Dive Planning


The eastern point of the island of St Croix and the United States know as Point Udall.

I have 32 dives in my dive log and they have been accumulated since I got certified back in May. It is a combination of warm water, cold water, high visibility, almost no visibility, wreck drives, night dives, fresh water, salt water, wet suit, no suit, dry suit, deep dives and shallow dives.

Still this is so new to me that the thrill of diving almost anywhere is a rush alone. Being weightless and breathing underwater and seeing things that no one else is seeing drives me.

Plus I have to admit there is a danger thrill drives me and I obsess about contingencies.

I am configuring a complete redundant backup system that will use a 30 CF cylinder, strapped to my 80 CF cylinder, and it will have it own regulator and pressure gauge in case of the main system failure.

I am going to make it from a spare set of regulators I have down on the island, a new cylinder and a connecting strap.

This will give me and anyone near me another safety bailout option. Regulators can and do fail. A failure at 130 feet is much more critical that a failure at 45 feet. I have a 3 CF Spare Air cylinder that would work okay for shallow dives but not beyond that. At great depths I would suck that small cylinder dry in about 2 minutes.

There lies the motivation for a lager bailout system.

I still want to dive the graveyard and it is 130 feet. So I think on this upcoming trip I want to push the depth a bit to see how I do at 130. It may not be for me mentally or physically.


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2 comments:

Rock Chef said...

I like the sound of extra air!

Hope the deep dives go OK! I am sure you will tell us about it too, of course!

Ken said...

Way to go wreggie, be prepared!