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Diving

Dives

I've dived with Susan Playfair 28 times:

Dive number	Date	Site	Location	Area	Country	Wreck	Freshwater	Depth (m)	Bottom time (min)	Total time (min)	Divers	Quality	Summary	Equipment
75	20 Mar 1982	Breda	Benderloch	Oban	Scotland			18	25	25	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		First dive with Susan. Through holds, bridge etc. Sandals, cans, tyres, truck etc. Much silliness - somersaults, new underwater signals etc. Very relaxed dive - due to not having any gauges etc.	own
76	20 Mar 1982	Breda	Benderloch	Oban	Scotland			14	15	15	Iain Hosking, Eric Franz, Susan Playfair		Now low tide. Dived with Eric and Susan (Susan had the torch - we were invisible). Getting a little dark, but good fun. Dive-bombed Doc and Rob.	own
79	27 Mar 1982	Railway Quay	Oban Bay	Oban	Scotland			5	15	15	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Little evidence of excess lobsters or congers. Best thing was light steaming past the pier - very dramatic. Grossly underweight.	own. 4lbs less weight.
81	28 Mar 1982	Easdale	Seil Island	Oban	Scotland			25	20	20	Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid, Susan Playfair		Not the quarries, but natural cliffs to the north. Amazing variety of sea life - fanworms, sea squirts, crustaceans of various kinds. Vis 6m at least.	own
82	4 Apr 1982	St Abbs	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			14	20	20	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Excellent dive - good u/w communication.	own
84	10 Apr 1982	Salen Pier	Salen	Mull	Scotland			14	15	15	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Plowter round pier with Susan to check out her new dry suit. OK apart from neck seal. Plenty of somersaults etc. Also plenty of scallops. Vis crap.	own
85	10 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			32	20	30	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Found and buoyed the wreck, then swam down to the archway and further down. Lots of bits to swim through - great fun. Inadvertently went deeper than intended so did stops at 10 and 5m. Some current, poor vis.	own
86	11 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			30	20	20	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Early morning dive. Through prop tube and between hull and rock. Very pretty. Torch flooded again (and jammed shut). Snorkelled to lighthouse and watched swans nesting.	own
89	12 Apr 1982	Salen Pier	Salen	Mull	Scotland			5	10	10	Iain Hosking, Ewan Rowell, Susan Playfair		Just a plowter round the pier to look for leaks in Susan's and Ewan's dry suits. Two leaks in Ewan's - none in Susan's. Flipping cold without gloves. Hardly a dive.	own
93	14 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			40	15	25	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Deepest yet. Straight down to 40m. Black as pitch (no torches). Up to 30m where we were surrounded by a shoal of hundreds of fish. Usual acrobatics - passed Geoff and Mike, then on up to do planned 5 minute stops at 10m & 5m. Calm morning, water and air warm. Great start to the day (it pissed down afterwards).	own, except for Eric's Ulyxes death gauge
94	14 Apr 1982	Meldon	Loch Buie	Mull	Scotland			14	47	47	Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide, Susan Playfair		Threesome with Geoff and Susan. Down at rudder and along starboard side (huge props). Got separated immediately and swam round independently. Swam down prop shaft housing, inside stern and around boilers. Found Susan wrestling with a crab and looked for Geoff, who had surfaced by this time. Leak in groin of dry suit (ugh!).	own
95	15 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			26	20	20	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Bottom time restricted because of later dive on Hispania. Essentially a 26m plowter - through tubes downwards, usual somersaults etc. Really enjoyable dive. Separated temporarily. Dry suit dry again.	own
96	15 Apr 1982	Hispania	Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			28	26	26	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Hit slack again. Along starboard side, into bridge, engine room (deeper than last time), over side by mistake and into stern cabin to look for Eric's torch. Spent ages untying the buoy, and overstepped no stop time. Trouble with sinuses.	own, except Malcolm's depth gauge
97	15 Apr 1982	Salen Pier	Salen	Mull	Scotland			7	10	10	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Decompression dive. Boring.	own
98	16 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			40	17	27	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Second deepie - much better planned, both with torches. Saw wreck very clearly - not at all narced. Through tubes on way up, and under wreck. Some current. Sinuses kicking up again.	own
99	16 Apr 1982	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			30	11	13	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Search for Ewan's tanks. Decent current at last...Wreck not buoyed, so had to find it again, by contouring at 15m. Down to 30m and back up slowly, very slowly, in fact all time slowest ascent. Curious wrasse.	own
100	1 May 1982	Loch Sunart		Scottish West Coast	Scotland			15	30	30	Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid, Susan Playfair		100th dive! Weather conditions - hail and snow. Bottom is silt, shelving downwards and with many sea pens, crabs, scallops etc. Collected queenies for tea. Water warm. Leaks in dry suit and sinus trouble again.	own
104	30 May 1982	St Abbs	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			12	30	30	Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid, Susan Playfair		Low tide, good vis (10m). Wrasse, flounder and smaller fish, squat lobsters etc. Swam around Cathedral and elsewhere. Suit dry again after repairs. So was Susan's (much appreciated).	own
105	12 Jun 1982	Sound of Kerrera		Oban	Scotland			20	20	20	Iain Hosking, Eric Franz, Susan Playfair		Sloping bottom, silty and dark, but good vis - at least 10m. Hundreds of squat lobsters, plus scallops, squid, sea squirts, swimming crabs, large fish. I had to shorten the dive because of sinus trouble when we surfaced halfway through. Spent a surprisingly comfortable night in Eric's tent, on the shore of the Sound.	own
106	13 Jun 1982	Easdale	Seil Island	Oban	Scotland			22	30	30	Iain Hosking, Eric Franz, Susan Playfair		Dived cliffs again. Fantastic vis: 60-100 feet. Incredible variety of life - squat lobsters, brightly-coloured sea anemones, plumose anemones, sea squirts, feather duster worms, dead men's fingers, cup coral, sun stars, starfish, sponges, nudibranchs, dogfish, wrasse, sea urchins, hydras, jellyfish, oysters and a cowrie which I found on my tank after the dive. Tremendous scenic dive.	own
109	25 Jul 1982	St Abbs	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			13	45	45	Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid, Susan Playfair		Fed wrasse, made much use of underwater communications system.	own
110	31 Jul 1982	Karlsruhe	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			25	28	30	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Good first dive of the trip, after a worrying couple of minutes when we found the buoy line had dragged off the wreck. The ship is lying at a steep angle on her port side. We covered about half of her, from engine room aft. Large gun on stern. Fish life prolific. Vis 10-11m. Problems - Susan's tank harness, fin strap, my new cuff and sinuses on way up. Stung by a jellyfish on the mouth.	own, except Snipe's 87 cu ft tank.
111	1 Aug 1982	Köln	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			32	18	20	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Down buoy line to port side behind bridge. Quick look inside then swam to stern via two gun turrets. Stern almost pointed. Back to buoy line where we hung around for a while to check buoyancy for stops. Vis not so good - lots of plankton. 60s very comfy, sinuses cleared, no heater in cuff [eh?] - ace dive.	own, except twin 60s.
112	1 Aug 1982	Brummer	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			34	16	27	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Planned 30 mins at 30m + stops at 10 & 5. Changed our minds when we went down to 27 at 32 + stops. In the event we went to 34m so Susan had us surface, somewhat dissatisfied, at 16 mins. Subtly narked, I swam to the stern instead of the bows, but we saw various gun turrets and dipped inside a couple of times. Good dive. We'll be back.	own, twin 60s.
115	3 Aug 1982	Markgraf	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			45	17	17	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Perfect day - bright sunshine & flat calm. Down buoy line to a perfect landing on the bottom. Turned left for bows which were very impressive towering above us. Hawse pipes visible. Swam aft to where deck level comes above the seabed. Swam right underneath - wooden deck intact. Porthole with glass in it, still moveable. Also what might have been one of the side guns. Much purging of one another's demand valves, turning off air and flooding of masks on the stops.	own, twin 60s
116	3 Aug 1982	Destroyer	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			16	33	33	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Evening plowter - wreck very broken up. Saw one gun, masts etc. Very colourful wrasse with fluorescent blue stripes. Found leaks in Susan's dry bag and compared demand valves. Some brass in wreck, which couldn't be removed. Good fun.	own, twin 60s
117	4 Aug 1982	Kronprinz Wilhelm	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			36	14	17	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Vis poorer - 6m. Down buoy line to hull, where we shifted the shot and cut it free from the wreck. Up hull side of wreck towards bows - in and out of holes in the hull plates. Over hull to deck. Found two guns and a doorway in. Susan found a divers belt and gloves (standard divers dress type). No stop dive.	own, twin 60s
118	4 Aug 1982	Köln	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			23	32	47	Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair		Swam forward this time to see the other two-thirds of the wreck. Spent some time examining AA gun (and attendant fish) and then the bridge, under decks etc. On to bows - bow turrets missing. High speed fin back to line, past waist turret.	own, twin 60s, +12lbs