Projects > Gourneyras 02
Setup
Latest update: March 18, 2004
Without the help of Ralf and Jörg this would not have been possible!
The first part of the setup means getting all the equipment down to the cave entrance. The cave lays around 70 m down the hill and therefore a cable car has to be build to lower all the gear to the entrance pool.
It was mainly Ralf Haslinger and Jörg Gaukel who did this. They started immediately the night everyone arrived. So after a 10 hour drive they started building the cabe car, while the others went to sleep.
Early in the morning the team went up and started to haul down the gear.
4 rebreathers and 2 double frames were hauled down. Also 5 scooters, several stages, reels, a 2-person habitat, heating tubes, food, 3 sets of double 12 l tanks, tables, etc. Bringing the gear down really was a team effort and the surface manager had to organizise a useful order to bring things down.
As soon as some of the stuff arrived at the entrance, some people started to assemble it.
On the first weekend we were using a climbing rope, but on the second weekend we used a steel cable instead.
Reinhard and Michael put together the double rebreathers and the scooteres were also assembled.
All stuff was placed in the shallow section of the entrance for the support divers to arrange it under water.
We held a short briefing about what to put where and duties were assigned.
Every supporter should get the chance to get into the water. Due to the DIR approach everyone could use lights, regs, stages, doubles of other members so it was logistically easy to get everyone in the water. They just had to bring their suits, masks, some backplates and that's about it.
Brus with stage tanks.
The first dive team went in and placed the stages and the scooters and the heating tubes inside the cave.
All support-dives were done on trimix 21/35 without any deco gas. Max depth was 45m and some did 4-5 dives per day. Using no deco gas disciplines divers to have a look at their bottom time, to have no fear of deco or trimix and makes diving more relaxed, logistically.
The 21 m stage with tx50/25 was placed at the tables, because we would use this gas to start the dive with and then leave it around 21 m and switch to the first trimix 17/55 and pick up the rest of the stuff.
We even had waders on-site so that one could stand in the water without getting cold.
The habitat was brought in at the "push-day" while Michael and Reinhard were doing their dive. This shows the confidence we have in the team. Reinhard and Michael just knew that they would get the job done!
They clipped the stages and all the accessories to the habitat and then they started checking the cave for the arrival of Michael and Reinhard.
The surface manager made a dive roster that listed when everyone was to go in the water to check.
All setup and support dives were logged by the surface manager.
The video team was coming back from their first test dive to bring in the habitat shown on the right and the scooters.
On the left you can see the 2-person-habitat. The advantage of this type is that divers can talk and help each other under water, but it is not easy to transport under water...