Diving in the frozen North!

(by Lisa Bedard)

Last weekend we took the annual pilgrimage up the M6, to dive in the Capernwray quarry (old-timers may know this as Jackdaw Quarry), near Carnforth in Lancashire. This trip is organised every year (normally the third weekend in November) by Paul Carpenter, and is usually a really good fun social weekend, as well as a great opportunity for some real “bimbly” diving, or for training if you feel so inclined. This year I decided that I’d had more than my share of excellent diving already, and that I should concentrate on doing some instructing, if that was wanted: so I borrowed an instructor manual (thanks Kevin) and went prepared.

Capernwray is an ideal site for training: the site is sheltered, the access easy and the vis is normally pretty good. There are lots of things to see; including several small boats, two helicopters and a couple of fairground horses (I kid you not) down there. There is a good stock of large brown trout, which congregate near the entry point and will come really close to you. There are also a few small perch; and rumour has it there are some Sturgeon somewhere over the far side, but I haven’t seen them and don’t know anyone who has.We stayed, as usual, in the Queens Hotel in Carnforth. Not what you’d call a quality establishment (it’s a pub – poor Arnold and Malcolm discovered that the speaker for the sound system was just under their room – Ann and I were on the2nd floor so it was quieter, but with the heat only coming on once in a blue moon it was still bloody cold!), nevertheless, at £19-50 a night you couldn’t exactly complain. We met up on the Friday afternoon and those who were not already members registered. A few actually got there in time for a dive on the Friday, but most of us took the journey at a more leisurely pace (it’s about 4 hours from Bedford, depending on traffic – the M6 toll road helps a lot) and started our diving on Saturday.

The weather was perfect, you couldn’t really have asked for better. Although the frost stayed with us all day, the skies were blue and the sun shone, so the whole world was white and sparkly! When we arrived, the divers entering the water were shrouded in the mist that was rising from the surface with the morning sun. I was buddied with Ann, who wanted to complete some of the practical lessons for Sports diver. I looked at the programme and decided it wouldn’t be too good an idea to attempt the first lesson, as this requires you to beach a casualty, and the beach area there isn’t exactly huge. We decided to go for lesson two – Surface Marker Buoy, and then try to move on to lesson four – DSMB and navigation. Capernwray is perfect for navigation, as the various boats, planes etc are mostly pretty close together and there’s a map with all the bearings on it (except that they only tell you one direction, so you have to work out the reciprocals for yourself – good practice). I briefed Ann on the SMB drill and then talked her through the process of plotting the course and working out the bearings, which we wrote on her slate. We entered the water by walking down the slipway, which leads to a steep slope on the left and around the edge at 6 metres on the right. We went left, on a bearing of 180, and immediately found the Gypsy Moth – a small boat at the bottom of the slope – you’d have a hard time missing that one. From there we went at 195 to the group that comprises a portacabin topped by a mini oil derrick on one end and a small helicopter on the other. We practiced going up (to the derrick) and down again, so that Ann had to reel in and let out the SMB, and then under the tail of the helicopter, so that Ann had to check overhead and go around so as not to snag the line. The next bearing was 80, and that took us to the Podsnap – a 50ft minesweeper. We went over the top of it (more up and down with the SMB) and spent a few moments having a look; then we headed for the African Queen, which is “a look-a-like for the famous vessel in the Humphrey Bogart film of the same name” and sits at 12 metres at the edge. Our plan was to continue on to the Cessna, which is a little further on round the edge, but Ann’s air was getting a little low, so we decided to ascend. We finned back round to the entry point and watched the trout from above.

Although the dive had gone well, we agreed that Ann should do a bit more SMB practice before attempting any compass work, so we repeated the same dive in the afternoon. Unfortunately our afternoon dive gave us the opportunity to discover why Capernwray is not always the ideal place for SMB drills: or alternatively, you could say it gives you a great way to practice dealing with the pitfalls! Everything was going well, and we got as far as the African Queen, but then Ann indicated a problem with the SMB. I took it from her and she was right, it was well and truly snagged. There was absolutely no way to free it, and we were pretty close to the end of the dive, so I figured we’d go up, and said so to Ann, before handing back the SMB. A combination of the snagged SMB and Ann’s mask suddenly filling with water led to a slightly pear-shaped ascent, but we got to the surface and discovered what the problem was: a buoy at the surface with two ropes hanging from it with weights attached to the end. There didn’t seem to be any line to the bottom, so if you weren’t swimming along staring upwards all the time (which few of us do), you could easily miss it. The SMB line had got in-between the two ropes – not something poor Ann could really have avoided (and don’t suppose I would have either). I guess though, it was a good demonstration of the fact that, if the line gets really stuck and you can’t free it, you’ve either got to give up and come up, or, if your buddy has a DSMB with them, you can get them to put theirs up and abandon yours – you can always go recover it later (been there, done that!) Anyway, a useful day’s diving and a nice meal that evening. Early to bed for a good sleep before another day’s diving (as I get older I’m even more of a party-pooper on dive trips – I remember previous Capernwray trips where we played pool until the wee hours – bed by 10 these days!)

When I opened my dive bag the next morning I couldn’t help but laugh. My BC had a layer of frost on the top! Of course, we’d put it all back wet, and it had been in the van overnight. I started to get out the other bits of my kit and the entertainment continued. The BC pretty much stood up on its own, and my ankle-weights were completely stiff! I put my kit together; glad I’d taken my hood and gloves in for the night, contemplating the possibility of free-flows, and deciding not to breathe off my regulator until I was underwater (recommended to prevent the moisture in your breath from freezing which leads to increased chance of free-flow). Then it was time to get into my drysuit. I unzipped the bag and picked up the solid lump of rolled-up suit. It sort of unrolled, with a bit of persuasion. Giggling hysterically, I tried to get my legs into the suit, except that the legs were frozen flat! And I’d been contemplating a trip to the Antarctic! I guess you’d have to keep your kit somewhere warmer overnight if you went there! With much hilarity, and comments about the madness of diving in such weather (which of course I didn’t mean, ‘cos it was lovely and toasty in the water) I kitted up and we went in. My aims for the day were: firstly to successfully ascend using the SMB, in order to complete the SMB and DSMB bits of lessons 2 and 4; to complete the navigation bits of lesson 4; and most important, to have a fun and trouble-free dive. The route I planned was a complete bimble: down to the Gypsy Moth again (‘cos we’re familiar with that now and it demonstrates pilotage); across and up the cliff face to Lord Lucan (the first horse – we’ve got the bearing for that); and then for Ann to navigate from Lord Lucan to Shergar and back; and then to The Dreamer (boat) and back; and finally a good ascent with the SMB. We planned a photo shoot at each location, so that Ann could get some pictures of herself riding a horse underwater (what is it about diving that makes you want to do the silliest things?) and finally back round the edge to play with and photograph the trout. What can I say? All went according to plan. We achieved our objectives and had loads of fun. At the end of the dive we spent 10 minutes taking loads of photos of the trout and each other and then that was the end of the weekend. Pack up and head home. You can do two dives on the Sunday if you want, but I guess we preferred to get back down the M6 in good time, so that’s what we did. I was home by five. Overall we had a very successful weekend. Ann completed two Sports Diver lessons; John Elt finished his Sports Diver qualification; Pim carried out some Dive leader training and some instructor practice (under Steve’s supervision) and everyone else had some very enjoyable diving. The evening meals were excellent and the company was great. Many thanks to Paul for organising it all (again). Looking forward to next year!