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I had a very nice pair of dives yesterday, both solo, mainly to get a few scallops. These were done with 45m of 10mm rope from the scallop bag to the surface buoys.
The first dive was very nice, seeing some new species, the second one was a very enjoyable dive, nice scenery, good visibility and a reasonable catch. I was dropped on the top edge of a reef in about 25m of water, the seabed slopes away at between 30 and 45° with a mixed bottom of small rock outcrops and broken shell/sand. I hit the bottom at slack water and was able to zigzag my way slowly down the reef until after 10 minutes I was at 30m.
It was at this point that I noticed that I had become entangled in the rope, totally my fault, but not a calamity. I had 160Bar of 26% in my single 12 and had a fully AL40 of 50%, so plenty of gas, I also had the option of easily surfacing while still tangled, although this would have been inconvenient. I therefore made the most of it and used it as a bit of practice.
I slowly and methodically traced the route of the rope, from both ends, using my hands behind my back as far as my ageing joints would allow them to go. After a couple of minutes I had built up a mental image of where I was tangled and slowly removed the rope, continually updating the mental image as I went. After about 5 minutes I was completely free, all done while hovering about a metre above the seabed. I had zero bottom time once untangled and still had plenty of gas, so continued with my hunt and then made a normal ascent.
As well as learning from the dive, I found it very enjoyable and I am sure the experience will help if I am unfortunate enough to become entangled in less favourable circumstances.
The first dive was very nice, seeing some new species, the second one was a very enjoyable dive, nice scenery, good visibility and a reasonable catch. I was dropped on the top edge of a reef in about 25m of water, the seabed slopes away at between 30 and 45° with a mixed bottom of small rock outcrops and broken shell/sand. I hit the bottom at slack water and was able to zigzag my way slowly down the reef until after 10 minutes I was at 30m.
It was at this point that I noticed that I had become entangled in the rope, totally my fault, but not a calamity. I had 160Bar of 26% in my single 12 and had a fully AL40 of 50%, so plenty of gas, I also had the option of easily surfacing while still tangled, although this would have been inconvenient. I therefore made the most of it and used it as a bit of practice.
I slowly and methodically traced the route of the rope, from both ends, using my hands behind my back as far as my ageing joints would allow them to go. After a couple of minutes I had built up a mental image of where I was tangled and slowly removed the rope, continually updating the mental image as I went. After about 5 minutes I was completely free, all done while hovering about a metre above the seabed. I had zero bottom time once untangled and still had plenty of gas, so continued with my hunt and then made a normal ascent.
As well as learning from the dive, I found it very enjoyable and I am sure the experience will help if I am unfortunate enough to become entangled in less favourable circumstances.
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