Johan de With about his cave expedition to Gourneyras

2020-07-09

Cave expedition Gourneyras.

And why the choice for Ammonite?

Departure 17-08-2020 to the Gourneyras together with Jp to meet Markku and Lars there on Wednesday and dive the Gourneyras here.

This meant that for a period of one week we had: food / drinks / electricity / tents / diving gases / emergency facilities / etc / etc and why? there is really nothing to reach within 3 hours! Even the experience of having no internet / coverage for 5 days was new to all of us !!

Due to these circumstances, all these and many things had to be carefully considered, going to the store was no longer an option !! In addition, careful thought also had to be given to diving material and normal equipment, as well as the backup and the backup of the backup.

Having regulators but not being able to service them on-site, or not having enough spare material at their disposal is a no-go, as well as having battery powered equipment, such as scooters / lamps / video / etc. should not be sufficient for 1 dive but preferably for 2, all this because of charging the scooters / lamps / heating vests / etc. after each dive, the chargers / generator were at best: 4 scooters, 8 batteries for lamps or heating, 4 batteries for video lighting, 4 cameras, and in addition the lighting we needed every evening in the base camp to prepare everything in the evening or to service it for the next day.

Given the above, you therefore need good material that can take a beating and lasts a long time. For this, I chose the lamps from Ammonite (which I have used and tested for quite some time): the Nautilus with the adjustable head and the 12 volt 24amp battery. This one because it gives light for more than 10 hours as standard! Furthermore, the 12volt 14 amp battery is used for Santi heating vest in the base, as standard it gives more than 2 and a half hours of heating! More than sufficient since it is only operated by me if I would get cold, I also had the Helios head connected to this as a spare lamp, which could give 7 hours of light in an emergency. In addition, everything can be exchanged underwater without problems, so a fantastic system with many possibilities, regardless of whether you are above or underwater and need to make adjustments! The Nautilus head was the ideal lamp for me during this expedition because it can be focused from 9 to 45 degrees! So, good for diving/signaling and good for filming, this can certainly be seen in the films!

As backup lighting, I primarily had the Ammonite battery 12 volts 14 amp with Helios head, and the backup of this were the Ammonite stingray lights, small, compact, 1000 lumens and 1.5 hours burn time each. Here I had 2 of them with me, more than sufficient and yet not too many, this to be able to return amply from the furthest point in the cave to the daylight zone with this lighting!

Furthermore, it is possible with the chargers from Ammonite to charge 1 large battery 12 volts and 1 backup lamp or something with a USB connection. In remote places with few power points available, this suddenly becomes very important!

In short for me: the lamp for this expedition in the Gourneyras that meets everything, think of burning time, interchangeable with different heads with different functions and light output, the battery can be combined with a connection for your heating which can be set on the battery, the battery in different weights, this to give you what you need so that you can choose the battery that suits its task !! And the charger that provides insight into charging percentages, and where you also have a USB port where u can charge stuff.

Yours sincerely:

Johan de with