Dry Gloves and Hypothermia at Stoney Cove

January 14th 2001

Attendees: Steve, Lou and Andy

After a rendezvous at No. 48, Lou and I took 'Red Leader' up to Stoney. I think we had arranged to arrive a little late as we got pole position in the upper car-park......... bummer !! Meanwhile, Steve was quite snug in the lower car-park near the slipway so we used his car as a base.

The actual dive profiles will have to follow on as I am still shivering even now and Ali is demanding some food !!

Dive number one was a surface swim to the Stanegarth marker-buoy and a descent down. Unfortunately, Lou's regulator went into permanant free-flow so she aborted and we both surfaced. We could see Steve patiently waiting at the stern of the Stanegarth so Lou told me to continue as she was going to surface it back to the slipway. Steve and I resumed by looking round the ship for a bit until I grabbed his slate and tried to write something on it !...... not easy when the water temp. was 5C........my hands were getting damn cold ! After Steve eventually deciphered the scribble, we successfully navved it to the Wessex, bimbled around for a few minutes and then ascended the quarry wall to the welcoming arms of the serving hatch and a welcome bit of food !! I was still shivering like mad which amused Steve yet again....... how can the man wear a semi-dry and not shiver !!!!

Anyway, the camera surfaced from Steve's base-camp................

Lou embarks on the log-book entry

.... briefly taking a break as Steve grabs her

Cold ?? ....... Of course not !!!

Lou still continues to write 'War and Peace'

Lining up for Dive 2...... Intermission of 20 minutes while we try to get Lou's new gloves on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Success !!...... Can we go diving now ???

After a bit of a snack and a shaky cup of coffee, we had decided to do the Stanegarth again. This time, it was an underwater navigation excercise which actually went quite well comparatively (see Dec 16th page). Even though I was going backwards, I didn't manage to almost injure myself on the hull as the boat appeared. We spent a good 15 mins cruising around the decks, followed by an underwater re-nav back to the slipway via the landrover(?)

I wimped out on Dive 3 as I was too cold - even with a drysuit so Lou and Steve spent their time on the 7m shelf while I stood on various vantage-points watching their tanks passing below me.

Pub !!!!!......................

Gratuitous Pub Shot !