NAUI Wreck Penetration level 1, Part 2, really long...

[darkpup]

Note: Here are a couple of links to help out with this post
http://www.cawreckdivers.org/Wrecks/Yukon.htm
http://www.frankosmaps.com/Yukon_Deck_Plan_Fish_Card.htm

Saturday (11/19) finally arrived, and we were ready to take up where we left off last weekend. Janeane and I had driven down to San Diego from Sacramento the day before, arriving around 10:30 pm at the Motel 6 off of Hotel Circle. Our instructors, Joe Talavera and Andrew Georgitsis (AG), had arrived earlier Friday to get our weekend’s gas supply worked out, and Kevin coming from the Los Angeles area made it there far before we did.

Today was going to be our make up day. The primary focus would be to work on no-vis line following protocols in the shallows off of Mission Beach (i.e. 30’). To move on to penetrating the wreck, we needed to demonstrate that we could work as a team to resolve failures in a no-vis situation, and safely make it back to the surface following the protocols we had learned on land.

After a brief pit stop at Starbucks, we made our way to Dana Point Marina to meet up with our charter for the next 3 days. The boat was “The Yellow Boat” owned by Danny Howard of Goby Div’n, http://www.gobydivn.com/ , and we met him at the docks at 9 am. It took a few minutes to load the first set of doubles, and get on our way. We made our way out of the marina, opened up the engines, and were at our destination in no time.

On the boat ride out, we discussed what we needed to accomplish over the next 3 days.

Day 1: Demonstrate proper line protocols in a no-vis situation with failures, and safely make it back to the surface. We would not be able to move forward without these skills.

Day 2 and Day 3: Penetrate the Yukon within our comfort zone, have fun, and work on the new skills we had learned (i.e. technical aspects of line placement, team communication, etc).

Needless to say, we had a bit of pressure on us to insure we were ready for the Wreck on Sunday. With the anchor set in about 25’ of water, we were ready to start the day.

The plan was simple for our first dive. Drop down, set a primary and secondary tie in, find 2 to 3 additional tie ins, and wrap it up with an end tie. At this point we would lose our masks. Keeping our eyes shut to simulate a no vis situation, we would follow the line back to our exit, and make a mask less ascent to the surface. The first attempt was a bit rough to say the least. There was a bit of surge that was manageable until the big sets came in. We made our way down the anchor line with Kevin leading the way. Kevin made a primary / secondary tie in, headed out, and within a few minutes had set 2 tie ins followed by an end tie. Unfortunately, we ran into a bit of confusion at this point.

The team setup was #1 Kevin, #2 Jason, and #3 Janeane. When you hit your turn point, the team reverses so that Janeane was #1 and Kevin was #3, and this was where the confusion came in. The team was jumbled up, no one was quite sure who was in charge, and we were on the line waiting for someone to make a decision. The surge kicked up, we pulled all of our tie points, lots of slack in the water, and with AG’s help we made it back to the surface a bit confused.

On the surface we took a minute to relax, and calm down from the “what the hell was that?” feeling all of us had. AG reassured us that more often than not, that’s exactly the same first time experience students have with this drill. We had completely disregarded the line protocols (i.e. find the line, the team forms up, the end diver signals to move, and with touch contact on the line and with each team member, we make our way back to the anchor), and instead opted for a free for all “I’m getting out of here” type solution. Not good.

AG gave us some pointers, and we set out for our 2nd attempt. The only difference this time was that AG had re-done our line, and we switched up the team order a bit. We did pretty well on this try. With no failures to mess us up, we made it to our end tie, turned the dive, lost our masks, and slowly followed the line back to the anchor. Instead of surfacing like last time, our masks were returned to us, and with a sense of accomplishment, we quickly formed up and made our way back to the end tie for our next attempt.

Of course this was the best time for our first failure of the day. In our haste to start over, we lost site of Kevin who was in the #3 position, and quickly retraced the line back to him. In the short time we had lost him, Kevin received a right post failure with a left post roll off (i.e. the left post rolls off while bumping into an overhead surface like a wreck or cave). The procedure in this situation is to shut down your right post to stop the loss of gas simulated by an air gun, and switch to your back up reg that is off your left post. You quickly breath down your left post due to the roll off, and with no gas supply (and in this case no buddies near by), you quickly reach up to turn your left post back on. Kevin did a great job resolving the issue, and quickly had his gas back on by the time we arrived on the scene.

At this point, Kevin signaled Janeane, informed her of the problem, and asked her to check his right post. Turns out it was a fixable right post failure. A fixable right post failure is usually when the o-ring on a hose or the 1st stage extrudes and leaks gas. In this case, Janeane came in, turned on his right post, and checked for leaks. The leaks had stopped, so Janeane signaled Kevin, showed him that the post was working, and switched him back to his primary. With the problem solved, we continued to the end tie, went mask less, and once again made our way back to the anchor line. We had some really strong surge on this trip back to the anchor, and I later learned why proper DIR trim is not the best method for these conditions. Laying out flat hovering above the bottom with your fins up creates a lot of surface area for the surge to throw you around. This usually isn’t that big of a deal on recreational dives because you float with the surge. However, it’s a completely different situation when you don’t have a mask, and you have to hold on to a static point (i.e. the line). It’s better to make yourself negative, and keep your fins pointed down. The surge will then push you into the bottom making it easier to follow the line, and less stressful on your teammates.

We were feeling pretty good after the 3rd pass, despite the rough conditions, and made our way back for our 4th attempt. This is where we were really put to the test. Things started off with Janeane experiencing an unfixable right post failure. While I was working to resolve this problem, Kevin lost his mask. With one hand on Kevin signaling him to descend a bit, I informed Janeane that her right post was broken. So far so good, the problems were resolved, I turned the dive, and proceeded to get everyone on the line. At this point I go OOA, immediately turn to Janeane for gas, and quickly remember I just informed her that her long hose was broken. Janeane realized the need to get gas for me, signaled Kevin that we were taking his long hose, at which time I ripped it out of his mouth.

Going over the failures while attempting to keep things cool, we had Janeane with a broken right post, Kevin was mask less, I was OOA on Kevin’s long hose, and we were back on the line with me in the lead, Kevin in the middle, and Janeane in the back. It was at this point that I lost my mask. With a focused purpose, we navigated the line past a few tie ins back to the anchor, and made our way back to the surface. Talk about a wild ride.

On the surface AG was happy with how well we pulled together as a team to work through the issues. We learned that I should have been the one in the middle of the team (i.e. sandwich the team mate with the least amount of gas), with Kevin up front, and Janeane controlling our route back from behind. It was also mentioned that I should have remembered that Janeane’s long hose was not an option, and should have instead gone directly to Kevin for gas. These things are all part of team awareness, which I’ll need to continue working on.

On a side note, I found out the other day that Janeane was also mask less during all of this. I hadn’t noticed because I lost my mask before she did.

With the success of our first dive of the day, AG let us know we were ready for the Yukon on Sunday. Kevin and I dropped back down to clean up the line, and within minutes we were on our way back to the marina to change out tanks for our next dive of the day. Because we had finished up the required tasks for the class, we chose an outside tour of the Yukon for our next dive site.



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[darkpup]

At the docks, we split up the tasks between the 5 of us, and quickly had full sets of doubles on the boat for our next dive. On the way out we quickly learned that it takes much longer to get out of the marina at 5 mph, than it does to get to the dive site. Within minutes of clearing the no wake zone, we were on the bowline of the Yukon. This dive was going to be a casual recreational dive around the Yukon. We would drop down near the forward gun, head to the bow, and make our way to the stern. Average depth was going to be 80’, with a run time of 40 minutes on 32% Nitrox, and the usual ascent of 1 min stops at 50’, 40’, 30’ with 3 min up from 20’ to 0’.

After the past 4 days of either getting our butts kicked in the surge or getting blown out, floating above the Yukon was quite exciting. We hit the water, made it to the down line, went through our usual gear and dive plan checks, and were ready to go. The water temps were in the 65-degree range, and the vis was between 20’ and 30’. At about 45’ I could see what appeared to be the usual SoCal bottom of kelp and algae. At 55’ I realized that the bottom was actually the starboard side of the wreck, and it was big. I was starting to feel like a kid on Christmas morning. We hit the wreck at about 65’, grouped up, and made our way to the dolphin cut outs at the bow of the ship.

It was kind of eerie looking inside the wreck knowing that we’d be going inside the next day. From the bow, you could see a large room with hallways leading toward the stern on either side of the ship. We continued along the Port side of the ship toward the stern, and immediately ran into the forward gun. Very impressive. We each took turns swimming up under the gun to get closer to the ship, each of us smacking into the barrels at one point or another. Mine was the worst though, and thanks to Joe, it was captured on video. Even underwater, the video caught the loud BONG I made when colliding with the barrels.

Beyond the gun you run into the upper decks of the ship. For lack of a better word, there were awnings coming off the command center that made for great swim throughs. We spent some time looking into the map room before continuing on to the stern gun. This one was a bit smaller than the one on the bow, but impressive nonetheless. Past the stern gun we found the mortar well, which looks like a large loading area that cuts into the 3rd deck. We made our way to the stern at about 25 minutes into the dive, and checked out the really dark hole leading toward the engine room. We turned the dive at this point, and swam back over the starboard side getting a different view of the command center. Within minutes we were back at the bowline a head of schedule, and were on a slow ascent to the surface.

On our ride back, I admit I was a bit nervous about our penetration dives the next day. It was a new environment for us, that from day one of my OW class in ‘86 was described as dangerous and off limits. Overhead environments are often used to describe the difference between recreational and technical diving, and from the stories we heard the weekend before, I was taking it very seriously.

We made our way back to the marina, unloaded the boat, and headed to the dive shop to load the tanks with 25/25 (25% O2, 25% Helium). A while later we made our way to a local Chevy’s Restaurant for margaritas and video review. The video of the wreck was fun to watch, and helped us get a better understanding of the layout of the ship. We spent some time looking for potential points of entry, and cross-referenced the video with the maps to prepare for our dives tomorrow. By 9 pm we were back at the hotel.

Day 2 started off the same as before with a pit stop at Starbucks before meeting up with Danny at 8 am. The idea was to load up an hour earlier to beat some of the other dive charters to the site. Within minutes we had the gear loaded up, and were on our way to the Yukon.

During the lectures of the class, we learned the difference between progressive penetration and running line. Progressive penetration is when you go in a wreck, and every few feet take a mental picture of your surroundings. You may get 20’ to 100’ inside a wreck your first penetration, but the primary goal is to progressively learn the wreck. By using this method, you should have a clear understanding on how to get out of the wreck. Running line is a bit different; you run line into a wreck, and in a Hansel and Gretel fashion use the line to get out of the wreck. Both have their limitations, and my limited understanding is that different groups of wreck divers have strong beliefs toward each method.

This class focused on teaching us how to combine both methods to safely get in and out of a wreck, and our first dive of the day would focus on this while giving us a chance to put into action the line protocols we had learned over the past few days. The idea is to make line running second nature, a background task if you will, and free yourself up to progressively penetrate the wreck. Easier said than done.

Our first dive was set to enter near the door at point 2S5, and penetrate deck 2 along the starboard side. We would be diving air tables to keep things conservative, and would plan for 30 minutes at 80’. The plan was to drop down, find our entry point, re-calculate a 1/3s gas plan, and penetrate the wreck. The team would be #1 Jason, #2 Kevin, and #3 Janeane, and to help things out, while I was re-calculating our gas plan, the rest of the team would look for our primary and secondary tie ins. The focus would be on getting in the wreck a short distance (1 or 2 tie ins), and then turn the dive to give the next team member a chance to lead on the next attempt. With a plan in place, we jumped in, checked our gear, went over the plan one last time, and headed down to the wreck.

We made it to our entry point in 2 minutes, re-did the gas plan, checked the team one last time, and headed into the wreck for the first time. It was slow going to say the least. The primary tie in was easy as there’s a lot to tie off to on the outside of the wreck. Inside the wreck, things were different. I found myself overly focused on my task of running line. A sort of tunnel vision where you’re so focused on finding the next tie in, that you didn’t even notice the wreck around you. My secondary tie in was a piece of loose cable that for some reason seemed completely acceptable at the time (bad move on my part). I made 1 more tie in before hitting the wall just before access point 2S4, and instead of continuing down decided to turn the dive.

Upon turning around, all of a sudden the wreck appeared around me. My focus had changed from looking for the next tie point to reeling in the line while following my teammates out of the wreck. There were passageways all over the place, not to mention the 100+ tie ins I had missed on my way in. Total penetration on this first attempt was maybe 30’ for about 10 minutes (i.e. really short and really slow).

Once outside the wreck, we changed up team positions. This time the team would be #1 Kevin, #2 Janeane, and #3 Jason. Kevin quickly recalculated our gas plan, made a primary / secondary tie in, and we were once again back in the wreck along our previous path. In the #3 position, you’re pretty much along for the ride. Position #1 is responsible for running line, and the #2 position is responsible for checking the placements and dropping line markers where needed. The #3 position keeps an eye on the team. In this position, the wreck comes alive. Because the wreck is sitting on its port side, hallways go down, walls are ceilings / floors, and the ports to below decks are horizontal. I spent most of my time on this dive keeping an eye on our gas and time, and the rest of my time poking my head into different compartments. Wreck diving was becoming a lot of fun.

Kevin made a few tie ins, Janeane dropped one or two line markers, and before long, we were on our way out of the wreck. With only 2 minutes of bottom time remaining, we thumbed the dive, and made a slow ascent. On the ride back to the marina, all I could think of was getting back in the wreck. My curiosity had peaked, my anxiety about going in the wreck had passed, and I was really excited about getting back down there. We changed out the gear in 30 minutes flat, and were back on the wreck in no time (90 min SI).

On this dive, things were changed up a bit. Janeane had some sinus problems, and stayed on the boat. Kevin and I would be teaming up, and since Kevin led the last dive, I would be captain on this one. The plan was to drop down to access point 3S2, and follow the starboard side of the wreck toward the stern. We would drop down, re-calculate our gas plan, find a primary / secondary tie in, and start the dive. We hit the water, checked our gear, and headed down to the wreck.

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[darkpup]

Having a better understanding of the layout of the wreck, we quickly located the forward gun, made our way to the starboard side, and located our entry. We recalculated 1/3s so that we would have 600 psi in, 1200 psi out, and 600 psi minimum gas for the dive. 600 psi would give us roughly 36 cft of gas to penetrate the wreck with, and 72 cft to get out of the wreck. We found a primary tie in at access point 4S2, made our way to 3S2, and entered the wreck.

To give you a sense of the wreck, we were in a hallway that runs down the length of the ship toward the stern. The only difference is that the hallway is lying on its side, so instead of it being a tall narrow passageway, it was more like a wide and short passageway. The entrance at 3S2 was covered in white metridium with the usual strawberry anemones and algae. There are a ton of fish and other critters around the wreck. Inside the wreck, there are crabs, starfish, algae, and sediment. The walls are a dark brown because of the algae instead of the grey, navy paint they once were. As we made our way down the hallway, our first minor obstruction turned out to be a doorway that was tilted at an odd angle. My first attempt was straight on, but the starboard side of the doorframe caught my valves. I pulled myself up, tilted downward, and pulled myself through easily. Once through, I turned slightly to see how Kevin faired before continuing on.

The next issue we ran into was around access point 3S4. There was a panel or door that had fallen across the passageway. I was still a bit preoccupied by the line, and focused on the next tie in. My first thought was to go under the door, but couldn’t fit and quickly realized that if it fell after we were passed it, it would have trapped the line. Realizing the error of my ways, I decided to go over it, and run the line through the middle of the hallway. This didn’t work out as planned. There was something above me that was blocking my way. On my first attempt, I was still close to the starboard side of the hallway. So on my second attempt, I moved more toward the center, and was able to continue forward unrestricted. With about 3 minutes to go on the clock, and another 200 psi left on the inbound leg of the trip, we continued forward. With the light pouring in through panel 3S4, Kevin decided to place a non-directional line marker to mark the exit above. I felt the line being tugged on, turned around to check on things, Kevin let me know about the plan to place the marker, and I helped by holding the line tight. It seemed like a good idea to mark the exit in case we got into trouble. The thing is that once the marker was set, it was time to turn the dive, and we ran in to a bit of confusion at this point.

The team position once we turned the dive was supposed to be Kevin in front with me reeling the line in from behind. There was a bit of surge in the boat, Kevin drifted behind me, and inadvertently pushed me down into the silt. The area silted out while I was removing the non-directional marker. Even with the hallway silted out, we still had about 1’ to 2’ of vis, and it was nothing compared to the simulated drills we did the day before. I was surprisingly relaxed through the entire situation. Within a few seconds, Kevin initiated touch contact as he moved back into position, checked to make sure the non-directional was removed, and we continued on our way out of the wreck.

Once I was out of the silt and reeling in the line, the wreck once again opened up to me. Turns out I had missed a lot on the way in. Besides the numerous tie ins, hallways, galley, and side rooms I had missed on the way in, the most humorous part was the panel I had attempted to go under before finding the restriction above it. The restriction turned out to be a metal bar protruding from the wall similar to the arms that mount in a garage to hold up a shelf. Not only was the self imposed restriction rather silly, it turns out that the entire hallway was wide open, I just hadn’t noticed it on my way in. I was so focused on the line and reel, I missed just about everything. The good news is that I had a second chance to see what I had missed on the way out. A few minutes later we were heading out of the wreck, and on our slow ascent to the surface. Turns out we had gone about 100’ into the wreck, and it was incredible.

We made our way back to the marina, filled the tanks, and headed to Kansas City BBQ for dinner. An interesting bit of trivia is that they used the restaurant to film the end scene in Top Gun. After working our way through a ton of meat, we were ready for the video review. On the dives today, Joe had moved into the wreck a head of us, and caught some great shots as AG kept a watchful eye over us. The video was mixed with sections of light from the access points illuminating everything, and dark sections where all you could see were our HID lights. It showed the tie ins along with the team working together. It also captured a lot of the wreck we had missed, and was a blast to watch.

After the video, we continued with a lecture about the limits of the class, and how they impact the diving we’re doing. Andrew pointed out how each dive bumped up against the limits of the class. Either we were limited by our gas supply (80 cft penetrations), or we were limited by our NDL. By sticking to the limits, we kept things conservative, and made sure we didn’t push to far to fast.

For example, a set of double, high pressure, 100 cft tanks filled to 3,000 psi gives you 180 cft of gas. With a penetration limit of 80 cft and a minimum gas of 40 cft (i.e. reserves or rock bottom), we would have an additional 60 cft of gas along for the ride. A full fill would give you 80 cft of extra gas. To put it another way, we’d have between 1,000 to 1,300 psi on top of the 700 psi we’d keep in reserves at the end of every dive. At times it’s very tempting to put this gas to use, and stay in the wreck a bit longer to see what’s around the next corner. Especially when using Trimix or Nitrox to extend your bottom time. The reality is that without the proper experience and training for this environment, you can get yourself into trouble in a heartbeat. Sticking to the plan as defined by the limits of the class makes sure we stay conservative while slowly building experience in this new environment.

We wrapped up the video review and lecture with some additional pointers from AG, and spent the rest of the evening checking out San Diego before heading back to the hotel.

Day 3 started the same as the others with a Starbucks run before jumping on the boat at 8 am. We were all excited to get back in the wreck. The previous days’ dives had showed us the basics of how to get in and out of a wreck. In place of the anxiety and nervousness from the day before, we were ready to head back in, and do a bit of cautious exploring. With Janeane feeling better, she was ready to take the reins, and lead us into the Yukon. Our fills were spot on today at 25/25, and we would be using a 20% EAD to extend our bottom time.

We worked out the plan for our first dive while Danny made quick work of getting us to the dive site. The dive would be in the 80’ range. We would descend along the stern line, move to the mortar well between the stern and the rear gun, recalculate our gas plan, and head into the wreck. We would follow the same 3rd deck passage as the one Kevin and I had explored the day before. The only difference would be that we’d start at the stern, and work our way toward the bow. With a plan in place, we hit the water, checked our gear, and were on our way down the stern line in no time.

The vis the day before was in the 20’ to 30’ range, but today it seemed closer to 15’ to 20’. There was this odd haze at about 30 fsw that continued on down to the wreck. AG was a head of us showing us the way to our entrance, which wasn’t far from the stern upline. Janeane quickly recalculated our penetration pressure at 500 psi (30 cft), set a primary tie outside of the wreck, and we were on our way in. With Janeane leading this dive, I was in complete curiosity mode.

When Kevin and I had done this section of the wreck the day before, we had completely missed our actual position in the wreck. What I mean is that about mid ship on the 3rd deck of the wreck is the Galley and Dining Hall compartments. These rooms are rather large, and a bit different from the rest of the ship. We had been so focused on making our way down the hallway, that we had missed a chance to check out these rooms. Armed with this knowledge today, we weren’t going to let this opportunity slip by a second time.

There is a large hallway that runs athwart ship just before you get to the Dining Hall. It starts at about 70’, drops to about 105’, and is hard to miss. Looking into the Dining Hall you find your basic large room. On the port side of the room, you can see a bit of sediment creeping into the wreck. You don’t have much of that on the starboard side, and it kind of threw me for a second. AG had mentioned the day before that the Galley was where the fryers and stoves was located, but I’m not sure if he meant that equipment was still there or not because I don’t remember seeing it on this dive. It’s possible that coming from the Mortar Well we hadn’t made it far enough into the wreck on this dive, and when I thought I was looking at the Galley, I was still over the Dining Hall. Oh well, another section of the ship to check out more thoroughly on a later dive.

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[darkpup]

About 12 minutes into the wreck, Janeane signaled to turn the dive, and we made our way out. Once outside, Janeane went to pull the primary tie, and ran into a small problem. She had chosen to thread the keeper at the end of her reel through a d-ring that was part of the ship. We’re not exactly sure how she was able to tie in at this point, and after a bit of mucking around with the line, AG came in and cut it for us. After a slow ascent, we were back on the boat trading stories of everything we had seen on the dive. We probably only penetrated the wreck about 75’ this dive, but this was due to us spending more time exploring the wreck rather than seeing how far we could make it. We were slowly learning to take our time, enjoy the moment, and not worry about whether our open ties were done with one or two twists.

After another 90 minute SI and an Indy pit stop crew performance on changing out the tanks at the docks, we were back at the Yukon tied off to the stern line. This would be our last dive, and as such, we changed things up a bit. Having 5 divers in the same passageway can get a bit tight at times. Combine this with us having completed all of the necessary dives for the class, we decided to split up the teams and change out the usual class dive for an experience dive. Janeane, Kevin, and AG would be Team 1, and Joe and I would be Team 2. Janeane and Kevin had wanted to see how AG does his tie ins, and they wanted to get an idea of how to safely move between decks while running a continuous guide line. Their plan on the boat was to drop down into the Mortar Well, make their way to deck 2, and see if they could penetrate into the Engine Room. The idea really wasn’t to get to the Engine Room, but see what it’s like to penetrate multiple levels.

With Team 1’s plan in place, Joe and I decided to opt for a Port side “Burma Road” run. On the Franko’s map, there appears to be an entrance point from deck 2 into deck 3 just forward of the stern gun. On this dive we would locate the stern gun, find the entrance, head into the wreck at this point, and move forward toward the bow. This route would take us through the Latrine, into the Dining Hall, past the Galley, and with any luck, into the forward Cabins. Our max depth was going to be 100’, our max bottom time would be 30 minutes, and we would adjust our normal ascent profile to include a 2 minute stop between 30’ and 20’.

With Team 1 already in the water, Joe and I went through our final checks before heading down to the Yukon. Having dove this section of the wreck a few times already, it was easy to find the stern gun. We just weren’t able to locate the access point we had seen on the map. We spent a minute looking for it before deciding to move forward in search of a new starting point. We ended up finding a nice sized entrance that put us in the Washroom on deck 3. We quickly recalculated 3rds at 500 psi, set the primary tie in, and headed into the wreck with 10 minutes already on the clock. With this knowledge, we knew we’d only have about 18 minutes for the total penetration (9 in and 9 out), leaving us with 2 minutes to clean up the line before heading to the surface.

One of the unique features of this dive was our entrance point. The access point was below an awning, and we had to drop down near the sand to get under it before working our way up the external section of deck 2. We had maybe 6’ between the hatch and the metal roof above it, and because the wreck was on it’s side, we were staring straight up toward the stern side of the ship. While working to set our primary tie in, we went slightly vertical to insure we had enough room to maneuver while dealing with a slight surge. With everything set, Joe moved to pull himself into the wreck. Just at this point, we noticed a stream of bubbles, followed by HID lights, and a friendly wave from Kevin as Team 1 was exiting the wreck. It’s a 366’ wreck. You’d think there would be enough room on the ship for us to have our section of the ship to ourselves. No such luck.

On the way into the wreck, you immediately realize where you are. The wall, which technically is the floor of deck 3 on its side, is covered in 2” x 2” square tiles. This has to be the Washroom. This was confirmed as we made our way to the bow. Just forward of the Washroom is that large hallway we noticed on our first dive of the day. The difference this time is that you’re looking straight up the hallway as if it were a wide chimney. Just forward of the hallway you find the entrance to the Dining Hall, where we ran into a slight problem. The sediment I had seen on the first dive was more than I first thought. To make your way into the Dining Hall on the Port side from the Washroom, you have to do a bit of work to position yourself in a way that lets you past the doorway, and up into the room above the sediment. Upon giving it a quick once over, Joe decided it best to by-pass this entrance point, head back up the hallway to the starboard side of deck 3, and continue forward with our remaining time and gas.

With a 2’ to 3’ surge in the wreck, I was curious to see how difficult it would be to go vertical, and work our way up the wreck. Joe quickly put in a tie before making his way up. He made it look easy, and although it was a bit more work for me, it wasn’t too bad. We made a left turn toward the bow, and were back in friendly territory. I dropped a directional line marker just before making the turn down the hallway. I figured it was a good idea just in case the line snapped due to rubbing on the wreck, and in the case of a silt-out with a broken line, we’d have the marker to reconfirm our way out of the wreck. With the last couple of minutes on our penetration, we made it all the way to that panel Kevin and I ran into on Day 2. We both hit the time limit before our gas limit, and turned the dive.

The exits are always a bit faster than the penetrations, and we were back at the vertical hallway in no time. Having practiced the whole horizontal trim position learned in my DIR-F class, I first attempted to navigate it down in this position. It lasted about 3 seconds before I realized I wouldn’t fit. I opted for going head down, and instead of kicking, just pulled myself down the passage. This was a total blast. Toward the bottom the surge picked up a bit, and made it difficult to get back in trim while pulling the ties for Joe. Turns out that I had completely missed the tie in that led up the hallway, and had to really work to get at it. I had a foot on one side of the hallway, a hand on the opposite side, and reached back with my free hand to get at the tie. We cleared the remaining 20’ to our exit in no time, and I was outside of the wreck once again.

Looking back through the hatch at Joe, who was still inside the wreck, Joe signaled me to get out of the way because he was coming out. With the reel locked down, Joe timed the surge just right, and came shooting out of the wreck. Just before he slammed into the awning, the line on the reel came tight, and it spun him back into position. It was like seeing a wakeboarder get snapped back at the end of the rope after catching big air. Joe made short work of cleaning up the line, and we were on our slow ascent back to the surface in no time. What a fun dive.

Back on the boat, we learned about Team 1’s dive. Turns out it was a lot of fun, but I don’t want to spoil it. Janeane should have a write up for it soon. We made it back to the docks around 1:30 pm, and due to the logistics of SoCal traffic on a Monday afternoon, decided to pack up fast and get out of Dodge. We left so fast, it felt like we did a dine and dash leaving Kevin with the bill. The good part for those of us driving from San Diego to Northern California was that we were able to make it through L.A. before 3:30 pm. That in itself probably saved us hours of sitting in traffic, but it would have been nice to sit down for lunch, review the video from dive 1, and have a chance to talk about the great experience the class had been for everyone.

It has been roughly 2 weeks since the class wrapped up, and I’m still fired up about it. We have a few dives scheduled in Monterey for fun in December, but already have plans to dive the Yukon in January. With the 5 penetrations we did on the wreck, we barely scratched the surface.

Looking back at the class, I can appreciate it a bit more. The 4 days of history, limits, procedures, skills, and a strong dose of reality probably over trained us for the level of penetrations we did. Even the penetrations were done at such a cautious pace, I never once felt scared about being inside the wreck. The silt out that Kevin and I caused was probably the worst of it, and even through all of that, I remember being calm and relaxed thinking, “this isn’t so bad.”

Almost done...

 

[darkpup]

The line work we did was pretty intense. Not so much because of what we were learning, but more because of why we were learning it. Line work is challenging in itself, but you can always head directly to the surface if you get into trouble while practicing in 30’ of open water. It really changes when you realize that you won’t have that option once you’re inside the wreck. Throughout all of the penetration dives, I was extremely aware of this. I remember making mental notes of where the exits were while watching my teammates drop non-directional markers to do the same thing. The mental shift from open water to an overhead environment is huge, but the level of training along with the extremely slow pace at which we penetrated the wreck, I never once felt trapped. I was always aware of the reality that we were inside the wreck, but I also felt really confident that if something went wrong, we’d be able to get out of the wreck together.

Knowing that I could always thumb the dive and that my team would support that decision without question really helped my confidence in the wreck. I know this rule goes without saying for all levels of diving. It’s just that it’s nice to know it’s there in this environment. I thumbed the first penetration dive because we had accomplished enough to meet the needs of the dive, but also because I didn’t feel comfortable going any further. I found myself at the end of the hallway asking things like “which way” and “do we really want to go down there.” Call it a rule or call it team support, it’s nice to know it’s there if you need it.

As I mentioned earlier, the limits of this class really helped to keep things in check.

1. Stick to NDL limits (no decompression dives)
2. All penetrations will be limited to 80 cft of gas
3. One continuous guide line at all times (i.e. no jumps)
4. No major restrictions
5. No complex navigation
6. Max depth 100’

It would be so easy to break one of these rules. The gas and time limits are the easy ones to break for us at this point, but as we gain more experience, I could see how it would be easy to break the others as well. You might get away with it once or twice, but these rules seem to snowball into more serious problems. The silt out showed me that. Although we were able to get out without any problems, it showed how things could change quickly. If you pushed through a major restriction and while on the other side banged into the wreck causing damage to your valves, you’d find yourself in a situation. Even though the class taught us how to get out of that situation, we don’t have the experience required to pull it off without causing other problems along the way.

When you combine the training with the team support and limits, wreck penetrations are definitely doable. It’s odd how my future dives are slowly changing to include wrecks if possible. As always, if you have any questions about the class or our experiences on the Yukon, ask away. I’m still a newbie, but I’ll do what I can.

~ Jason

 

[radinator]

Jason, thanks for the great writeup! It sounds like a really fun class.

 

[jeckyll]

Great detailed writeup. I'm far from it at this point but would like to eventually get to wreck penetrations.

Thanks for taking the time to give us some insight into your class.

Bjorn

 

[Kevfin]

As with your previous write-up of part 1, I enjoyed this one too.

Thanks

 

[darkpup]

Thanks guys. It was definitely a fun class once we made it through the hard stuff. The video Joe was able to capture is great. I hope to be able to get some stills from it, and then work on getting a short video of the experience up soon.

I'll keep you posted.

~ Jason

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Thanks for taking the time to write up the report and post it. Enjoyed reviewing your class with you.

Doc