Each month we feature a selection of your letters
Each month we feature a selection of your letters
We ’ re still looking for a new prize for a Star Letter , so please bear with us for a while longer . It ’ s a difficult time for the diving industry , so sponsorships are a tricky proposition at the moment .
ChatSend your letters to simon @ scubamagazine . co . uk
Scilly season
VISITING THE ISLES OF SCILLY CAN BE a bit of a trek ; Penzance is a long drive for most people . The dive kit container has to be loaded at silly o ’ clock in the morning , then there ’ s the car parking and the nearly three-hour ferry ride on the Scillonian . I ’ m not selling this too well , am I ?
So why make the effort ? The Isles of Scilly are awesome , with blue water , white sand , and a relaxed atmosphere . St Mary ’ s has plenty of eateries to suit all manner of tastes and budgets , with two supermarkets in town . Should diving be cancelled , there are plenty of sightseeing opportunities .
This year we were using Skin Deep which is a lovely boat ; Ed the skipper was spot-on with his tidal predictions , not to mention the seemingly endless supply of biscuits .
There are some fine scenic dive sites , and the Hathor and Plympton , King
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Cadwallon , Italia and the Lady Charlotte all make for truly great wreck dives . We were diving in June and the water temperature was 13 ° C . The weather was fantastic ( thank you Weather Gods ), which meant we could steam out to Bishop Rock Lighthouse . As long as the boat could safely leave the harbour , a sheltered diving location could be found . There ’ s plenty of wildlife to be found around these islands ; lesser spotted cat sharks , pipefish , flatfish , nudibranchs , and seals . There are sea fans , sponges and jewel anemones ; the wildlife is simply stunning .
So , was it worth it ? Oh yes . If you are planning a trip , first agree dates with your chosen dive boat , then secure your accommodation . Do this as early as possible , as accommodation is at a premium . IAN HICKS , Reading BSAC
Are you prepared for a reg failure ?
IT WAS GREAT TO READ ABOUT YO-HAN ’ S ‘ no drama ’ first stage failure [ SCUBA , July 2023 ], and I ’ m super glad that it all turned out fine . Yo-Han had the luxury of probably one of the best dive buddies in the world on that dive ; when it all goes pear-shaped , Rick Ayrton would probably be fairly high up on my list of ideal buddies . But when it happened to me , I was with a new Ocean Diver who had fewer than 20 dives when it all went to rats . All this shows that , with proper training , every diver can help .
To set the scene , we were diving a reef like an upturned soup plate – the top is broadly flat and around 10-11m , surrounded by a wall that drops to a sandy sea bed at about 20m . Our dive had been uneventful – we went down to 20m as planned , swam around and interacted with an extremely friendly ray until we reached my buddy ’ s turnaround point .
Time to go : we slowly ascended the wall , heading back to our shot line . No problems until we got to around 13m , when suddenly my regulator went ‘ tight ’ – no gas . A quick check showed that my gauge , which had had shown 150 bar a few minutes before , now had nothing on the clock but the maker ’ s name .
Right , where ’ s my buddy ? She was just a few metres away and I quickly swam to her . Although somewhat surprised , she responded perfectly when I gave the ‘ out-of-gas ’ signal . A quick reg swap and I was a lot happier ; an ‘ OK ’ and we were on our way up . Everything stable , we ascended in good order – we even managed our 6m safety stop before surfacing . Strangely , my gauge briefly recovered on our safety stop ; I tried switching back , but it only gave one breath before it died again , so I didn ’ t repeat the exercise !
Learning points ? The primary message is that our training works , and even a new diver is a valuable resource in an emergency . Secondly , she was close so I didn ’ t need to go looking for other divers to help . Thirdly , full disclosure , my recently-serviced regs had behaved strangely on a previous dive . I had stupidly assumed that the problem was with