Details matter

[TSandM]

Yesterday, we went out to attempt one of our premiere PNW dives, the wreck of the Diamond Knot. This day had been planned for over a month, and I'd read every account of diving it that I could find, and studied the diagrams, and planned our dive profile and deco and everything we needed.

We had a lot of work to do to get everything ready. Such a dive requires a lot of gear, and it all has to be inspected and checked to make sure it is working properly. When you driving 3 1/2 hours to dive, to a place where nobody is going to have any spare parts for anything you need, you have to take the time to make sure it's all good before you leave home.

We checked our lights, and all our regulators. I looked at our scooters, and found that, because of the way they'd been stored, the o-rings were dirty, so I took that all apart, cleaned the grooves and cleaned and regreased the o-rings. I checked the weights in the scooters, to make sure they were secure, and put the batteries in and checked the retaining rings. I put the scooters together and leak-tested them in the pool. The only thing I didn't do was run them, because I didn't want to store them with the batteries hooked up (they bleed power that way).

In the end, although the seas were flat and the wind wasn't bad, the reason I wasn't able to do the dive was because the trigger on my scooter was repeatedly sticking. It was the last straw in a long week of frustrations and barriers between me and this dive. We did 7 hours of driving, and over three hours travel on the boat, to and from the site, and four of the six of us dove, but I didn't (and Peter didn't get to, because I was his buddy).

Moral of the story: Check EVERYTHING. If there is a single function that might make or break a dive, be sure you know the status of that before you leave the house.

 

[mala]

do you need a scooter to dive the wreck?

 

[Cave Diver]

I put the scooters together and leak-tested them in the pool. The only thing I didn't do was run them, because I didn't want to store them with the batteries hooked up (they bleed power that way).

I'm having a bit of a problem with this statement. What good does it do to leak test them without hooking the batteries up? Wouldn't you have to take them back apart to hook the batteries up, thus negating any previous leak test?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I understand where you're coming from, but I'd have gone anyway. I'm assuming you had a live boat, and an SMB ... and although it's easy to get swept away on that site, tides were pretty flat yesterday.

FWIW - my luck on that ship ain't good. Took me six attempts to finally make it on the wreck, and I ended up doing a solo dive because the other two guys on the boat were diving RBs and didn't want a OC guy for a dive buddy. Hit it on a pretty bad vis day ... which you probably had yesterday as well, considering the weather lately ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Scott L]

I'm having a bit of a problem with this statement. What good does it do to leak test them without hooking the batteries up? Wouldn't you have to take them back apart to hook the batteries up, thus negating any previous leak test?

Very picky comment. Small chance that a leak would develop from the time of the pool test to installing the batteries. Why not check the propulsion system top-side after battery installation would be my question. Several short trigger-pulls...

 

[Cave Diver]

Very picky comment.

I'm not familiar with scooters, and especially not the scooter she's using. But the stuff I do deal with that has o-rings and needs leak testing gets leak tested every time it's closed back up due to the fact that a leak is possible anytime it's opened. That's why I'm having a hard time understanding testing it for leaks if it's gonna have to be opened up again and asked for a clarification.

If you have one, I'd love to hear the reasoning.

 

[TSandM]

We don't leak test the scooters every time we use them. But because they had been very dirty, and because I took the o-rings out and washed them and regreased them, I wanted to be sure there was no dirt or grit left that would cause a leak. I threw them in the pool with the batteries not connected, because you can't leave them connected or the batteries will go dead. I didn't want to connect them, leak test and run test them, and then have to take them apart again and disconnect the batteries, because taking them apart and putting them together is hard for me to do. So I simply on the assumption that they were working, because they were working the last time we used them. BAD idea.

Bob, there was NO way that dive was happening without a scooter, given yesterday's currents. In fact, Scott and Brian, who splashed when we were trying to, didn't even enjoy the bottom time that much. (Richard and Jeanna, who went in much later than Richard was sure we needed to do, had a somewhat more pleasant dive, but surface current was wild for them, too.)

 

[Peter Guy]

Caved -- the scoots had been sitting out for some time unconnected so they had gotten dirty. She cleaned them, removed the O-rings, cleaned the grooves, etc. and put them back together -- that's why they were leak checked. It was a mistake NOT to connect the batts and check but that could easily have been done before the leak check and then unplug the batts.

Yes, that means the scoots would have had to be opened up again but that is something that needs to be done anyway because you can't leave the batts connected.

Bob, I was tempted to go down and do it solo! As it turned out, we got in too early and had very strong surface current which made the scoots necessary to get to, and down, the downline.

 

[RonFrank]

Scooters seem to me to be unreliable. Every time I am reading about them they are failing.

I would not like my dive depending on a scooter, but if it did a backup seems prudent. I have no idea what scooter rental would cost but whats the cost of a six+ hour trip and all that prep just to have a switch issue?

 

[freewillie]

Sorry to hear your dive went awry. I never had an episode of seasickness until my last dive trip with my daughter. On the way out on the seas we both started feeling queasy. Though the sensation would get better but didn't, even after feeding the fish. To make matters worse my daughter kept complaining that the neck seal on her wetsuit was too tight. I didn't think she needed to try on her wetsuit since the last dive was only 3 months ago. She grew faster than I thought. I sat out the second dive as well when she said she wasn't feeling well enough to do another dive. I'm making sure Bonine makes its way into my save a dive kit now. As for the wetsuit, we are brining it to Maui but may rent one if needed.