After the morning briefing the SS headed out for the search area and got set up. Well it didn’t take long for the SS to locate a target. It’s clear as a bell and there is no doubt about what we are seeing. They aren’t hard to recognize when you see them time after time.
I wasn’t on the boat but was at the office when the Dive Team gets paged. This was not a total team page but a selective page for safety reasons. The FNG’s are staying dry.
Surface conditions suck, it’s rather deep and the visibility is going to be less than zero if that’s possible.
The surface conditions are so rotten that they can’t get the SS marker any closer than 25’ at 200 degrees magnetic from the target. Not what we need. Under better conditions we can get the marker right next to the target.
My #2 can’t make it. My #3 has been up most of yesterday, all night and all of today. So I have him be Safety Officer and 90% as well as run the topside show. If he has to dive he will but only to save my sorry butt should I screw up.
Next in line is the lead Detective and he is battling a nasty sinus infection so I ground him even though he is willing to dive.
Next is a good diver who is feeling uneasy with the recovery but will be Safety Diver.
So that leaves me with a minor problem. My Fireman who doesn’t have a problem with the depth as I have had him over 130. What he does have a problem with is the depth and the Zero vis. And I respect that, as we haven’t spent enough time in that area.
But he wants to go. So I’m about as stern as I can get about what we will do and what we will not do. I also pounded it into his head that at any time he can abort the dive.
The interesting thing is I’m a Gary, we are looking for a Gary an now my buddy is a Gary. Hummmmmm.
Normally I would do this dive on my own but not under these surface conditions. We can’t keep the boat still long enough.
So the end of a 200’ search line is kept on the boat and the two of us have the other end as we start down.
At 35’ it was like someone forgot to pay the power bill and it went from fairly light at 30’ to total dark at 35’. I drop like a rock and it stressed out my partner a bit. Not a good thing to be doing on my part. We hit a 93’ bottom in under a minute and the first thing that went through my mind was, “What in the hell are we doing here?”
We have a confused sea above us and bottom vis so bad that with a UK800R I can’t see the carrier for my gauges, let alone the gauges and I need a bearing of 200 degrees.
So while Gary stays at the anchor I start up. About 15’ off the bottom I can make out what the gauges are telling me get a bearing and go back down. Now it’s *** which way do I go? I’m blind again. So I just head out to the end of my 30' section of line.
At the end I have a choice to either go right or go to he left. A 50 50 chance. Well let me tell you this, I not playing the lottery or going to the Casino any time soon. I picked the wrong direction. So I did what I thought was a 180 degree run and found nothing. Having all this loose line prevented me from making a complete 360 degrees. If we did we could get the down line tied up with our search line and that could prevent the topside crew from bringing up our victim.
So we aborted the dive and headed up. We tried to do a safety stop at 20 but we bounced from 27’ to 13’ for 4 minutes.
Back at it at 0800 hours with some Mongo anchors and lots of line to hold us in position.
I'm mighty proud of my team mates for having the balls to voice their opinions on the dive. They didn't feel good about it so they didn't do it. Exactly what I want them to do. Maybe they do listen to me some times.
I’m pooped, sore and disappointed but there is always tomorrow. I hate to fail but we are all back and talking about it.
We are so short on manpower I was back on patrol right after the dive. Graves just came on so I went home.
Gary D.
I wasn’t on the boat but was at the office when the Dive Team gets paged. This was not a total team page but a selective page for safety reasons. The FNG’s are staying dry.
Surface conditions suck, it’s rather deep and the visibility is going to be less than zero if that’s possible.
The surface conditions are so rotten that they can’t get the SS marker any closer than 25’ at 200 degrees magnetic from the target. Not what we need. Under better conditions we can get the marker right next to the target.
My #2 can’t make it. My #3 has been up most of yesterday, all night and all of today. So I have him be Safety Officer and 90% as well as run the topside show. If he has to dive he will but only to save my sorry butt should I screw up.
Next in line is the lead Detective and he is battling a nasty sinus infection so I ground him even though he is willing to dive.
Next is a good diver who is feeling uneasy with the recovery but will be Safety Diver.
So that leaves me with a minor problem. My Fireman who doesn’t have a problem with the depth as I have had him over 130. What he does have a problem with is the depth and the Zero vis. And I respect that, as we haven’t spent enough time in that area.
But he wants to go. So I’m about as stern as I can get about what we will do and what we will not do. I also pounded it into his head that at any time he can abort the dive.
The interesting thing is I’m a Gary, we are looking for a Gary an now my buddy is a Gary. Hummmmmm.
Normally I would do this dive on my own but not under these surface conditions. We can’t keep the boat still long enough.
So the end of a 200’ search line is kept on the boat and the two of us have the other end as we start down.
At 35’ it was like someone forgot to pay the power bill and it went from fairly light at 30’ to total dark at 35’. I drop like a rock and it stressed out my partner a bit. Not a good thing to be doing on my part. We hit a 93’ bottom in under a minute and the first thing that went through my mind was, “What in the hell are we doing here?”
We have a confused sea above us and bottom vis so bad that with a UK800R I can’t see the carrier for my gauges, let alone the gauges and I need a bearing of 200 degrees.
So while Gary stays at the anchor I start up. About 15’ off the bottom I can make out what the gauges are telling me get a bearing and go back down. Now it’s *** which way do I go? I’m blind again. So I just head out to the end of my 30' section of line.
At the end I have a choice to either go right or go to he left. A 50 50 chance. Well let me tell you this, I not playing the lottery or going to the Casino any time soon. I picked the wrong direction. So I did what I thought was a 180 degree run and found nothing. Having all this loose line prevented me from making a complete 360 degrees. If we did we could get the down line tied up with our search line and that could prevent the topside crew from bringing up our victim.
So we aborted the dive and headed up. We tried to do a safety stop at 20 but we bounced from 27’ to 13’ for 4 minutes.
Back at it at 0800 hours with some Mongo anchors and lots of line to hold us in position.
I'm mighty proud of my team mates for having the balls to voice their opinions on the dive. They didn't feel good about it so they didn't do it. Exactly what I want them to do. Maybe they do listen to me some times.
I’m pooped, sore and disappointed but there is always tomorrow. I hate to fail but we are all back and talking about it.
We are so short on manpower I was back on patrol right after the dive. Graves just came on so I went home.
Gary D.
