Leadbelly

[Gaijin]

Much as I love his music, I don't want him on my sub.

Yesterday I left Lorient, for AM51. (VIIB, 1940). Went there at x128 compression, which took some (real) time, let me tell you. Nothing exciting happens on the way, but I'm feeling good and enjoying the scenic sunsets. I'm particularly looking forward to sinking a ship and getting a new patrol grid from Bdu ( http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=160172 ).

So I reach AM51 without encounter, at dusk, in rough seas but clear skies. Perfect, time to go deep and quiet and listening mode. I order a dive to 40m in order to keep her steady and to give the crew a break from the rollicking we've been enduring getting there.

Just as I go back to my book for a few minutes, while I wait for the boat to get to depth, I notice an usual movement on the screen...the depth gauge is plummeting much faster then usual.

I observe my sub hurtling downwards, past 70 m's before I can even get to the reverse button. Makes no difference at all. I engage full forward and order surface, and although the sub is angled upwards (allowing me a great view of the Chiefs knees) we barely come to a hover at 120 m. Takes two ballast blows, before we're headed in the right direction, which still remains at a snails pace.

Thinking that the weather may have contributed something towards this, I undergo several more test dives for the next hour. Every one of them with the same result. On the last attempt, we hit 180m and it takes almost our entire ballast to get back up.

With a heavy (leadbelly) heart and a full load of eels, I radio Bdu that we are returning to base, after an extremely long and wasted journey. I spend the next while, glued to the screen, taking her safely back to base at x128, constantly in fear of aircraft or destroyers stumbling upon us with no way of hiding.

Nothing sunk. Nothing gained, except for a forced tactical decision followed by a stressful and worrying long vigil home. Just like the real thing.

I love SH3 Commander and its random malfunction settings.

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Lessons learnt:

Never leave Bernard in charge of painting the hull with non-issue paint...

In addition to checking the scopes, revs, guns and full speeds when one leaves base, one should always conduct a test dive. Had I done that, I could have saved myself an awful lot of trouble. (First time I've ever come across such a malfunction of this type)