Ever been chased by a hurricane?

[Guba]

Just returned (Tuesday) from diving the Flower Gardens in the Gulf of Mexico. Very interesting trip, all things considered.
Trip report: Headed out on Sunday evening on glass-smooth seas. By 0700, we were on site on FG West and got in a good dive--virtually no current (a rarity), vis was about 75 feet, as the surface was still flat as a pancake. Beautiful.
However, when we got everyone on board, one of the trip leaders was experiencing difficulties in the form of loss of sensation and some disorientation. Our crew and DM's provided excellent care and O2, called the Coast Guard and talked with the surgeon constantly the whole time, and he diagnosed an "undeserved" DCS hit. Bottom line...aircraft couldn't be deployed, so we had to bring him in. Yup, we got in one dive and to make matters more painful the sea all the way in was flat and the skies were bright blue.
The good news is that the diver is doing fine now. He had a schedule six chamber ride, but almost all symptoms are totally gone (though he's still suffering fatigue). Doctors believe he'll make a total recovery, and naturally we're all very happy to hear he's okay.
While we knew when we left that we'd not be able to make a whole trip since we had a soon-to-be hurricane bearing down on us, we had hoped we'd get in five dives on Monday before having to make a run from Dolly. Alas, that was not in the cards. By the way, the buoy data shows that by 0700 Tuesday morning (just twelve hours after we landed) waves were running over fifteen feet on the FG. That's our Gulf of Mexico for you!
Oh, well. Quite an adventure and I'll be heading out there again next summer.

 

[DandyDon]

Major bummer for all, worst for him, but you did what you had to do.

Like to know more about the diver and dive, if you have info? Was he diving air? Do you know about his hydration, ascent rate, etc?

 

[Guba]

Hi, Don
Yes, we had total access to his graphing dive computer. Bottom was 90 feet, 40 minute dive on Nitrox. Graph showed perfectly normal safety stops at 40 feet and 20 feet, with a slow ascent along the line. In short, a nearly classic dive. Not only that, but he's an extremely experienced diver (professional videographer/photographer--you've probably seen his work with National Geogrpahic, Scuba Diver magazine and others), who has been diving for about thirty years. I can't vouch for his hydration, but I can't imagine him ignoring it with his experience level. DAN and the hyperbaric doctors scratched their heads on this one, saying basically "oh, well...these things happen--rarely, but they happen".

 

[DandyDon]

How odd. Glad he wasn't hurt worse. I saw a totally "undeserved" hit once - and much worse. I know they do happen; good that they are at last very rare.

 

[spacemanspiff1974]

I was on a tec trip on the Spree at the flower gardens last September. Humberto formed overhead. I think it holds the record for the quickest hurricane to form in the Gulf. By the time we got to Freeport it seemed like we were surfing. Actually it hit Tropical storm status about the time we were docking and was a Hurricane later that afternoon.

I'm just glad I was on the Spree and not on my sailboat.

 

[vladimir]

I took an early May trip on the MV Fantasea out of Phuket to the Similans and the Burma Banks. We were pushing the end of the season a little and a typhoon in the Bay of Bengal was raking the coast of Burma. We managed a day of dives at Richelieu Rock, an exposed seamount in the Surin Islands--and had two great whale shark encounters--but towards the end of the day getting from the rubber dinghy into the mother ship was becoming a little bit of an adventure. We beat a retreat to the lee side of the Similans and finished out our week of diving, never making it to the Burma Banks. In the rougher water on the trip home, the MV Fantasea started taking on water and listing 20 degrees or more to starboard and a steady drip of seawater emerged from just above my berth. It was a wet, uncomfortable ride home but we made it, and Fantasea Divers gave us a 50% discount on a future trip (which, unfortunately, I never got around to).

 

[Saltair]

I spent a year in the gulf, the summer of Katrina and Rita, working on a big Tug/Barge unit. That was the season they ran out of letters. I dont even remember all the storms we ran from.

 

[JKPAO]

Well wishes to the diver! yes undeserved does happen. TT 6 is a bear in it's self. No personal experience but a few I know have first hand. Again hope all is well.
See you topside! John

 

[tracy_from_oz]

When I was living in Cairns, Queensland Australia the place mats that come with your food @ the Macdonald's on the Esplanade would not be the ones where you draw on but what to do when a cyclone hits.

Hope your diving friend is doing better.

 

[keyshunter]

I was in the Tortugas when Katrina made an unpredicted shift in her course. OOPS! The trip back to Key West was rather exciting.