Diving the Yongala

[ColinCB]

Yesterday I had the chance to dive the famous Yongala wreck off of the east coast of Australia.

Basic dive details: 15m vis, moderate current parallel from bow to stern.

Dive day began with a rather stormy boat ride out, but got clearer as we reached the site. I felt fine. First dive went off with only a small hitch, under weighted by 1.5kg or so, but other than that, it was a great dive. Max 27m, 41 minute dive, got back onto the boat. I didn't really notice it until I got back onto the boat, but I had a headache. Like a vice was crushing the sides of my head in. The rocking of the boat was definitely getting to me. 1 hour long SI, and then back to the second dive.

By the time the second dive arrived, I was nauseous with a pounding headache, thanks to the rocking boat. I knew getting into the water would help. I get in the water and descend to the bow. We ride the current to the stern and make the turn. At this point I'm at 21m or so and I notice my reg is becoming slightly harder to breathe. I notice the current has picked up as well. I'm about 1/2 back to the bow line when I'm getting especially fatigued and my reg feels like I'm working way to hard. I'm taking of lot of short shallow breathes. I feel like crap. I decide to call the dive. I realize my breathing is off, and force myself to take deeper breathes. I check my SPG constantly and I'm fine on gas, 160bar at this point. Signal my buddy and tell him I want to ascend. The journey back to the line was horrifyingly slow. I felt like I was kicking and kicking and getting no where. I reach the line with 120 in my tank. Still breathing heavily at this point. I begin to ascend. I take a half stop and then continue onto the normal stop at 5m. At this point my buddy, the DM, signals if I'm ok. I signal him ok. He leaves to go back down. I surface after the stop and go to the boat with 105 still in my tank. The swells are moderate, maybe a meter or so. I use the lines to pull myself to the boat. I'm getting smashed by the waves, but I remember one thing, keep the damn regulator in your mouth and breathe. I somehow make it to the boat, but the captain is to busy taking information to help my get up the ladder. I get my fins off and throw them on the boat. I pull myself up the ladder, exhausted, drop my gear in the rack, and proceed to completely and utterly empty my stomach of everything that's in it for 20 minutes. At least the giant trevally are enjoying my half digested breakfast. I sit down and think about what happened.

This is what I thought about.

Should I have called the dive after the first?
Should the DM have left me?
Should I have let the current take me back to the stern and held onto the buoy at the surface? (there are two buoys marking the bow and stern)

I did a few things well, controlled my breathing as much as possible, called the dive, and kept the reg in my mouth.

This is the first time in my diving career I have ever felt like things were slightly out of control. I hated the feeling.

 

[TSandM]

Did you have a look at your regulator after this dive? The pounding headache after the first one makes me think of CO2 retention. If something was wrong with the reg, increasing your work of breathing, that could do it. Or if you were fighting a strong current and really having to work at depth, that can do it, too.

It would be pretty unusual for seasickness to present with a severe headache.

It's hard to tell you whether you should have bagged the second dive. If you often feel ill, and know it improves in the water, then getting in to try the second dive makes sense. But again, the headache is really atypical for seasickness, and if you don't normally get headaches like that, that would be more of a red flag. I can tell you that the first weekend I spent diving Ginnie Springs, I got out of the second dive with the symptoms you describe, which were entirely CO2. I tried to eat some lunch, and the headache got a little better, so I went in and did the third dive. Big mistake!

As far as whether the DM should have left you . . . the big problem is that, as far as I can tell from your story, you never told him you were having a problem, except that you ended the dive early. I don't dive without a buddy, so if my buddy aborts the dive, I'm getting back on the boat with him. But if we were a team of three, and we got to 15 feet and the guy who called the dive indicated he was okay, I might just sit and watch him surface and start moving toward the boat, and then go back and finish the dive. It would depend on who the diver was, and what I knew about him, AND what he said to the two of us. If he said he was fine and motioned for us to go on, I might very well do it.

I think a big mistake a lot of us make repeatedly is to answer an "okay?" inquiry with yes, when we are in fact not okay. Your team/buddy cannot help you, if they don't know anything is wrong. The flat hand, rotated back and forth, to indicate "not entirely okay" is a very useful signal. You can follow it up with more signals (point to ears, gear problem, whatever) or write on a slate or wetnotes, if the issue is complex enough to merit that, and not severe enough to abort the dive. If it's more severe, the thumb is enough -- but then, when your buddy asks you if you are okay, "not okay" is the answer!

About your last question, I can't visualize what you are asking. You went up a buoy line, to somewhere you could reboard (I assume that was the stern?) and no one was there to help you. If I'd needed help, I would have taken the reg out briefly and shouted. It sounds as though you were tired and sick, but you managed to get yourself on board. Handling oneself on the surface in strong current is very hard work and can be very stressful. You were right to retain the regulator.

Did anybody else on the boat report similar symptoms? I wonder about bad gas, too, especially in view of the recent reports of CO contamination (although not where you were).

 

[ColinCB]

Did you have a look at your regulator after this dive? The pounding headache after the first one makes me think of CO2 retention. If something was wrong with the reg, increasing your work of breathing, that could do it. Or if you were fighting a strong current and really having to work at depth, that can do it, too.

It would be pretty unusual for seasickness to present with a severe headache.

It's hard to tell you whether you should have bagged the second dive. If you often feel ill, and know it improves in the water, then getting in to try the second dive makes sense. But again, the headache is really atypical for seasickness, and if you don't normally get headaches like that, that would be more of a red flag. I can tell you that the first weekend I spent diving Ginnie Springs, I got out of the second dive with the symptoms you describe, which were entirely CO2. I tried to eat some lunch, and the headache got a little better, so I went in and did the third dive. Big mistake!

As far as whether the DM should have left you . . . the big problem is that, as far as I can tell from your story, you never told him you were having a problem, except that you ended the dive early. I don't dive without a buddy, so if my buddy aborts the dive, I'm getting back on the boat with him. But if we were a team of three, and we got to 15 feet and the guy who called the dive indicated he was okay, I might just sit and watch him surface and start moving toward the boat, and then go back and finish the dive. It would depend on who the diver was, and what I knew about him, AND what he said to the two of us. If he said he was fine and motioned for us to go on, I might very well do it.

I think a big mistake a lot of us make repeatedly is to answer an "okay?" inquiry with yes, when we are in fact not okay. Your team/buddy cannot help you, if they don't know anything is wrong. The flat hand, rotated back and forth, to indicate "not entirely okay" is a very useful signal. You can follow it up with more signals (point to ears, gear problem, whatever) or write on a slate or wetnotes, if the issue is complex enough to merit that, and not severe enough to abort the dive. If it's more severe, the thumb is enough -- but then, when your buddy asks you if you are okay, "not okay" is the answer!

About your last question, I can't visualize what you are asking. You went up a buoy line, to somewhere you could reboard (I assume that was the stern?) and no one was there to help you. If I'd needed help, I would have taken the reg out briefly and shouted. It sounds as though you were tired and sick, but you managed to get yourself on board. Handling oneself on the surface in strong current is very hard work and can be very stressful. You were right to retain the regulator.

Did anybody else on the boat report similar symptoms? I wonder about bad gas, too, especially in view of the recent reports of CO contamination (although not where you were).

Checked my regs briefly today and didn't find anything unusual. I'm going to take them in anyway just to have them checked out.

At first the headache was from my hood or mask being too tight, but after loosening the mask and using a looser hood, same result.


As for calling the dive, I did in fact use the problem signal and point to my reg. He signaled back share air, and I declined. The reg got slightly easier to breath as we ascended. I even opened up the venturi valve to maximum.


As for boarding the boat, it was a rather small boat. A RIB, to be exact. It had a vertical ladder on the side. I did call out, but he must not have heard me. At that point, I definitely felt more sick. I just wanted to get on the boat. Unfortunately there was no rope near the ladder, so I had nothing to keep my from drifting off. I was so exhausted I just held on the the rocking ladder, throw my fins up, and barely got up the ladder.

I think one thing I could have done was asked for O2 once on board.



I doubt it was bad gas as nobody else was sick. The system they use back at the shop can fill 3 tanks at a time, so I assume somebody else would have felt sick as well.

 

[TSandM]

It really doesn't sound like fun -- did you go on to develop any other symptoms later? Headache and nausea can be early symptoms of a variety of viral illnesses, as well.

I have almost never been on any boat, large or small, where one had the ability to clip or tie oneself to the boat. (My own boat is an exception.) Most of the time, at best you have something to hang onto, and often that IS the ladder. In high current, boats may put out a tag line, so that divers who surface downcurrent have a way to get back to the boat, but that line often doesn't actually get you to the reboarding point, and you have to hold it, anyway. Managing the ladder and reboading can be one of the biggest challenges of diving, in some conditions. I got clobbered on my head by the rigid part of a RIB on our September trip to the Red Sea, trying to hand up a deco bottle in big seas. Boats are to be viewed with great respect and caution, by divers on the surface!

 

[knowone]

Mask on face reg in place fins on feet till bum in seat

That's how some dives go

It is what it is


How do you check regs without a tank?

Recollection is oft befuddled post trauma by new to incidents people

 

[ColinCB]

It really doesn't sound like fun -- did you go on to develop any other symptoms later? Headache and nausea can be early symptoms of a variety of viral illnesses, as well.

I have almost never been on any boat, large or small, where one had the ability to clip or tie oneself to the boat. (My own boat is an exception.) Most of the time, at best you have something to hang onto, and often that IS the ladder. In high current, boats may put out a tag line, so that divers who surface downcurrent have a way to get back to the boat, but that line often doesn't actually get you to the reboarding point, and you have to hold it, anyway. Managing the ladder and reboading can be one of the biggest challenges of diving, in some conditions. I got clobbered on my head by the rigid part of a RIB on our September trip to the Red Sea, trying to hand up a deco bottle in big seas. Boats are to be viewed with great respect and caution, by divers on the surface!

This is the boat: The Yongala Dive Experience... Your day on the SS Yongala - YouTube

No other symptoms, just a pounding headache and vomiting. Gotta love being sea sick.

On most boats I've encountered, there is usually a tag line on the ladder.

Due to the design of the boat, getting onto the ladder was not easy. The ladder was rocking up and down nearly 2/3 of a meter and was a PITA to hold onto.

Mask on face reg in place fins on feet till bum in seat

That's how some dives go

It is what it is


How do you check regs without a tank?

Recollection is oft befuddled post trauma by new to incidents people

Not possible. Steep ladder with a closed design. I would have be much worse off if I attempted that.

I checked the regs back at the dive shop and they seemed to breathe fine, but obviously it's not that easy.

I definitely remember everything. I'm a pretty analytical person, so I remember the small things.

 

[c0r3yz]

Should I have called the dive after the first? I would have
Should the DM have left me? You signaled that you were ok, right? I'm sure if you would have signaled that something was wrong, the DM would have likely stayed
Should I have let the current take me back to the stern and held onto the buoy at the surface? (there are two buoys marking the bow and stern) It sounds to me like you go out of the water safely, I wouldn't second guess your exit strategy at this point. In the future, this kind of thing should be thought out as part of your dive plan, IMHO.

 

[TSandM]

On most boats I've encountered, there is usually a tag line on the ladder.

Interesting . . . I've been trying to think back, and I can't ever remember seeing a line secured to the ladder. I can think of some reasons NOT to do it -- one is to keep divers waiting to reboard away from the guy who's climbing. Another is to avoid the weight and drag on the tag line pulling the ladder away from the boat so it's more difficult to get onto.

Of all the phases of a dive, I see reboarding as the most difficult and risky. Anybody can fall off a boat into the water (I proved that by DOING it in Florida), and in most cases, most people can do the dive or abort it safely. But being on the surface in big seas, facing a massive, plunging vessel and a bouncing ladder, I am often intimidated. Of the dives I have called before doing them, I think almost all have been due to my not being willing to face reboarding the boat in the conditions that pertained.

 

[supergaijin]

Of all the phases of a dive, I see reboarding as the most difficult and risky.

This is very true- in difficult conditions, the boat/ladder combo is cause for concern. A lot of my guest divers don't get it and that's frustrating. To the OP- I think you did the right things in a timely fashion. Without extra ways of communication (ie. slates), the easiest way of communicating a problem that is not a 'problem' is to indicate that ears are not equalising. Once on the boat you can talk it through.As for the question "Should I have let go of one line to drift back in to a second?" I would definately say NO.You have a perfectly good rope in your hands and although the conditions are bad it's better than no rope at all. The consequences of missing the second buoy could be nasty.

 

[uberdude]

Colin I used to live in Cairns just north of where your talking. Did you by any chance sit outside during the trip out, drink much water, wear a hat? It's a long trip to the Yongala and you're in the tropics at a guess 30C (90F) 60% humidity (sweating lots) and very strong sun. You did mention it wa stormy but was that just the water/waves or the cloud situation. I don't know how many times I've seen tourists sit in the sun on a 2 hour boat trip and end up with severe heat stroke (and sun burn) even in cloudy weather. Having stupidly suffered exactly the same symptoms you describe above water after a day of fishing in the sun, I wonder if that may have been the cause. As for the reg's no idea.