GLOC (Online)

Following on from our trip to Plymouth this week where 3 of the board undertook a night dive (planned I may add ), we came across a problem which is alluded to in Garf's trip report (I'm still typing mine up), how to run the ascent on a night dive.

The problem arose because it was pitch black and we were ascending using a spool. The process we used we realised was flawed in that Garf did not use another team member to hold position (although we were there) and provide depth reference, but rather reeled, used the main light and tried to read the depth gauge.

The solution we came up with was to stow the main light for the reel man, use one of the other 2 to provide the vertical reference and probably use the back up lights rather than main lights - a 24W HID is a bit of an overkill for reading your depth gauge!

What are the thoughts from those who have done this more than have (which is once)!

Regards

Gareth Burrows(Offline)

Stop mincing about and get your report done man!

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aleksi(Offline)

Good point GLOC,

I have not done this much more than you (about 5 times) but I have thought about this a bit.

In my opinion your method is the best, ie. the spool guy to use others as depth reference. I have thought of 2 other methods: having a long duration backlight on your BT/computer (if there is a backlight) or clipping off the mainlight from the back of the back of the light head, light on, pointing down and ocasionally moving the electroluminescent BT on your wrist under it. But IMHO team work is best here, as usually!

Aleksi

LauNar (Online)

Dunno what the Party line on this is, but you can almost always leave reeling the line on the spool to the stop(s), if you feel task-loaded. Of course reeling while ascending is good practice and all, but sometimes I'm too lazy for that. On a stop a buddy can hold the SMB line taut while you haul the spool up and reel in the slack. Reeling on the surface tends to lead to spaghetti if there's anything else to concentrate on, like a pickup boat, so it's best to have the line on the spool by then.

//LN

Martin Burnard(Offline)

I night dive right through the winter, and as Garf will confirm I reel in slowly! ( I must remember 30m of line does not stretch to 32m), hence my ascent rate is slow. I then clip off the spool check depth, check on buddies, unclip continue ascent and so on, until I reach a red line on my line which is 6m.

Simplistic because I do not go into Deco. This method allows you to use the backlight on the dive timer or the halo of the light.

Martin

esperanza(Offline)

this depends on what kind of smb you're using. if it's an open model, you have to maintain line tension all the time, or the buoy will deflate when tipping over. if it's a closed model, the buoy will tip over, but won't deflate. tipping over again isn't that good from a visibility point of view anyway... so i'd say keeping the line taut at all times is a good idea. it all boils down to how good you're at handling a spool. i managed to get the line into quite a few interesting cf's when training to use a spool and an smb =)

- mikko

limeyx(Offline)

We dont bother with a line at night really. We have two cases:

1) Shore dive -- usually can follow the bottom up to 20 feet or so.
2) Where that's not possible, we dont shoot a line, just keep the HID in hand and do a free ascent. Guy running deco is supposed to maintain depth, but obviously each person in the team has to maintain their own depth if he screws up.

Gareth Burrows(Offline)

That's great except every night dive I've ever done (including this one) the skipper has insisted we bag up the moment we hit the seabed

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GLOC (Online)

Beat me to it!

PS Nice avatar Garf, where did you get that one, looks just like this one

wilbo(Offline)

what a tart..

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