There's a hole in my drysuit, dear.........

Trying to keep your drysuit dry is part and parcel of cave diving.

Some hole-spotting on a sunny day is one way to spend the time I guess...but worth the effort for a more comfortable dive.

God knows what the neighbours must think with this 'blow up' doll in the back garden.......

Take the stage....

The family of stages is growing nicely....

We have an array of cylinders going down to France and I thought I'd talk a little about what we have and why.

The aluminium stages are obviously for trimix and deco gases and 'travel' gas - to get us where we need to be whilst leaving our 'backgas' intact.
Aluminium stages sit much better in the water and we can carry 5 or more fairly comfortably. These are going down for the resurgences.

Whilst some folk do dive sidemounted with aluminium stages, it is avoided in UK cave diving for two simple reasons. The cylinders are heavier than steels above water, making carrying them through dry caves harder - and they also only allow 200 bar, which is a bit lean given you've just carried their heavy backsides all the way through a cave!!
So, steels are the way to go for sidemounting. They sit beautifully in the water and contribute to the divers weighting system, meaning we don't have to carry extra lead through same said cave to compensate for the lively bouyancy characteristics of aluminium cylinders.

There are a few sidemount caves we plan on visiting and therefore we're taking steel cylinders for these, as we would at home, to make the whole process as easy as possible.
This of course means less space in the vans....luckily Osama has a big transit and can take the worst from us.

Hauling cylinders in caves...

Moving cylinders around caves, involving vertical pitches, is something that requires skill and care - and the main reason why it is desireable to be a competent caver before undertaking dives which involve underground obstacles.

I thought of this topic as I was just sitting in the garden and creating some cylinder hauling loops.
Simply putting cylinders into tackle bags and pulling them up a pitch is not safe. Cylinders are heavy and caving bags get a lot of wear and tear and the arse can fall out of the bottom of bags when you least expect it. Stitching can give way and your cylinder then goes into free fall - terrorizing and possibly injuring people below you - if it doesn't go bang!

The correct method is to make some loops from about 30cm of 4mm ish cord
(from a climbing shop or similar) and make a loop by tying a double fishermans knot in it.

Tidy the ends with a lighter and they are ready to go.

Next, larksfoot the loop around the cylinder neck and put a screwgate karabiner through it.

Then, put your cylinder into a bag and clip the karabiner through a handle or strap in the bag ready for hauling. If the bag fails, the string will save the cylinder. Clip the karabiner to a rope and if the cylinder is being hauled up anything other than a totally vertical pitch with no ledges, then it is adviseable to have a length of rope below the cylinder to allow someone on the floor to help guide it.

It is also strongly advised to put some steel Din inserts into the valves, as bashing them on rock on the way up a pitch will bend them and render them useless - It has been done plenty of times!!

Rich is here...

Rich showed up last night rather tired from his exploits in Malta and a miraculous turnaround of kit via Sheffield. I think there is some stuff missing, but nothing we can't live without.

My garden looks like an explosion in a cylinder factory...and I can't get the compressor to work because the pressure release valves have been done up too tight and I can't undo them...and I have no mole grips.....gonna be a busy week....Chris

A woman's work is never done....

It's a lovely hot sunny day and more packing and sorting going on. I'm too frightened to open up the tent and see what state it's in, so I'm busying myself by scrubbing the muddy groundsheet instead.
I always choose to camp on these trips. It gives you the freedom of doing what you want, when you want and also privacy, which gites (unless there are only a few of you in a big one) don't.
You can't beat coming back from a great trip underground, cooking round a camping stove, drinking wine under the stars and telling tales of the day.
It is also dirt cheap! This year we are re-visiting Brissac and Camping le val d'herault. We have a pool, bar, local river and sandy beach and good ameneties. £130 each for the 2 weeks including hire of a fridge and electricity.....doesn't get better than that! Plus all the schools have gone back so it *should be lovely and peaceful.

The important stuff...

Saint Saturnin is the vineyard of choice.
Languedoc wines are particularly fruity and tend to be lighter than the heavier reds such as Cahors.
The Rosé is excellent although darker than my preferred pale pinks of late.
We plan on visiting the vineyard (see links for the Herault).
I've been here once before and it is a perfect half day off.

Snoopies...

I'm taking one for the team today....and cutting up snoopies!

Almost as boring as knotting cave line, but makes your hands ache!

Snoopy loops are loops of rubber cut from car or lorry inner tubes. They are handy for almost anything - belaying cave line to rocks, spare mask strap, spare fin strap, stowing hoses down the side of cylinders, spare hair band.......they have a multitude of uses and you can never have too many!

My van is clean and ready for packing. Still two weeks to go but I have to work inbetween, so every little helps. Rich is still in Malta so when he gets back we need to do a cylinder count. We need 5 Ali 80 stages each for our first dive, but I'm not sure we have enough...so I'm on the scrounge this week to borrow some.

Two weeks to go...

Not long to go until a gang of caving and cave diving friends visit the Herault region of France for 2 weeks of potholing, resurgence flopping and exploration!

It will be my fourth trip to the region but I'm still looking forward to it!
I first visited the Herault in 2002 and I'm looking forward to showing my friends around the area.

Stay tuned for updates to this blog and follow our adventures in real time throughout the first couple of weeks in September 2011.
Reels loaded up and ready to go.