After our first effort at the Kelloe ended up on the bottom with zero viz we felt another attempt was due.  Out went the anchor and it bit.  After confirming that the boat was not drifting, and setting up the deco, we headed down.  At 49m we hit the bottom. Viz was great but there was no wreck. In fact, there was no reef, except for a very shallow rock ledge running North.  We  looked around and then moved off from the anchor, Wayne leading.  I felt something was not right.  There were no visible features to keep an eye on, just sand a shallow rock.  I was falling behind Wayne and looking behind me I could not see the anchor.  As I looked ahead for Wayne he disappeared out of viz.  I became uncertain what to do and turned, seeking to find the anchor.  Not having checked the bearing that we were on I wasn't sure what our return bearing should be.  After swimming 10m or so I stopped.  I noted that I was starting to breathe shorter and shallower - not good.  I started to think I was alone 49m below the surface and panic was setting in.  I clearly was narced.  At that stage Wayne returned.  he could see I was narced, my camera was just hanging loose and I was just floating there.  We decided that the best course of action was to do a blue water ascent together.  We knew at that depth we did not have the time to keep looking.  We kept slowly ascending and after a 4 minute deco Wayne surfaced to find the boat. It was quite a distance away and we swam to it at 5m depth.

Looking back I had not slept well that night, woke up with a headache and that probably contributed to suffering narcosis.  A few lessons - at depth never move away from the anchor unless you use a reel or have very visible features as a guide.  Don't separate, stay together always.  And if you feel something isn't right then it certainly isn't, head for shallower water where it is safer.  And believe what the bottom finder tells you.  It will show the boiler of a wreck quite easily.  On this day the GPS co-ordinates were wrong and there was nothing on the bottom finder.

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This site was last updated 28/10/11