20/2 2021 Frigid waters and frozen regulators.

Harbour swimming crab

Hi and ho!

It has been a while hasn't it? Well due to various circumstances, I had a longer than planned dry spell over Christmas and into the new year. But now i should be back in the swing.

Either way. This week me and my buddies went to Släggö for shore diving, as most of our regular spots in the Gullmar fjord are iced over as of this moment. Either way, we arrived at Släggö and started packing up our gear in preparation for the days dive's.

Peacock feather duster worm (Sabella pavonina)

Dive 1: 

Depth: 29m, Time: 42 min, Temp: 0°C

Me and my buddy were planning to do shallow dives in order to look for nudibranches, however, as soon as we got into the water, my buddy's regulator started freeflowing due to the frigid temperatures, so we had to abort the dive. Thus after a quick buddy change, as my first buddy decided to call it then, me and my second buddy went towards the depth instead. The visibility in the water column was very bad, had problems seeing my buddy if it weren't for the illumination from the dive light. As we continued down, the creatures began to show up, mainly in the form of crabs. At about 27m the waters became a bit clearer, but at this point, it started to become time to turn around, as we both were feeling quite cold. We turned around and started swimming back, taking it slow to try and look for more critters. As we neared the end of the dive, I spotted the pink egg mass of a sculpin, which i photographed for a little bit before we continued upwards. As usual, the last 3 minutes of the safety stop during this time of the year was the longest 3 minutes ever. We broke surface at 42 minutes, with no feeling what so ever in our faces.

Roe of Shorthorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpius)

Dive 2:

Depth: 15m, Time: 21 min, Temp: -1°C

Now here is where it got interesting. After a surface intervall and some pizza, me and my buddies decided to do a second dive. So we got into our gear, kitted up and jumped into the water. At first it went well, if a bit cold, which was to be expected. But soon, my reg started to bubble, which didn't stop when i did not breath, indicating that it had frozen, and was starting to freeflow. At this point, i contacted my closest buddy that I was having problems, and that we were to abort the dive. So, they gave me their long hose regulator and went to their own extra. We then started the ascent, following the bottom up, after trying to fix it, to no avail, they suggested at the surface that i somehow gotten water in the first stage of the regulator. Oh well, i guess i have to roll with that and send the reg in for service (it is that time of the year after all).

All in all, it was a ok dive day, in spite of the bad conditions and less fortunate happenings with the gear.

So until next time! Keep on Swimming!

Atlantic Lyre crab (Hyas araneus)