Had a good day today. Had my usual half an omelete with a piece of brown toast and banana, at this stage i'm too superstitious to go for anything else. After brekky was feeling a bit too full which I don't like before diving. Did my usual sinus rinse with usual gag but this time no follow through, like Tuesday. Today was actually cloudy which is pretty rare for these parts, but luckily this also meant that the winds we've been having had died down. When we got to the Blue Hole conditions were absolutely brilliant, good vis, warm water and no swell at all. As we waited to jump off the pontoon there were a school class of New Zealand kids snorkelling. It was funny hearing all the kiwi accents and almost reminiscent of a scene at Bondi Beach. Anne-Marie ended up taking some time to show one poor lad how to put his mask and snorkel on which was pretty funny. In the water I did my usual prep dives, a little shorter than normal because it was only 3 hours since brekky and I could still feel myself digesting. My sinuses were feeling a lot better, not far off 100% now. Mark did his big dive - a free immersion one and had a great result. 
After he jumped off I moved over to the pyramid and started my final breath up. During this we had all manner of wanker tourist snorkellers (not the kiwi kids, they were fine) coming over and grabbing our setup to have a discussion with each other and yell and laugh and generally get in the way. After they were shooed off I finished my breath up, packed and took off. The first 20m felt pretty good and I stopped pulling at about 25m and let myself drift down. I'd taped a 0.5kg weight to my neckweight and this was helping me fall straight, unlike yesterday when my legs were trying to overtake my head. In the 30m area I kept filling my mouth with air and losing it, this continued right into the 40's until my alarm went off at 45m and I kept drifting down until I felt a little pressure. Turned and headed back up starting to feel the urge to breath reasonably early. Lotta met me at 20m and I had a glide to the surface as I became bouyant again. Couple of breaths and did my surface protocol and checked my gauge. I ended up doing 49m which was close enough to my target of 48m so I was pretty happy another PB was in the bag. We then readied the sled for some variable weight. After yesterday's 60m dive I was a bit hesitant to put too much depth on today as the risk of lung barotrauma is very real when big jumps are made at these depths. I set my alarm for 55m and would see how I go. I've found that my limiting factor in sled diving is equalising, it's never too much a stretch swimmng back from the depths i'm attempting. After a small breath up I check my arms are in the right spot, someone is holding my monofin up to stop it from creating too much drag and put my hand on the brake release. Take my last breath, pack and take off. 
The sled feels like a rocket for the first 20m as I struggle to keep equalising in time. After 20m I settle back and try and relax into the dive with my eyes shut. It's pointless trying to read my gauge as we're going fast and it gets darker fairly quickly. I start mouthfilling to try and stay on top of equalising and eventually I hear my gauge beeping at me to tell me i'm at 55m. By the time I realise that it's beeping i'm well past 55m but can still equalise. Eventually no more air comes up when I try and mouthfill so I hit the brake. I don't feel as narked this time so I know straight away to get my legs out of the sled handles, lift the air bag up, twist the handle on the air tank and fill the bag with air until it starts moving, then quickly shut off the air and let go as the whole sled shoots off. I start my ascent with some strong kicks then settle into a slower pattern 2 kicks and a glide. Lotta met me somewhere around 20m and I stopped kickng and glided the rest of the way. It's so much easier ascending not wearing 4kg of lead! I surface trying not to slam into the returned sled, breath and do a surface protocol. As I surfaced Mark was barking at me telling me to not to get so close, I was about to tell him where to go when I turned and saw a few Italian tourists that decided to use the pyramid as a gossip lounge. I laughed and checked my gauge and found it to say i'd been to 65m. Bloody hell! A bit better than i'd hoped and apart from the equalising a really easy dive. Chest and lungs felt good too, no coughing blood and squeeze. After a couple more dives from the others we headed back in for our regular lunch and post mortem. PB's for everyone, a bloody good day! Off for the nightly cocktail now and dinner in town. Dahab is growing on me day by day, it's a great little town.
After he jumped off I moved over to the pyramid and started my final breath up. During this we had all manner of wanker tourist snorkellers (not the kiwi kids, they were fine) coming over and grabbing our setup to have a discussion with each other and yell and laugh and generally get in the way. After they were shooed off I finished my breath up, packed and took off. The first 20m felt pretty good and I stopped pulling at about 25m and let myself drift down. I'd taped a 0.5kg weight to my neckweight and this was helping me fall straight, unlike yesterday when my legs were trying to overtake my head. In the 30m area I kept filling my mouth with air and losing it, this continued right into the 40's until my alarm went off at 45m and I kept drifting down until I felt a little pressure. Turned and headed back up starting to feel the urge to breath reasonably early. Lotta met me at 20m and I had a glide to the surface as I became bouyant again. Couple of breaths and did my surface protocol and checked my gauge. I ended up doing 49m which was close enough to my target of 48m so I was pretty happy another PB was in the bag. We then readied the sled for some variable weight. After yesterday's 60m dive I was a bit hesitant to put too much depth on today as the risk of lung barotrauma is very real when big jumps are made at these depths. I set my alarm for 55m and would see how I go. I've found that my limiting factor in sled diving is equalising, it's never too much a stretch swimmng back from the depths i'm attempting. After a small breath up I check my arms are in the right spot, someone is holding my monofin up to stop it from creating too much drag and put my hand on the brake release. Take my last breath, pack and take off. 
The sled feels like a rocket for the first 20m as I struggle to keep equalising in time. After 20m I settle back and try and relax into the dive with my eyes shut. It's pointless trying to read my gauge as we're going fast and it gets darker fairly quickly. I start mouthfilling to try and stay on top of equalising and eventually I hear my gauge beeping at me to tell me i'm at 55m. By the time I realise that it's beeping i'm well past 55m but can still equalise. Eventually no more air comes up when I try and mouthfill so I hit the brake. I don't feel as narked this time so I know straight away to get my legs out of the sled handles, lift the air bag up, twist the handle on the air tank and fill the bag with air until it starts moving, then quickly shut off the air and let go as the whole sled shoots off. I start my ascent with some strong kicks then settle into a slower pattern 2 kicks and a glide. Lotta met me somewhere around 20m and I stopped kickng and glided the rest of the way. It's so much easier ascending not wearing 4kg of lead! I surface trying not to slam into the returned sled, breath and do a surface protocol. As I surfaced Mark was barking at me telling me to not to get so close, I was about to tell him where to go when I turned and saw a few Italian tourists that decided to use the pyramid as a gossip lounge. I laughed and checked my gauge and found it to say i'd been to 65m. Bloody hell! A bit better than i'd hoped and apart from the equalising a really easy dive. Chest and lungs felt good too, no coughing blood and squeeze. After a couple more dives from the others we headed back in for our regular lunch and post mortem. PB's for everyone, a bloody good day! Off for the nightly cocktail now and dinner in town. Dahab is growing on me day by day, it's a great little town.
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