carry 4 divers and their kit
- It would be nice to sleep in it
- It would be nice to have lots of space
- My parents could get in it
- Comfortable
The Weather Is Against Me!
Just as we had planned the first deep dive of the year, the weather has now decided to change. It has been easterlies for a long time and the south coast of Cornwall has been a mess, but the north coast has been settling down nicely. The forecast for the weekend was a light south-westerly, so we planned a nice 60m dive on a WWII wreck called the Rinovia just out of Falmouth, everyone was looking forward to it, so far this year we havent been below 45m.
I received an email today, asking me if I have seen the weather forecast, 23mph south-westerly coming in for Sunday, Sunday’s dive will now have to be cancelled, and we may have to do a 22m dive on Saturday on a wreck that I have dived so many times before, if we want to dive at all this weekend.
The Weather Is Against Me!
Bent Car? Nissan Primera DCI.
I was in my local filling station today and the car in front of me just struck me as funny. A brand new Nissan Primera DCI, it was bent before it was anywhere near the water 
Actually on that subject, ok, I am no diesel engine specialist, but I have no knowledge of any diesel car that is not injected, is there one? If not, then why do all diesel have the ‘i’ at the end, is it to make them sound more sporty than they actually are?
Just another of one of those little things that I don’t understand.
Increasing UW Camera Housing Depth Ratings
This is a working project, and will remain the intellectual property of Mark Milburn.
All video or still camera housings have a depth rating. This is due to the pressure that the housing can take, either for the ‘O’ rings, the buttons (which can be depressed by the ambient pressure) or buckling of the housing. What is needed is some way of equalising the pressure within the housing to the ambient pressure.
If you connected a small hose, from your Drysuit/Wing/BCD to your housing, the pressure within the housing would equal your buoyancy compensator which is equal to the ambient pressure. The housing would not leak, buckle, nor would the pressure on the buttons be too great as all pressures are equal.
In theory a £2.99 5m depth rated pool camera could go to 100m with no problems, Can it? Continue reading this entry »
Rapid Ascents, no problem.
I was recently discussing the various merits of rebreathers, I am still not convinced, was my side, the person I was talking to was a total convert. He had previously been spending hundreds of pounds on Helium and when the rebreathers came along he knew that they were for him. After a long discussion about the pro’s and cons he continued with more stories of his diving. One in particular, would strike terror into anyone in the diving world, especially anyone who has done any decompression training. He was saying that his typical dive would be to drop down to 90m, swim around for about twenty minutes, then come back up to 6 metres, do some deco on 100%, then the dive would be over, roughly sixty five minutes in total. I have just run this in my software, Continue reading this entry »
Dealing with DCI, the Turkish Way.
I was recently talking to a couple who had come back from a holiday diving in Turkey, they had been out, enjoying the sun and some warmer water diving. One particular day, they were on a small boat that belonged to an oyster diver. They were taken to the dive site, which I presume was the ships captains choice, they then kitted up and jumped in. The maximum depth they achieved was about thirty metres and they remained there until they ran out of no-deco time and then came up slowly, they did their safety stop at 6m, then got back onto the boat. After they had removed their kit, the captain, who spoke enough English asked them “What are you doing? I though you were going diving?” to which they looked puzzled. The captain then put on his antiquated diving kit and jumped in. Quite a bit later, probably around forty minutes he came up, quickly, with no stops!
Redeemer, Falmouth.
So far this year I have used this boat a few times and have been very happy with it.
It is based in Falmouth, Cornwall.
So what do I like about it, well :-
- Heated cabin
- Tea & coffee available
- Lift
- It also has a 1 ton crane
- Reasonably fast
- The quay where it launches from has a carpark
These are some of the features that make this boat easy to use. He has just added a cover over the bottom of the lift to make it more confortable. He also intends to have benches fitted for divers to kit up, this will make things easier.
He charges £17.50 per diver for local dives, which is not too expensive.
See http://www.baymarine.co.uk/ for more details.
Global Natural Health Care Trust
This year I am running the London Marathon, I have mentioned it in a previous blog. I am raising money for the Global Natural Health Care Trust, this is a charity setup by a friends sister. She spends half her income and half her life running and working for the charity. Full details can be found at http://www.gnhct.org/ I cannot believe the work and determination she has to do to make this work.
As I received my entry into London through the ballot it won’t cost the charity the £350 pounds they would normally have to pay to get a gold bond place. So any money I raise will go straight to the charity for its use, they do not have people they employ to raise money like most charities, so they do not waste the charities money either. The money will go straight to helping thousands of orphans in Africa and to help with the treatment of Aids victims.
If you would like to sponsor me, please send me an email with your pledge.
Changes in the law regarding the diving of wrecks.
The South West Mafia website currently is running a poll to do with this. Basically it has nothing to do with diving war graves, there is a possible bill going through that will give a blanket ban on diving wrecks over 50 years old. I have voted and personally think everyone should.
Enforcing the ban!
How would they do it? There would be no-way of keeping an eye on every single wreck, I have dived probably around 100 wrecks in Cornwall, and that is just the tip of the ice-burg when it comes to wrecks down here. If they did catch you, you could say you didn’t know what it was and went to have a look, or that something dropped over the side of the boat and you were trying to recover it. It would be impossible, and it would have to rely on people obeying the law. A bit like driving a car over the speed limit really, they can’t enforce everyone to obey, but hopefully the masses will be understanding.
If they did manage to enforce the ban.
The Scylla would be a nightmare. Everyone else, including people who were not qualified or experienced at deeper diving, would head out beyond the 12 mile limit and dive where there is no governing body. I was once offered an offshore minesweeper with no engine, 172ft long apparently, it was fibreglass/foam composite and couldn’t be recycled, it couldn’t even be used as target practice, it was unsinkable, so therefore was really cheap. I did think of turning it into an offshore brothel, casino and radio station to advertise it, moored 12.1 miles off the coast, running schuttle ribs to and throw the nearest port or beach if the harbor master got fed up. Instead of a brothel it could be a hotel, this would be perfect for divers, advertise a weeks holiday, diving as many wrecks as they would like. The north coast of Cornwall shelves off to 65m for a long way, so it wouldn’t be too deep either. You could run extended range and trimix courses on board too. OK, maybe loose the casino and keep the brothel