Random Jottings
You rebreather divers best be careful!
Back in my days on the YBoD we often joked about 'lung fluid' in the counterlungs.......
But maybe it should be considered more than it is! This is an interesting article on a topic that impacts more than 'wind instrument' players.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37152871
I can vaguely remember that a diver passed away after contracting a lung disease which was picked up from breathing via his BCD in an emergency situation and I have personal experience of a chap up here in the frozen north who nearly died due to a lung infection which was dive related.
If nothing else chaps we really need to make sure that the items we are breathing through are clean, when was the last time you disinfected your regulator? I suspect never but would it be so hard dropping it into a bucket of suitable disinfectant?
http://www.apdiving.com/shop/bcd-open-circuit/maintenance-cleaning/chemgene-disinfectant.html
Yup, I know that AP diving do soetimes add quite a hefty premium but I am sure you can check out the active ingedients if you are so tight, alternatively £25 isn't too much for peace of mind, is it?
On another point, you will always get some salt water into your BCD, if you don't rinse out with fresh water then salt crystals form, these are hard, significantly harder than the plastic bladder of your BCD and they will eventually rub through causing leaks.
It isn't hard to clean and where appropriate sterilise your kit and we should all do it more often!
Dive safe
RichW
Latest Photographs


A bit of a clincher regarding the dating of a wreck.
I think it was 1858 when sailing ships were compelled to carry a red port lamp and 1837 for steam ships.
If you find any glass from lights then you can date the sinking from after these dates.
Another partially cleaned brass breech block.......
Sea Hare (aplysia punctata)
Tubes from the broken up boiler.......
'Cut me and do I not bleed'.... Alternatively 'Clout me and do I not rust'
Girders and struts from I am assuming the top structure of MV Yewglen
A European Flounder (Platichthys flesus) quite commonly seen on dives, well ok quite often there on dives, due to their camouflage and passive nature you can get pretty close, just no sudden moves or they will zoom off.
Being a bit of a pedant I decided that I would need to fix a point where the fishing line could be secured.....
And here we are drilling the trunion holes
A scenic of one of the masts, snapped where it goes over some other wreckage, going away from the body of the wreck
This flounder (Platicthys flesus) stayed put until the flash fired and then it was off, at speed!
A Pogge (Agonus cataphractus) or is that Hook-nose or Armoured Bullhead, these are a relativeliy common critter but with their camouflage you tend to see their pearly white barbules before anything else.
A very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), she was sitting on-top of a rock pretending to be weed but had the 'wrong' colouration, the skin texture was right though!
A chain guard as used on telegraphs, this one was taken from the North Goldstone as a lump of concreted crud with brass bits showing. Not quite the Antikythera Mechanism but still an interesting project to decrud and get to a condition so that you can see what is what.
Girders and bits and bats that have flattened onto the bed-rock in the main gully
Loads of these blue fiends on this site, a Common Lobster (Homarus gammarus) this one coming forward to look at what is looking at him.
A Devonshire cup-coral (Caryophyllia smithii), there are loads of these multi-coloured critters on the wreckage
Once inside there is plenty of room to move about without many intact bulkheads you'd struggle to loose your buddy too!