Yesterday was my first time at Dotty, and I had a lovely day.
Apologies for the delay in posting a review (as I usually do) - I needed to catch up on some well earned sleep!!!!
I want to share my experiences from yesterday, so that others can learn from them - as I have.
Dotty is a very pretty site, although the entry to the water (a steep slope) - was a bit of a mission, especially with a bad back! The site is very remote, although I was very pleased that both my mobiles (work/personal) had a full signal!)
I buddied with Teresa. Teresa and I have dived together numerous times and we are both very aware of each other under the water. Our trust and knowledge of each others (including our equipment) deemed very important on our first dive!
Dive One - 10 mins, depth 22.3m.
The dive started lovely. The plan was for a steady decent to 40m. When we reached 22m I quickly became aware that I was not receving any air through either of my regs. Up to this point my regs had been totally fine!!!! I immediatly signaled "no air" to my buddy and quickly aproached her in the water. Due to the lack of air in my system I became slightly confused and I could not see Teresas Octo - until she rammed it in my face! I knew that I had swallowed some water and was slightly panicing at this point - Teresa was fantastic - I cannot thank her enough! She remained calm, held eye contact with me and controlled our assent safely back to the surface. Due to loosing control over my breathing, during the assent Teresa had to take control. -My brain was not functioning at all. The only think I could think of was to dump my air from my dry suit. I was so pleased to have reached the surface alive! After a few minutes of enjoying being able to breath - Smudge joined us at the surface. I couldnt understand what had happened. On the surface my regs were again working fine? Upon discussion in the water Smugde checked the valve on my tank, and observed that the tank valve was not fully open, as it should have been. Under the pressure at 22m the valve was not allowing the air to get to my regs. At the lower pressure above 22m - the regs managed to work ok.
Although the experience of no air completely freaked me out, I knew I had to dive on! My folks have always tought me to get back in the horse when you fall off, which is what I did! Smudge was happy for us to continue the planned dive. All I asked was that they both stayed close to me incase it happened again.... although Smudge was confident it would not happen again... as the tank valve was now fully open!
Dive Two - 24 mins, depth 40.9m.
We surface swam to the 40m marker buoys and decended down the shot line to 40m. Loving the pic of Teresa and I on the shot line Smudge!!! At 40m we spent a few minutes mooching around the gnome garden and the "ladder". No probs at all!!!!! Hurray!!!! -One very happy Lexy! We continued our dive on a slow assent... found Santa's grotto and few of his other friends!
Dive Three - 42 mins, depth 30.5m. Slow assent to 20m (ish) due both of us having problems equalising. This wasnt a problem as the vis was so good, we could see the rest of the group right below us. We swam around through what I can only describe as a canyon, which was very eeery. The underwater trees were something else!
The vis on all 3 dives was amazing. Water temp ranged from 6-8 degrees. I didn't see any life under the water, except divers and Father Crimbo! Although I think YoYo mentioned seeing one tiny fish as he was exiting the water on the last dive!
Geographically this site is beautiful and at times kind of eeery. On dive 2 and 3 I did find it to be really really dark at depth, which no longer freaks me out! Although when finances approve I will be investing in a bigger torch!
Would I dive again at Dotty? - Yeah defo! There are more parts of dotty that I want to explore, including the tunnels!
In regards to what went wrong on dive one...
I dont want to get into a mass debate or lecture on this please! The valve on this tank is quite easy to turn (in comparison to my other tank). There could have been a number of reasons why the valve was not fully open (eg oversight when setting up equipment, the valve got accidently knocked when being assisted into the water, my hoses may have rubbed against it at any point... etc etc) - or it could have been a comblination of a number of things.
In future I will always be asking my buddy to fully check my valve moments before we decent on a dive!
I've been lucky enough to have completed a good number of dives at depth now and I'm really pleased to have completed my deep diver yesterday. Although I dont intend to dive to 40m on a regular basis, I feel its a good insurance policy... especially when diving in warmer waters with amazing vis!
The company yesterday was great! Had a good laugh with everyone.
I'm hoping Jason wont be on his Asbo for too long, as he is proving to be a top bloke (IN AND OUT OF THE WATER!!!) x
Thanks again to everyone!
Looking forward to diving with everyone again in the New Year!!!!
Love and hugs
Pinky x
Home 
Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:55 pm
from surface to 40m 
so making for the perfect conditions underwater. Shame the same couldn't be said for the weather 
Sure she wiil appreciate the thought Yo Yo 
I have an ASBO well thats what Smudge said 
Well I promise to be on my best behavior both in and out of the water 
and I might even be good on here 
cos Pinky 
The've started doing Tena Men in the supermarket!
Hope you like your present
