I Love My Job!

I really do love my job. It has been mentioned many times before that what I do for a living, the rest of the world does for fun! Indeed, "mucking about" in boats IS fun although it is advisable to have, at least, some guidance/tuition in your chosen method of "fun making". It's even more important to take some training (from professionals in the field) when your "fun making" also involves intentionally putting your friends into the water and picking them back up again.
This last weekend (24th and 25th March 2012) we had another batch of divers from Dundee University Sub-Aqua Club join us out on the penninsula for the second Loch Sunart Powerboat Course (of 2012). As with the first one a couple of weeks ago, this one also included Wildcamping on the shore. This Wildcamping (in my opinion) adds a certain extra fun element to the weekend's training and it helps keep the costs down. One only pays for the car's fuel and the ferry crossing, no extra's in the way of B&B or Hotel accomodations (that are usaully fully booked out here anyway, even in the early season! Best to leave that accomodation to the "softer" types ... ;-) ). Not only that, but you don't often get three Buzzards flying 50m above your head, nor hear the Woodpeckers drilling trees for grubs, or the Owls "towit- towooing" back and forth across the loch, nor see the seals popping up and down in front of you from your "brick tents", now do you?

How often can you see both the sunrise and the sunset from the "front door" of said "brick tent"?
Granted, we're only yards from the main (ONLY) road to Ardnamurchan Point and the villages along the penninsula, but it's definitely NOT Piccadilly Circus here, vehicles are few and far between (tho' you do notice when the ferry has landed...).
The weather was just perfect, all weekend, for our training and camping out. Bright sun with just a slight breeze on the water (and sufficient onland to keep any early season midges away). After the normal theory/"classroom" work of charts, tides, weather and tying things up with the essential (possibly lifesaving) bends and knots and the boat familiarisation session, we kitted up into our drysuits and set off to launch the boat.
Loch Sunart/Salen has the great fortune to have a very forward looking and progressive couple in their midst these days, in the very friendly shapes of Mark and Jan, the new owners of Salen Jetty. Mark has been building a new quayside section which provide more car/trailer parking which should be finished very soon.
Launching (including recovery !) fees are just £6 per boat and there's only a tiny fee for car/trailer parking added if you leave your car whilst you're out on the water. A bargain, especially as one can launch (or recover) at ANY state of the tide. I launched/recovered my 5.5m Rhib here 2-3 weeks ago at the Equinotial Low Springs and had no trouble at all!
With the boat launched (easily), we headed round to pickup Arno back at the campsite as he drove the Landrover and trailer back (well, the compressor in the Landy would be needed later...).
A great day out on the water in the gentle (too gentle sometimes...) breeze, with slow speed driving and awareness, then faster speed handling, boat trimming, planing etc all done and, I'm pleased to say, with loads of very apt and keenly thought out questions forthcoming, all of which I trust were answered fully enough (it's great to see/hear the students being keen/eager to progress).
One of the great benefits of holding this training out here is the opportunity (not to be missed) of diving from the training vessel and dropping/recovering divers with an instructor onboard as the students do the driving. So, after the day's coursework was completed, it was diving time!
One of the team chose not to dive (no matter, she's coming out to stay for a week, there'll be plenty of diving then...) so took the controls and after the divers chose their dive site (from their own chartwork) we dropped them off and circled above. One of the requirements of being a good dive boat skipper means never losing sight of your divers' location in the water. There are a few easy/simple common sense things to help in this regard. One of which seems to escape some drivers... that is, to STAY with your divers in the water! Even on a Boat Assisted Shore Dive your boat remains the source of any help that may be required (it has the O2 kit onboard for example, and the people to apply it!). I often hear of clubs dropping off divers and returning to shore to pickup more divers...

I hasten to add, this is NOT my boat leaving divers in the water...

 Disaster Waiting to Happen!
Quite simply, DON'T LEAVE YOUR DIVERS- plan your day better!
Our divers surfaced neatly (on a DSMB) and without incident (as it should be) and were brought aboard in a neat and organised fashion and when all were seated and comfortable we headed for home and tea.

Dinner that night was pretty much a meat fest. Arno had his BBQ working up a storm with 30 or so Brotwurst and some Peppers and I had 30-40 chicken legs marinated in a couple of sauce mixes I'd prepared (for a previous trip that was postponed due to frozen ground) cooking in the wok on the campfire (I'd forgotten how much chilli had gone into one of the mixes, but it was all devoured with gusto).
Full bellies and a couple of shots of Arno's whisky coupled with some decent wine spread around after a great day on the water meant that sleep should come easily to us all that night...  ;-)

More to come... shortly

Loch Sunart, Assignment Trip Feb 2012

I had a couple of crackin' dives today at Loch Sunart (where I'm "on assignment" for the next two weeks and again a week after that for 6 weeks).

I needed to reset the mooring I organised for a Swallows and Amazon's trip last year at Forest Road End so we started there.
It was a very low water this morning so the pip buoy was clearly visible in the water and made it an easy surface swim out to sort it all out.
After that we descended into a balmy 8metres and cruised along the bottom on the starting Flood Tide, all the way up to Scot's Pine Bay where I recognised the outer reef formations and we surfaced in the glorious sun around the headland to SPB.

We dropped the kit by the roadside and Chris walked back to FRE to bring the truck up... (well, it's HIS car... of course he'd have to walk back... [wink].

A short drive from there to Camas Torsa for lunch, only to find "someone" had forgotten the milk for the coffees... (Chris!, tsk, tsk)
Bleugh! Black coffee, and with the extra bleugh factor of a petrol taint to the coffee! His rapid burner/cooker fuel tank had sprung a leak and dripped petrol on the mugs. (Hmm, let me tell you, he now knows NOT to put the cooker in with the food!)

Anyway, the tide was still so low 1 1/2 hours later that the mooring blocks were still visible so it was a long walk into the sea.
Another crackin' dive in the same 8m+ viz all the way to the second reef (24m bottom) and back over the top again and back to the entry point. There was a HUGE Ling in it's lair under one of the deep mooring blocks along with loads of hermits and edible crabs all around.
Didn't even need the torches at 24m as the sun was beaming down.

Lucky me, I'm here for a wee while and if the weather stays like this, it's gonna be a cracker!

20 Years Knowledge Crammed into a Two Day Course...

Earlier in the year (yes, honestly!) I was asked to provide some training that would be useful to a chap who's just found himself another dream job, Diving Safety Officer, in the Caribbean for three years!

Now, for this task, the BSAC Outboard and Boat Maintenance SDC, whilst good in content in itself, didn't go far enough into detail and methodologies or the practicalities of boat (hardboat and inflatable) repair and maintenance nor does it deal with suit repairs.
His mother had already recommended me to him for his Powerboat Tuition and he did his PB2 with me in the late Autumn last year.
I've been looking at putting together some new courses that would include everything listed above and this was a great opportunity to make some good progress with it all. A willing guinea pig had been "found".

Well, he thoroughly enjoyed his two days at FPTC/DT's Dive Store cramming as much info and skillsets in to those hours as humanly possible. He was shattered after day one where he'd been Repairing Gelcoat Damage, Creating Fibreglass Structures, Hypalon Boat Tube Repairs (inc talk on PVC repair), Drysuit Repair and Alteration and Wetsuit Repair.
Tuesday saw him learn about Twostroke and Fourstroke engines and outboard gearboxes, with all the permitted maintenance schedules, "Get me Home" fixes and finally, Fault/Problem diagnosis and resolution, all practical "hands on" learning throughout.

Here's what he had to say afterwards (from Facebook)
James C S Squires
Would like to thank the FPTC and DIVETRAMP for not only a great power boat training and skills but some amazing insights into boat maintenance and techy stuff. A great example of how training should be done and would recommend it to anyone anytime. Has a wealth of knowledge to give thats just invaluable. Thank you so much. AS soon as i am back from the sun and white sands i will be back to get more of the same from one of the most natural instructors i have ever had the pleasure of learning from.

His mum, who initially recommended me, is non other than Clare Peddie, BSAC Chairperson. James is a fully qualified PADI Diving Instructor who last year returned to UK after three years working as a Diving Instructor in Asia, now he's off to the Caribbean, Turks and Caicos Islands.

September Etive, Creran and Linnhe Diving

I had a delivery, of one of my Logburner stoves, to make to a Goldpanner on the West coast who's camping out thro' the winter so I chucked in my own tent and dive gear to make the most of the trip.

I set up camp at Two Boat Bay on the shore of Loch Etive (a few of you guys are enjoying the site now too I see) on the Friday after a nice day panning in the hills myself.
It rained ALL night long til about 9:30 the next morning when it turned to glorious sunshine! I love the way the rain stops (most of the time) when I go diving...
First dive of the day was in Loch Creran just a few miles away. I wanted to play with the new Strobe (that I bought with my winnings from the BSAC Photo competition last year) snapping the Worm colonies and found that the viz in this part of the loch had survived the rain that fell thro the night. A touch milky at 2m but clear on the bottom.
There was quite a bit of storm damage to the reefs (from last weeks nasty stormy weather) where the taller specimens had now collapsed but the longer, flatter ones have survived well.
51minutes dive time, to 15.9m in lovely 14 degree water. Nice.



After lunch back at the camp, I had hoped to dive the Kingfisher for my 400th dive, but even tho' the entry was crystal clear, below 3m it was less than 1.5m viz! Aargh, all the particulates from the rain were still settling... It took me two attempts to find the cable that leads to the wreck (something one can normally see as one's face hits the water) and, once I'd found it and followed it for a bit, hoping for better viz, found that the viz, even with torchlight, was barely 1.5m! Nah, whilst I know this site very well and could find the Kingfisher by compass (085 degrees from entry point) there are some traps and snags down there that one needs to see and avoid. My 400th wasn't going to be my last so I abandonned the dive.
Dive time of 9 min, to a depth of 9m... and the worst viz I've ever seen here!

So, another lovely night under canvas, by the fire watching the glorious sunset, with fresh chicken and pepper risotto for dinner and an early night as two buddies were coming out nice and early the next day.

Sunset from the campsite

Sunday, 8am!!!
Jeez they're keen! Kevin Cross (Eastwood SAC) and Dave Warner (InverClydeSAC) arrived bright and bloody early... 
Off, up the Linnhe road to the Telephone Exchange. Neither buddy had done this reef/wall (well, Kevin had done it from the boat on the Powerboat Level 2 course I did for them last year) and Dave hadn't been
to this area at all. All new to them.
Quick brief of the site layout and the things we were likely to see and away we go.
Viz was good, 5-8m and after locating the reef (missed it on the descent, due to the subtle current trying to turn us round, you just turn left at a 45degree angle and back to 12-15m) I motioned to the guys to go and play. I was trying to stay away from them a touch so's I could play with strobe some more, Dave was higher, above me and Kevin was hoovering  (not that he saw many...).
One of the cracks in this reef houses a HUGE conger, but as I got into position to snap it, clouds and clouds of silt blocked the view! (Mental note, keep Kev to the rear of the party, til the photography is done!) No matter, we'll see it on the way back...
We did see it on the return journey, but the silt was still hanging. I tried baiting the Conger with with a fillet of fish (from Tesco's cheap stock), but it wouldn't eat to an audience. Dave saw it take the fish moments later as he was hovering out of sight.
A nice dive, 45min to 19.2m with loads of life.

Lion's Mane Jelly near the suface (it's handy having a fullface mask when getting close to these things...)

Back down to Creagan Inn to park up, fill tanks and fill bellies.
Still a glorious day in the warm sunshine.
Again, neither of the lads had dived here so a quick tour was in order.
That done, and after a chat with Alan, one of the proposed new owners of the Creagan, we took to the waters, watched over by out soon to be "mein host".
Nice and clear viz on entry, mooching our way round the headland, but as we approached the apex the viz became siltier. I decided to carry on (Dave later said, he loves that kind of murkiness. Well, he does dive the Clyde!) and it slowly got better but not until we began ascending so I'm afraid the chaps missed out on seeing this site in ALL it's glory. On most days, one can see loads of nooks and crannies and broken, terraced walls filled with all manner of life but on this occassion we only got to see a couple of huge, fat Lesser Spotted Cat Sharks, HUGE Langoustines out for a walk (in berry so they stayed there), nice big Edible Crabs, whelks, all types of Squatties, a field of Philine aperta (nudi's) and loads of Queen scallops darting around.

Langoustine out for a walk

Both chaps said they'd enjoyed the sites they'd been taken to would definitely be coming back to do them again, esp since the Creagan Inn will be re-opening shortly (9th Oct, hopefully) and will be welcoming divers. You know, they even have showers that we may use?
Looking forward to the opening!

Wild Camping/Diving Lochs Creran and Etive 23-24 July 2011

I knew the East Coast was going to be blown out this weekend. It didn't matter to me as I'd already planned to head to the west and make the most of what looked a fantastic summer's weekend.
Traffic was light on the way over to Loch Etive, but on arrival, around 7pm, we found my planned wild campsite already occupied (badly) by a couple of vehicles with sea kayaks on their roofs and two small tents taking up the space that, normally we can get four, larger tents into. Ah well, a good lesson learned here for those not used to wild camping. You have to leave in plenty of time to avoid the city dwellers grabbing your intended sites. They only have an hour's drive, whilst we have two and a half hours travel time. That's one of the reasons I leave in the early afternoon, to beat the rush...
No matter, there's another nice, elevated site at the actual harbour site... Nope, this too is occupied by Sea Kayakers!
Hmm  looks like Loch Etive isn't going to be our home this weekend. Time to head for a site I knew wouldn't be occupied. I like camping/diving in this vicinity as there are many shore dive sites all along this area of Etive, Creran and Loch Linnhe and there are a fair few decent wild campsites right on the beach/shore. The one we finally got to (about 8:30pm) is on the shores of Loch Creran, just north of the Sea Life Centre and just past Barcaldine. If you drive too fast, you'll never see it!
We had hoped to dive that evening, to try out my buddy's new single wing, but after making sure our other east coast buddies, who were only 20mins behind us now, could find us and getting our tents up it was now 9:30 or so and we needed to eat so we binned that idea for the sake of our bellies.
A quick lighting of the campfire (plenty of wood nearby) and the midges leave the campsite, just as the gentle breeze comes in to "help" them on their way.
Our neighbours for the weekend had their tent up in no time at all, despite not having set it up for many,many months, and joined us round the soothing fire. This was their FIRST time out Wild Camping ;-)
First dive of the next day was a bimble around the bay we camped in. A deceptively long walk out into the water at High Tide (it's only two or three feet deep for around 75-100m out!) then a nicely gentle but obvious gravel/cobble slope full of small colonies of the Serpulid worms that Creran is famous (worldwide) for and the usual small crittur life in lovely clear water. After this you're down a typical sandy slope with a finer grain in the depths (so keep your fins up!) and follow the contour for as far as you wish. Surprisingly, there's human debris in the water here with some bottles, car tyres and some broken crab pots lying around all attracting life. A couple of Sea Mouse were snapped, along with some fairly agressive Hermit crabs.
I've dived here a few times now and whilst there are more interesting sites in Creran, this does make a good, easy shakedown dive site, clear enough for trainees to do their shallow, openwater drills and still have plenty to see.
After a spot of lunch I took the crew down the road to Loch Etive. Only a few miles away, in glorious sunshine once again, past our intended camping sites and on to Bonawe Quarry Harbour.
After a quick but thorough site brief where I described the likely viz to be "Dark but Crystal Clear" we entered the water being as careful as possible not to disturb the gravel/silt too much.
Now, if you can't find the VERY obvious wire/cable that runs directly to the wreck (didn't I say this is a WRECK dive?) that sits over the large boulder just as you descend from the "slipway", then one can follow a bearing of 085degrees and you'll find the target.

It's a very eerie sensation for newbies to Bonawe Quarry as you fin thro gin clear water surrounded on all sides by deep(looking), dark peaty water (a bit like black coffee) in your own sunlight "bubble" with approx 10m viz! As you follow your wire/cable/bearing after about 5 minutes you'll see the wreck loom out of the dark. It's an impressive sight I can tell you! Complete, upright, wheelhouse intact, aft derrick now fallen over (but with loose ropes ready to snare the unwary swimthrougher...) but I'm thinking it won't be for long as one can now see through the plank gaps into the hold as the wood rots away, so get there soon. It's deteriorated a fair bit since I dived her first last year.

We swan around the Kingfisher for a while til I asked if everyone (all four of us) had enough air to head off to perhaps the most spectacular part of this dive. Yep, all had plenty (it is only 13-15m here afterall!) so I led the crew (slowing down every now and then... naughty me, frogkicking seems to propel one a bit quicker than most kicks...) over the somewhat featureless sandy bottom (but past some waypoint markers such as the coils of wire rope looking like a version of Nessie, and wellie boot, shoe soles, and beer cans...) to the start of the harbour mouth where I stopped at the side and beckoned the others through to explore this area themselves. Only Vicky and I saw the HUGE Red Gurnard that sat on the bottom allowing me to snap it several times, even tho I tried to point it out with my torch.
Huge boulders have been dropped in by the quarry chaps to bolster the harbour mouth sides, these have cavernous openings which hold a miriad of fishlife such as Pollack, Saithe, and Bib. There's also a veritable city of Flabellina lineata here feeding and laying their eggs on Coryphella nutans.
We could only stay here for about ten minutes (again, it's only 12m here) before reluctantly turning round leaving this city of discovery to head for home. Each of us had plenty of gas (100bar was the lowest) but the topography of the shore sides here meant there could be no easy exit up the steep sides, so it was back along the same route past the wreck once again and along the wire/cable to exit site. Arno then said he now understood what I meant by "Dark but Crystal Clear" (something he struggled to reconcile before the dive).

Back to camp for a refill of both bellies and tins then back out to the Worm Colony site for a shallow bimble over these fantastic, wierd shaped Biogenic reefs. Lindsay has been here before but it was a new site to Arno and Vicky, who commented that it's so strange to find such wondrous creatures in such open, easily accessible but never thought of as a diving site areas right by the main road. Just shows you, never discount a location just because it's by a main road. You might be surprised (as most folk are with this site!).


BBQ on the beach (well, cobbles anyway) and a nice midge deterring campfire once again (you do need to keep them away with the campfire smoke if there's no wind, tho' Avon's Skin-so-Soft does work it rots latex dive suit seals).

Sunday brought yet another wonderful, bright, sunny day with an occassional breeze. We have been so lucky (no, not luck, Planning) with the weather here, ;-).
Times were good, just, for a drift dive thro the bridge over the Creran and we kitted up at Creagan Inn (sadly now closed due to lack of trade) and took two cars back to the other side (with the O2 kit). Creran is a strange loch, in that it has two constriction points throughout it's length which makes for difficult tidal run predictions. It often has only a four hour Ebb and an eight hour flood.
We did this first drift on the flood which meant a long swim out to the middle of the loch in order to grab the flow UP the loch. The brief was, "when you see the bridge (black out above you), start swimming to the right, to the shore and surface five minutes after the bridge". This worked just fine, if not a little early, but that's no problem here.
 Huge Pollack were dancing in the drift, over loads of Dead Men's Fingers way down in the cracks and spaces of the huge boulders beneath us follwed by a field of tiny nudibranchs all laying eggs in the faster flowing waters under the Kelp.
As you often do on a drift dive, I think we gave the family of anglers quite a scare as we surfaced near them and made our way out!
We came back later, after a good lunch and re-fill from my compressor, and did the drift on the Ebb Tide. This was, as expected, a much faster drift initially as you enter straight into the flow by the large smooth boulder rock at the previous exit.
Far more fish were seen this time, along with Brittlestars, natural oysters, those tiny nudi's and indeed, a full bed of Flameshells! After the bridge the water slows down back to finning speed and it kicks you out to the right (north) where there's no easy exit, but having dived here numerous times I was able to lead the divers back to this morning's entry site, to the old ferry slipway where our cars were parked.

A thoroughly wonderful weekend altogether, topped off when Arno and his family said that whilst this was their first time wild camping, it definitely won't be the last. It seems we have another convert to the peace and quiet (even tho' this site was right by the main road) and ease of life wild camping.

DT

50metre Dive, for 6mins and Deco for 15mins on Air!

What a blast! Literally.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of experiencing (and it is SOME experience) of diving to 50m for a bottom time of 6minutes and deco of 15mins at Cumbrae on perhaps one of the best diving days of our limited summer period.

Organised by DemonDave (who now goes by the epithet of "Narked-at-Nothing" ) eventually only 6 of us managed to take part, which permitted more room for us all in the already capacious chamber.
Ah, did I not mention this was a Chamber Dive?
I should also mention, with gratitude, that whilst Dave organised it, Ross Goldie, owner of Seren Las the latest Clyde dive/charter boat, sponsored this "dive" to the full amount. Many thanks for that Ross.
On arrival, three of us who got there early, we met Ross at the Marine Station's pier for a tour of the boat. An ice, tidy and well found boat it is too, complete with a diver lift! Looking forward to repaying Ross' generosity later and taking a few dives from the Seren Lass.
Our allotted time, 10am, approached and after waiting for the stragglers (coming by various means, the Inverclyde rib and Hughie in his van) we were introduced to the Pot by Phil (Diverrepair on the forums) who runs the treatment facility with his crew.

All loose metallic items, mobile phones, catalytic hand warmers (if you had any...) and, since this is a medical facility, our outdoor shoes were left outside the Pot tho' we were allowed to take in our diving cameras and dive computers (tho' Dave forgot his camera...aargh! Narked at Nothing ).
A bucket of water, to activate some of the computers, was also taken in but with the proviso that, if anyone, due to narcosis, were to think it funny to chuck it over us in the pot, THEY would be mopping up afterwards...
The chamber is large and roomy, with two access doors and includes a re-entry/exit section to the rear and a medical access port. Windows all around, lights, sound equipment and recording video cameras.
Once the door shuts and everyone is asked if they're feeling fine the air is rushed in.

To 6 metres or so first and even to this depth your have to pretty much constantly clear your ears, far more frequently than in a normal water dive.

Another check and then down to 30m.

Wow! Far more ear clearing...it seems like we're going down really fast, but as we found later, the descent was only a 8m/minute! It felt a lot faster than that, and, due to the physics of gas compression, it also got very warm as we descended (if only it were that way in water diving).
Now, as we descended past 30m we started to hear our voices change, as if we were on Helium. Narked at Nothing  said he thought we, Hughie and me, were putting it on, til he tried to tell us so... then everyone started the chatter.  

Stew Russell (a Commercial Diver friend) had suggested we try to whistle as we got past 30m. He's right, it's impossible, but so funny (narcosis?) trying.
15m at 50m, in the peace and quiet since there's no air being blown in, flew by prompting Dave (N-a-N) to say he didn't think it was that long (see Dave, narked?)
Hughie was videoing the whole time (getting some good stuff I hope) and as we began our "ascent" I crushed the plastic bottle I'd brought in and popped the lid on. Hugh filmed this at various stages of our ascent, getting closer to the object as the quite severe misting (and sudden coldness) that occurs on ascent meant we could hardly see one another even across the small room.

Back "on the surface"

At 50m

Not much happened in respect of "re-inflation" on the ascent (as you'd expect) til we got to the 15-10m mark where the pressure differentials have their largest effect and the bottle came back to nearly full size with just a couple of dents left.
Since this was a Deco dive, we halted (with perfect buoyancy, BSAC Gold Star Rating  :Ha Ha: ) at 6m for 5mins then again at 3m, this time for 10mins then came to the "surface" where the bottle finally re-gained it's full shape.
As the door swung open (it's nice to see that they can ONLY be opened from the outside!) the temperature had equalised and we all filed out to line up alongside the Pot for some Post Pressure physiological checks (a nice, necessary touch).
In all we were down for 26min, and when asked if we had felt the Narcosis, only one person (Phil said there'd be one...) said he hadn't felt anything change, but then Dave did add that he feels Narked at The Surface anyway...hence his new name of Narked-at-Nothing
Phil then gave a most interesting presentation, with some scary anecdotes (which I'll leave for him to tell) about the system, processes and treatment of all DCI's.

All in all a very nice way to spend a morning, and it's very nice to see the dedication and professionalism of the team in action, even tho' this was just a "jolly"!
At only £25 per head (don't be conned by certain others who charge £45/person and pocket the difference) this experience is not to be missed, tho' it has to be said, it goes nowhere towards the actual money required annually to running the Pot at Cumbrae (some £180,000 was quoted) but every little counts!
Paradoxically, Phil commented that since the pot was not seeing so many divers lately, the cost implications for keeping it running were becoming difficult and they might have to re-evaluate the pricing of their services to the Scottish NHS in future.
I asked whether the reduction in casualties was due to better training etc, but the reply was, "No, there are simply fewer divers diving our waters...", as the divers numbers decline, so do the incidents, it appears.
I made the comment that since Britain's Secret Seas airing and the sudden influx of new divers to all agencies, that next year (when the newbies start venturing out on their own) things might change. (Let's hope not, in the case of chamber use at least )

Training can be REAL!

After a cold, blustery day out on the water yesterday (Sat 11th June) today seemed to be promising finale to Mr Murray's Powerboat Level 2 course. It was a gorgeous day, pretty much zero wind, tide flooding at a fair rate (1knot), taking us up towards Perth, and beautiful flat, mirror-like water only "spoiled" by the spray from our training Rhib as we sped upstream.
Yesterday, Mr Murray had performed admirably well in all his required tasks and we were going to concentrate on MOB techniques today and finish off with Anchoring, then, there would be time aplenty for him to "play" and practice anything he felt he needed more time with.
So, after a briefing on MOB procedures and getting on the plane again, "Bob" fell out of the boat (as he does frequently...;-) ) and we went into "Man Over Board!" mode.
Excellently executed (the drill that is, not Bob...) and we're off again. Rounding the Stinky Bend (if you've cruised the Tay, you'll know where I mean...) Bob fell out again, but of course, this time the wind's in a different direction. No problem for my able Candidate tho', expertly conducting the Williamson Turn  then motoring past Bob at a nice safe speed and turning to approach him from down wind (as one should) and another expertly executed scoop and Bob is back on the boat safe and sound. Marvellous, what could possibly go wrong on such a glorious day?
Ok, so now we've reached the harbour at Perth (we have permission from the Harbourmasters to carry out training there, even when the harbour is working, as long as it's all done away from the loading ;-) ) and there's not  breath of wind, nor any sign of tidal movement, let's practice more "coming Alongside".

His first attempt yesterday was amazingly spot on. So were the rest of the "practice" runs. Today's first was good too, if just a little quick due to the lack of wind, but still managed well.
The next try tho'? Well, it seemed to go horribly wrong! The speed was fine, engine engagement was fine... but the steering was all over the place! I watched as he steered one way, then the next, then back again, but we were going in different directions from what he was asking the helm to go. He was most puzzled, I was beginning to think that yesterday had been a fluke, til I noticed that as he turned the steering wheel, the hydraulic rams moved left and right but the engine just stayed put!

Jings! The bolt that held the steering ram to the engine yoke had fallen out!

On closer inspection (as we had already done earlier as part of our "make ready for sea" checks ) the securing nut was still in place on the yoke, but the bolt had dropped down and was only held in place by one of the spacer washers. This bolt had been bashed, bent and the threads had been crushed so it must have been like that for a while! Think of all those High Speed maneouvres we'd been doing on the way up here, the steering could have gone at any time!

The quick repair

No worries, we tied up at the harbourside and effected repairs. There was no way that bolt was going back into it's allotted hole, so, with a bit of the Heath Robinson (I like his family's Barley Water :-D) I looped the two working parts together using some thick electrical wire from the toolkit (as there were no bolt sets small enough to go through the holes in the steering gear) and we set off for home. My candidate expected me to take the helm, but I said "No, I'll keep an eye on the repair, you'll be fine driving us back."

Still in one piece back at the workshop

Now, being used to sailing, and experiencing the lack of instant response from tillers, he took this in his stride, even commenting about how much he was enjoying this realism of a major fault/problem being sorted and being able to carry on as if nothing had happened! So much more fun than previous training courses he'd been on.
On the journey home we still managed to complete the anchoring portion of the syllabus (doing it for real?) and a few more MOB drills and "Ran out of Fuel" too ;-). Illustrating that even with a "crippled" vessel one can still address further problems should they occur.
Once back home safely and the paperwork etc out of the way, I got down to the full repair of the steering. It's all back together, in fact, it's better than before as there are no spacer washers adding torsion to the steering bolt any more (as it should have been put together when the steering was fitted 6 years ago!).
Hey ho, all in a days work... ;-)

Oh, he passed by the way. Another happy chappy with a sparkling new photo ID'd National Powerboat Certificate Level 2.