Off on a road trip to Croatia for some deeper warm water diving. Owing to travel difficulty with baggage allowances a group of us decided to drive this year. Seemed like a good idea at the time!

We have 1200+ miles ahead of us, 19hrs of driving if non stop. We are all insured to drive so hopefully will make steady progress, hope we all remain mates!

Loaded onto the Channel Tunnel Train

I will post on my return about the trip. Thanks to OThree, I am able to take (as well as my drysuit) a 6×5 semi dry and a Deepskin tech vest for added insulation.

I have issues getting into a drysuit when the air temperature is over 30°C and the surface water temperature is over 25°C. The trouble with the Croatian Adriatic is that when you are on a wreck at 50m+ it is a predictable 13 – 15°C certainly cold enough for a dry suit.

Autobahn!

From past experience, the cold at the deepest part of the dive is bearable since you are active and moving around. As you ascend the water warms and all is fine. In the past when I have tried a semi dry in the Med(for long deep dives) it wasn’t the dive phase that was the problem but the early deep stops where it remains cold and all you can do is wait for time to pass.

Modern decompression theory has cast doubt on the wisdom of deep stops so as divers  we tend to ascend rather more quickly in the first stages of our decompression – getting to water with a temperature that an OThree 6×5 semi-dry can handle with ease!

Got there!

Part 2 of this report will hopefully give some answers!