Category: Recreation

This dive deserves a separate entry. It was my first deco dive. Meaning taking an extra tank of higher oxygen level (40% vs. air which is 21%) and spending time in the shallows allowing the nitrogen accumulated at depth to come out of the body tissues safely.

The dive was spectacular. Perfect conditions. We ramped down to the wreck and the view was spectacular. From 55 meters down you could see the surface. Such a vista.

The Taiyong is a barge that was scuttled in 1997 and has been undisturbed due to the depth and that it was only recently found. It is really cool as it was a working barge, it has a large crane and it sits on teh crane at about a 45 degree angle.

Her overall length is 36m with a beam of 15m. She lies on her starboard side with the bow pointing towards the shore. The depth on her port side varies from 32m to 40m, with the tip of the derrick (crane) touching 57 m. She has an intact wheel house and a massive winch mechanism.

If you went to these depths without dual tanks and decompression gas as well it would be suicide. Plus of course you need proper training and some experience. The other thing you face when going below 30 meters is Nitrogen Narcosis which affects some people more than others. Well, it actually effects everyone, but everyone deals with it differently. I didn’t find it an obstacle, though it was there.

For more on narcosis click “more” below…
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So you can know the differnce between suits. I did my probably last dry suit dive for a while today. Now the water is warmer and I’ll switch to the wet suit.

And to end it in style, the dry suit, which uses latex rubber cuffs at the wrists, neck and has built in boots leaked on my right arm from my wrist. You wear polar fleece or other other undergarments in a dry suit to stay warm depending on the water temperature. Well fortunately the water was quite warm so I just got a wet arm. I saw the problem on the way down, it was my polar fleece sticking out of the cuff and letting water in, and fixed it.

Waterproof Wetsuits – Divester

Remember his dad?

Click here for the full gallery.

Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Adventures

Most dive places including here at Dive Caroline offer a try dive in the pool. So they were keen to do it.

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Yaay, more diving. The weather was great. Went out to Kubbar Island. Dry suit again. The visibility was great first dive. Saw a cool nudibranch (Sea Slug).

This one is from the Red Sea but very similar to the one here.
The first dive was like two as we went back to the boat for more weights as one of the guys didn’t have enough. With the dry suit you need tons of weight. In my 3 mm wetsuit I use 9 kg and in the dry suit I need about 15 kg. So he got the extra 2 kg weight and while I was trying to put it on him (in his BCD pocket) I dropped it. First thought hope nobody is underneath. No problem there wasn’t. So I went down and actually found it quickly but not him, he’d aborted because all the up and down had bothered his ears. The pressure changes when diving are the most in the first ten meters. That is because the pressure doubles at 10 meters and then at 20 meters it is only 1.5 times etc.

So, the profile below is the rest of the first dive I did with the other person.

Finally, it was getting late, two of us went on the second dive. Some didn’t. Visibility wasn’t as good but still, in the water is always nice. Even with the dry suit and one good layer of fleece underneath, we felt the cold.