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> >You can do live boating with just the charter vessel's tender, if you >plan to stagger entries and exits according to each team's dive plan. Charter boats tender? Any other NE divers care to answer -that-??? > Economics aside, I >notice that you didn't argue with the logic behind live boating and >drifting decompressions, as opposed to the alternative. Perhaps you >wish to elaborate here? Simply not possible in the imperfect world in which I live. Sadly, unless you want to subsidize our diving, we are ticket-paying members of a charter and live-boating isn't part of the plan. >You mention that your sledgehammer is an integral part of your weighting. >Conventional wisdom would preclude use of this device as a tool in this >case, for removing it from the diver compromises the diver's weighting, >unless you are already overweighted. Weight change is negligable (I don't let go of it, eh?) and even if I do, a 4 lb change is A: less than that of the weight of air consumed from a set of doubles, and B: well within the ability of my drysuit to deal with from a bouyancy standpoint. Let's see: Salt water is 64 lbs/ft3 and thus 4 lbs of weight requires .02 cubic feet of air extra bouyancy volume in drysuit per pound, thus I'm carrying a whopping 0.13 ft3 of air in my suit to make up -any- possible difference. Not worth discussing. >Doing anything with mitts on is impossible. Have you tried using five >finger dry gloves with proper insulation and equalized to the drysuit, >which is on an argon system? I have used this system quite effectively >for 90 min working dives in glacial lakes. Not arguing that your system works. I used it in the Antarctic. It's just not the best system for our winter diving activities, which entail long-term excavation of a particular wreck, week after week, digging in the sand and gravel. The abrasion ruins the dry gloves quickly unless you wear a secnd set of work gloves over them, and then you are back tot he same dexterity issues as before. Believe it or not, 1/4 inch 3 finger mitts give better dexerity than 1/4 5 finger gloves, due to the lesser thickness of material between the digits. >Perhaps you can explain this statement. These items are an integral >part of your weighting system, even though, according to you, the >crowbar and the four pound sledgehammer add zero weight?! If they are >there 100% of the time, then they can not be used as tools, since to >use a tool you need to remove it from your person, thus changing the >diver's weighting. See above. Hmmm.... I blow through say 200 cubes in overfilled 104's in a dive. What does -that- weigh? More than my hammer, that's for sure. It's a non-issue. Believe me, it makes zero difference. I'm diving a non-variable bouyancy suit (IE non neoprene), so there's no depth material compression and thus I'm carrying -very- little air in it anyway. So, if I drop a tool (which I have yet to do), I let a bit of air (a few CC's) out of my suit. Big deal. I can vary my bouyancy at least 2-3 pounds by taking a deep breath (except with rebreather, where it makes no difference). >The crowbar goes up on a lift bag, and the >sledgehammer cannot be returned to its original stowed location after >use, and must be suspended in a suboptimal location for the rest of the >dive. Have I got this correct so far? Good to see you're thinking >everything through... Crowbar -might- go up. maybe not. It's used on maybe 15% of dives. And even then most of the time I carry it back in my goodie bag. Hammer gets snapped back onto dog-snap. Only real loss is that it bangs my leg climbing the ladder. The handle of the hammer is cut to about 6 inches anyway, so it's not long enough to drag even when snapped. I only band it to my weight to save getting whacked with it on my leg when climbing the ladder. When I use it, who cares? While you are poking fun at me, got a better way to carry a hammer? >>I do not use a >>canister light in the NE, as the wire (unless fitted with a quick-pull >>connector) >>poses an unacceptable hazard for anchor-line wrap during a bailout. >Could you explain in detail the exact scenario you envision here? I'm >having trouble picturing what you mean. See prior postings on the subject. No need to beat a dead horse. >Could you explain, for the benefit of the list, what sort of diving you >are doing that requires a closed circuit apparatus to operate more >safely than conducting the same dive on open circuit. Well, I -could- tell you, but then I'd have to kill you... ;-) Suffice it to say that I have a mission for it. I used these starting in about 1979 (Biomarine CCR-1000's as well as Divex and Aquadyne rigs) and am comfortable with them. Not a big deal. Nice to have some 6-8 hours of gas in a package weighing half of what one set of double 104's weigh, eh? Fill it up and dive all weekend. Good on my aching back. Two busted shoulders and a busted pelvis three years ago (in 4 days exactly) make me a bit more sensitive to the load I haul to and from the boat, never mind up the ladder. (I -still- carry my hammer, though... ;-) >When the NJ wrecks are stripped to mere skeletons, and lose any >character or historical significance they may have had, will you invite >the diving community to your house for dinner, so that we may see these >artifacts and get a glimpse of history without getting our feet wet? That's another discussion for another day. Suffice it to say that underwater archeology is the very reason for diving in this area. And a torpedoed ship is historically valuable no matter if a china cup is there or not. It takes a-lot- of goodie bags to dismantle a ship to the point where it's not of interest. Actually, you will not need to come to my house (although you are, of course, welcome) since all of the stuff is going to be donated to the NJ Wreck Museum wihich is supposed to be established at the Sandy Hook Seashore National Park. I'm working on writing up the material for the display of my stuff right now. So maybe rather than just divers knowing about the wrecks, some of the landlocked gentry will know about it too. I guess it's just hard for some folks to believe that everyone does not worship at the alter of "we all do it like this....", but if you saw me rigged you would not think twice about me, since I look (probably) just like you, long hoses all neatly stowed and all. So what's the big deal? Regards, Dave Sutton -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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