DEMA 2023 Presentation : The Darkest Hours

[beldridg]

Brett,

Thank you for honestly presenting your story.

Several years ago I read a similar story. -Wreck, just going to stick my head in the hole and look around for a moment turned into being lost inside the wreck for a long time. Way overstayed the planned run time. But with a rebreather, survived.- That was one of the stories that convinced me that a rebreather was a good idea and to get one. You are not the first to have done this. I am sure there are others who never tell anyone about it.

I was thinking about some of the wrecks I was just going through in Truk. Very simple, very open, still easy to get lost going through an engine room. Now make that an inverted wreck. No longer open.

It is also one of the reasons I really like the two scrubber design of the rEvo. A normal rebreather with say a 5 hour scrubber, already used 2½ hours and planned to use the last 2 hours on a simple dive. Pretty common thing to do, get the most out of a scrubber. This extended run time would have been an issue. With the rEvo, swap out and rotate the scrubber after that first 2½ hour dive and you have a full scrubber for when problems arise.

Thanks for the feedback.

One thing to keep in mind on the rEvo is that when you rotate scrubbers, the bottom one is not completely fresh. Even when it is in the bottom, it is still scrubbing some CO2. As your top scrubber gets used and is less effective, the bottom one starts to take more of the load.

When I do big, deep dives I start with two new scrubbers. For example, when I was on the Britannic in October, I changed both canisters for each dive.

- brett

 

[scubadada]

Hi @beldridg Brett,

Thank you very much for sharing your story.

We've all made mistakes in our diving, some potentially fatal, I have. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and then not make those errors again. Of course, I am still free to make new mistakes and hope that I have the sense to avoid them.

I am very glad you are here to tell this tale and look forward to hearing about your future adventures.

 

[beldridg]

Hi @beldridg Brett,

Thank you very much for sharing your story.

We've all made mistakes in our diving, some potentially fatal, I have. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and then not make those errors again. Of course, I am still free to make new mistakes and hope that I have the sense to avoid them.

I am very glad you are here to tell this tale and look forward to hearing about your future adventures.

Thanks for reading it and thanks for the comments and feedback.

- brett

 

[Troglodyti 4.0]

• Were you the weakest link in the team chain?
• Where were you positioned in the team chain?
• Was visibility poor outside as opposed to inside the wreck?
• How many wreck dives prior to this dive (you)?
• Was the team leader a local?
• Why didn’t you each tie off and find the exit?
• Why didn’t the team leader tie off to begin the dive?
• Why didn’t the team leader abort the dive when visibility was poor?
• Did you realize large camera equipment increases task loading?
• Did the pre dive brief explain how to abort a dive?
• Was every compartment in the ship silted up?
• When did you realize a four man team was detrimental?
• Were you or your team the cause of the silt out?
• Did anyone think to enter from opposite ends, meet up, swap reels and exit?

 

[beldridg]

• Were you the weakest link in the team chain?
• Where were you positioned in the team chain?
• Was visibility poor outside as opposed to inside the wreck?
• Was visibility poor outside as opposed to inside the wreck?
• Was the team leader a local?
• Why didn’t you each tie off and find the exit?
• Why didn’t the team leader tie off to begin the dive?
• Why didn’t the team leader abort the dive when visibility was poor?
• Did you realize large camera equipment increases task loading?
• Did the pre dive brief explain how to abort a dive?
• Was every compartment in the ship silted up?
• When did you realize a four man team was detrimental?
• Were you or your team the cause of the silt out?
• Did anyone think to enter from opposite ends, meet up, swap reels and exit?

I will make a leap of faith and assume this is not a troll and I will answer the questions that I can answer but I won't speculate. I would also note that some of your questions are already answered in the detailed analysis I wrote.

If it wasn't clear in the post, this was not a "normal" wreck navigation (I've done hundreds of those to know). This was a "fun house maze" of a crumpled and tight, upside down forecastle area. Basically, there were no straight lines or obvious corridors, bulkheads, etc.

• Were you the weakest link in the team chain?

I won't speculate.

• Where were you positioned in the team chain?

This was detailed in my post. I was the fourth diver into the wreck.

• Was visibility poor outside as opposed to inside the wreck?

I provided actual pictures of the visibility outside the wreck (and inside) in the post. For me, given that I often dive in Southern California where visibility is often very limited, it was fine. Those pictures should give you an idea of the visibility and I'll let you draw whatever conclusions you want.

• How many wreck dives prior to this dive (you)?

I would say "a lot" (multiple hundreds) or, another way to state that, is "enough to know better."

• Was the team leader a local?

Again, this was detailed in the post. Quote from my post "Diver 1 – A local Palau diver with a lot of experience diving wrecks, including the IJN Sata"

I'm not sure I can make that clearer?

• Why didn’t you each tie off and find the exit?

I personally think this would have been a very bad idea for many reasons. Now you have four lines going in all kinds of directions, creating even more silty areas AND now the group is separated. We were relatively sure that somebody would try to come find us and their task would be much harder if the group had gone four different directions.

• Why didn’t the team leader tie off to begin the dive?

I won't speculate on that. I will say that we are all experienced wreck divers and any one of us should have realized we should have put a line in. I stated this from my perspective in the post.

• Why didn’t the team leader abort the dive when visibility was poor?

I won't speculate for him. As I clearly stated in the lessons learned, I went on a "trust me" dive and that was my mistake. I would say that I'm guessing his visibility was okay given that he was in the lead and didn't have the silt in his path.

• Did you realize large camera equipment increases task loading?

Yes

• Did the pre dive brief explain how to abort a dive?

Not for this specific dive.

• Was every compartment in the ship silted up?

Two points: (1) No, this is a massive wreck (470 feet / 140m) and we were only in the forecastle area (2) As I mentioned above, this wasn't a "typical" wreck where you have "compartments" that are neatly laid out with corridors and bulkheads. It was a jangled, tangled heap of a metal maze. I tired to depict this with some of the photos I posted.

• When did you realize a four man team was detrimental?

For me personally (I won't speak for the others), when we realized the exit path was blocked, we tied in a line, and that we would have to find our way back out to the entrance.

• Were you or your team the cause of the silt out?

We all were. There is no way to do that navigation path in that wreck and not silt it out. You might not believe me on that, but it is true. And that is in hindsight.

• Did anyone think to enter from opposite ends, meet up, swap reels and exit?

No.

Again, this was not a straight forward traverse like you might have in a cave. It had multiple different twists and turns and possible wrong turns. Three out of the four had never been in the wreck. To have two people who have never done this specific path to try to find their way to the midpoint would never happen IMHO.

If this becomes a pissing contest or a troll fest, I will quickly disengage. I am hopeful that it will remain civil and constructive. I would also request that you tell us who you are instead of using an alias.

Regards,

- brett

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

• Did anyone think to enter from opposite ends, meet up, swap reels and exit?

Brett,

I'm neither a wreck nor cave diver, but given the risk in silting things up, this sounds like a really bad idea to me. Am I wrong/overly paranoid? Or are you just being nice in your response?

 

[shoredivr]

You didn’t read the story, did you?

• Were you the weakest link in the team chain?
• Where were you positioned in the team chain?
• Was visibility poor outside as opposed to inside the wreck?
• How many wreck dives prior to this dive (you)?
• Was the team leader a local?
• Why didn’t you each tie off and find the exit?
• Why didn’t the team leader tie off to begin the dive?
• Why didn’t the team leader abort the dive when visibility was poor?
• Did you realize large camera equipment increases task loading?
• Did the pre dive brief explain how to abort a dive?
• Was every compartment in the ship silted up?
• When did you realize a four man team was detrimental?
• Were you or your team the cause of the silt out?
• Did anyone think to enter from opposite ends, meet up, swap reels and exit?

 

[shoredivr]

Brett, thank you for sharing this. The self assessment of the dive is helpful. Glad you all made it.

I wouldn’t waste time with someone who seems not to have read your report.

 

[johndiver999]

It seems strange to me that if there was really only one viable (one way) path through the wreck (in his area) and the guide knew this from many dives, why wouldn't he lay a line along that path? I would think he would leave it there, but perhaps there is competition between different companies serving tourists? From my very limited understanding, there is just an overwhelming benefit of a permanent line and I am apparently too ignorant of the situation to identify valid reasons for not doing it.

Also just for clarification of the story.. there was a previously unknow collapse on the exit path which occurred at an unknown time and ALSO a collapse during the actual dive that closed off the original entrance path as well? The occurrence of both those things seems dreadfully unlikely. If that is the case, then a permanent line would obviously not solved this particular problem.

 

[beldridg]

It seems strange to me that if there was really only one viable (one way) path through the wreck (in his area) and the guide knew this from many dives, why wouldn't he lay a line along that path? I would think he would leave it there, but perhaps there is competition between different companies serving tourists? From my very limited understanding, there is just an overwhelming benefit of a permanent line and I am apparently too ignorant of the situation to identify valid reasons for not doing it.

I don't think it was a "competition" thing. I honestly don't know the "real" answer to that question but I think it was a combination of (1) that wreck is dived very infrequently, (2) that route was almost never done when people did dive the wreck and (3) maybe they didn't want to encourage anybody who might have run across the line to try the route.

But, again, those are speculations on my part.

Also just for clarification of the story.. there was a previously unknow collapse on the exit path which occurred at an unknown time and ALSO a collapse during the actual dive that closed off the original entrance path as well? The occurrence of both those things seems dreadfully unlikely. If that is the case, then a permanent line would obviously not solved this particular problem.

Yes, this was the case. It had been a long time since the local diver had done this traverse and (obviously) we didn't know that the traverse was blocked but discovered that while we were doing the route. When he eventually did find our original entrance, it collapsed.

I've thought about this a lot. I think a line still would have helped potentially by allowing us to exit in a more orderly fashion and potentially avoiding a collapse of the original entrance. At that point when he found our original entrance, the other three divers (including me) were waiting at the point we had tied in so I'm not sure how precarious the area was.

Regards,

- brett