Ken Adrian, the owner of Divers Choice Charters in Nanaimo, a friend of Daniel (the lost diver), spoke with the RCMP dive recovery team about allowing a team of cave trained CCR divers continue the search. The RCMP suspended their search late Thursday and the wreck was opened up to recreational divers. The team of Dave Tomblin, Aaron Lackie, Scott Ensor and myself made two dives on Friday, the first with a run time of 90 minutes and average depth of 125 feet covered 95% of the area of the wreck aft of the engine room. It was determined from combining the eyewitness reports, the dive computer profile, a written description of the incident from Candace and detailed construction plans of the wreck, that the lost diver couldn’t have made it past the 3 deck high continuous bulkhead that separates the aft section of the ship from the engine room, and so we concentrated our search in this area. After the first dive, we marked off all areas that had been searched by the two teams (of two) and looked at what might have been missed. We surmised that the two rooms forward of the “air lock”, which are cold storage rooms, had not be adequately covered and Scott and I were tasked to cover this area, as well as the storerooms directly below them. This area is 6” to over a foot deep in rust flakes and silt and was an extremely difficult area to maintain visibility in. The team agreed to run full cave protocol for all aspects of the search. Scott tied off the reel at the cut off area of the transom and we ventured into the bowels of the ship. At about minute 15 into the second dive, we reached the cold storage rooms and I waited in the air lock room while Scott explored first the starboard, then the port side rooms. The port side room ceiling had collapsed and getting into the room was like swimming into a lobster trap, with the sheet metal ceiling panels forming a funnel into the room. Scott found the diver about in the center of the room, vertically orientated with his head touching the deck. He made several wraps of line around the divers wrist and locked the line off. By this time the viz in the room had dropped to zero and Scott followed the guide line from the room and informed me of his discovery. We recalled the other two divers and made our ascent. It was agreed that once we located the diver, we would back off and let the RCMP dive team do the recovery, as they had protocols that needed to be followed.
We all made it back safely, which was the number one goal, all divers did their jobs and I for one am very proud of the team members.
I also feel it is necessary to remind folks that although these ships were sunk for "recreational" purposes, there are some areas in the ships that are absoulutly "no go" areas. Even with seriously experienced divers, having all the proper training and equipment, following the most extreme protocols, there are some places one just shouldnt go. These wrecks are slowly coming apart and the longer they are down there, the thicker the silt becomes, the more walls and ceilings cave in, and the more dangerous they become. I believe that diving more than one bulkhead away from the exit is reason to use a guideline. This is not your kids jungle gym.
PLEASE dive safe everyone, one search like this is enough for anyones lifetime.
