Port Hardy 2009 - Day Three - 250' on the North Wall
Posted on 07. Sep, 2009 by Greg Mossfeldt in West Coast
It was a late night for us as we were up until after dark mixing our gases for the next day’s dives. In the morning we finished up by double checking our 15-55 trimix in the twin 130 backgas and in our 80 ft3 stages. We also checked our 50% deco stages and finsihed up with minor alterations to the mixture..
Steve Aaen did not have a good night as he woke up with a very sore back and decided to pass on the morning dive to give it a break with the hopes of making an afternoon dive.
At 11:00 we headed out on the skiff to the dive site, North Wall, that co-insides with the tides to minimize the currents. The dive plan was for us to drop down to 240 feet for 15 minutes and then 8 minutes of deco from depth to 70 feet then 37 minutes of deco time from 70 feet to surface. On the way Murray Campbell, Greg Mossfeldt and myself got geared up. Once we got to site the three of us splashed into the water while carrying two of our stage bottles, Steve handed us our other stage of 100% O2 and as well our scooters. As each of us got configured we scootered over to the wall on the surface to wait until all of us were ready to drop to depth. Soon we were all ready to go.
We took our X-Dive Cuda scooters for a cruise at 245 feet keeping the wall on our right. Taking the scooters adds a great safety factor as it helps the diver move around without causing him to over exert himself. As we got near the end of our time it was a breeze doing our deep stops with the scooter by just angling them up 10 feet at a time. At the 70 ft. mark we did a gas change from our back gas to our first deco bottle of 50% oxygen to be used up to 20 feet. At 30 feet we switched back over to our back gas to give us time to do a bottle rotation (bringing the 100% O2 deco bottle up front and putting the 2 other stage bottles on the leash and stored behind us). When the bottle rotation was complete by both of us we moved up to our next stop at 20 feet where we switched over to our last mix of 100% O2. As we had 15 minutes of time at this depth we decided to make the best of it and fire up the Cuda’s again for a cruise to stem any boredom, we had to navigate through the Bull Kelp ensuring we did not get tangled up. Then it was up to the surface to meet with the rest of the crew. After getting out of our gear it was off to the Mamro for a nice lunch and preparations for the afternoon dive.
As we reached the Mamro there was no rest for us tank monkey’s as we had to get the tanks ready for the afternoon dives but, since the plan was for a shallower dive all we were required to do was to top up the back gas with air and top up the 50% deco tanks. Steve’s back was feeling much better so our group was back to four divers. Again we got ready to dive while traveling to the dive site, 7 Tree Island. The plan for this dive was for Greg Mossfeldt to splash before the rest of us and get set up to take some pictures of us scootering past him. Greg had to abort the dive as the current was pushing him around and the visibility had gotten considerably worse from the morning dive. Murray, Steve and I made the best of this site with our scooters as we toured completely around the island stopping along the way to check out the life. All too soon the dive was over and back to the boat we went to meet up with the skiff then back to the Mamro.
We made it back to the Mamro just in time for Steve and I to start mixing gasses for the next day’s dives. Since the afternoon dive was not as intensive as the previous days we were able to finish the mixing just in time for supper. Since we were able to finish earlier in the day we decided to watch a movie “Slap Shot”. It had been awhile since any of us had seen it and interesting enough the days activities caught up with us all as we all turned in for the night before the film was over.
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