It all starts with a story between friends, we met on December 31 to do the last dive of the year, at Goul de la Tannerie, before Christmas Eve together.
This dive, for Bertrand and myself, gave us a real desire to come back there.
So we had agreed to come back and have a look at it the weekend of February 18.
Preparation for the dive:
The team is confirmed for this weekend, Thierry Fresquet, Nicolas Febvay, Bertrand Hemard, Clément Chaput and myself as a diver, Nadeige Lenczner will have the thankless task of staying on the surface.
Bertrand and Clément have a maximum objective of -180 m, Thierry and Nicolas -85 m. For me, no specific goal.
In addition, for safety concerns with regard to saturation, I do not wish to do a dive longer than 5h-5h30.
After some extrapolations and calculations, we decide that I will only allow myself 3min of additional progress compared to the December dive.
Big unknown for me, the SNHP, because with the speeds of descents that I will do to minimize my saturation times, I will massively increase this risk.
It is planned that we will leave in 2 teams:
Clément, Bertrand and me first,
Thierry and Nico second. They will be on their decoration at the same time as us and will be able to unload us.
Configurations: at the level of safety strategies we have crossed the techniques.
Clement and I opt for sharing an open decoration: 15L of oxygen, 15L of 50%), a second safety TRITON each that we will leave at -55m with an NLS Explorer and a Cuda for Clément and two XK1s for me .
Bertrand has all his open redundancy with an NLS Explorer.
For the three of us, we each have in addition to our two 20 L bottoms, two 20 L of 15/55 for 3 which will remain at the head of the terminal well.
D-Day, diving:
We arrive at the Goul de la Tannerie on Saturday at 8:30, there is no one, we are quickly busy unloading the equipment.
Last reminder of the dive plan and the planned immersion time.
At 10:02, Clément, Bertrand and I immerse ourselves. We are a little busy and take the time on the first 700 m, 32 minutes to get there.
We deposit the bottles and check the pressures and confirm between us that everything is good for the continuation of the dive.
Next step, at -55 m where we leave with Clément our two spare TRITONs with their distinctive red loops.
As agreed while Clément and I check the TRITONs, Bertrand goes alone towards the bottom to validate the line up to -180 m maximum.
We go with Clément towards the bottom. I leave in front of the scooter at full speed, piloting it in the greatest relaxation so as not to force it. I very quickly pass the low point at -100 m before going up to reach the top of the well.
I take the time to deposit my 20 L of 15/55, and to validate with Clément when he also deposits his 20 L and his cuda.
A last OK sign and we continue towards the bottom.
At -160 m, we meet Bertrand who gives us an OK sign, so everything is good until -180 m. Clément stops at this depth.
I chain jumps, turns as short as a pilot on a circuit in order to gain a few minutes, which in the end represent hours of decompression.
That's it, I arrive at -230 m at the top of the last well. I dive. After a few seconds I arrive at the terminus of Xavier Méniscus.
I look at my computer, everything is good, I have the right to keep my timing at 2 min 45 A / R and I would be on time.
I take out the coil provided for the occasion. I make a lark's head on Xavier's son and go full throttle.
The gallery is smooth.
The further I go, the more I wonder when I will be able to moor the son. In 20 m, I did not see a single inking. I am in a gallery of 3 by 4 m circular whose bottom is at -240m and facing south.
After 27 m I see a spoiler and the gallery turns to the right at heading 240 while still maintaining the same section.
I am 35 m from the unwound wire, when, on the ground, at -242 m, I see a small stone on which I can consider mooring my son.
I am a little exposed to SNHP, I have some tremors in my hands, but it remains largely controllable. I control my Freedom, I'm on time and I can continue 20 seconds if I want.
But will I find a mooring by then?
As soon as the question is asked I decide to turn around, I leave my bobbin on the ground.
Breathing on the TRITON is extremely flexible and easy. I greatly appreciated the performance of the TRITON in terms of work of breathing at the bottom.
On the ascent, the wells follow one another. At the exit of the gallery at -180 m I realize that I am at home. Arriving at -125 m, I see Clément in front of me, in addition to being great, I am no longer alone. At -100 m, I connect my heating to limit the cold, vasoconstriction and promote decompression.
The landings follow one another, at -55 m we recover the emergency machines with Clément. Clément changes the machine to redo the manipulation.
We meet Thierry and Nico in this same area, we give them a big sign that everything is OK. They continue to their objective of -85 m.
Between -6 m and -18 m, we are all together, it's really good, 7 TRITON in the well at the decoration.
Bertrand will do a 3 hour dive departure / return basin (complete decoration in the well). He returns just after Thierry and Nico. With Clément, we stay 2 hours alone. We chose to do the decoration at the bottom to maximize safety and keep the 700 m back in oxygenation and in order to de-saturate since we have to pilot the scooter.
We go out with Clément at 3:20 p.m., 318 minutes after our departure.
The size, hydrodynamics and work of breathing of the TRITON allowed me to move at high speeds, to breathe safely at a depth of -242 m.
We leave all the equipment in the water, go to change, and break the crust,…
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