This morning was an early start to commence the journey to Dartmouth Dam. We travel the 100km through very scenic country to one of Australia's deepest lakes. It's about 140m deep when full. Much more than we need. Our accommodation is two rented houses. They are fairly new with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. We settle in, then its up to the lake. Today it's a hydraulic tool dive to 36m depth. We use the chainsaw to cut a wooden sleeper then the dive is finished with a surface decompression drill. This requires the divers to get from the 9m in water stop to the surface and undress while our small 3.4m Edge Tracker ferries the divers to the chamber. They then have to get into the chamber and be pressurised back to 12m and onto oxygen all within 7minutes. All goes quite smoothly and all SUR-D runs are within the 7 minutes.
Tuesday 18th November
Jason runs the chamber
As the dives get deeper we can only conduct one dive per diver per day. Today is again an hydraulic tool task. The divers use our hydraulic drill to firstly drill a pilot hole in a piece of RHS steel then a bigger drill to open out the hole. The wind is up a bit today and we have to be careful to make sure we don't drag the anchor. All dives are uneventful, the team is looking good.
Wednesday 19th November
Running the Hot Water suit
Today is a repeat of yesterday. 40 - 42 metres with a bottom time of 20minutes. The task is again hydraulics but this time using the cut off saw to cut a piece of RHS. This is our last hydraulics task for the course. Again our water taxi takes the divers in from our work boat to the chamber for SUR-D drills.
Thursday 20th November
Boat diving at Dartmouth Dam
At the end of this dive, same as yesterday we complete a deep rescue. This is not an ADAS competency however we feel that practice in shallow water does not accurately prepare the diver for what can happen in deep water, so we do a rescue from 45 metres however finish it with a lazy shot at 9m then do the SUR-D. We head back home and will be back for a few days next week to complete the dives, the countdown is on!
Friday 21st November
Deep boat dives at dartmouth
This is the day the students have been waiting for. The introduction of hot water suits. The gear is set up and the mixing tank brought up to a pleasant 38 degrees Celsius. Truk unpacked, gear maintained, log books and student record files are brought up to date and its a well deserved early mark for students after a big week away. Well done guys!
