Hello everyone! I have a problem that I'm looking for some advice on.
Here's the situation. (questions at the bottom)
Yesterday my girlfriend and I were heading out to repair a trout holding net in a lake near me, and when we got to the marina we were drafted into a half sunken boat recovery. This 25ft ish boat had swamped during our recent unusual rains and was only hanging on to the dock by two ropes. The bow was the only thing out of the water. The inboard engine in the stern was holding at about 15ft down. When we first assessed the situation there wasn't much oil or fuel floating so we decided to drop down to see what we could do. When we got to the boat we checked for any breaches that would stop it from floating once the water was out. We didn't find anything that looked wrong. After checking the hull we looked at the cleats to make sure they were sturdy enough to tie ropes to as it was lifted. The first time I shook one of the cleats on the stern the engine hatch popped open. As I was moving out of the way in case it let completely loose and shot up I saw globs of oil and fuel bubbling to the surface. At that point we had the others with us call in the environmental team to help with the situation. We put out the spill kit floats to try to contain the oil. We then decided it would be best if we got it out of the water as quickly as we could. The only things we had to work with were a couple of 30gal trash cans, a couple of buckets, and some ropes. We tried for about 2hrs with that stuff and got the stern to about 4ft below the surface but couldn't get it any higher. After that first 2hrs one person from the environmental team showed up and made a call to get some 55gal plastic drums out to us. Took another hour to get those out there. The owner of the boat finally showed up at about hour 4 after being called before we ever got in the water. Once we had enough lift it took us about an hour to get it up and pumped out. So all done we spent about 5 hrs in oil/fuel soaked water and went completely through 7 aluminum 80 tanks.
Now here's my questions
Both of our regulators are being cleaned and serviced at our local shop. (The CD that works there brought us spare tanks to use on the recovery)
The rest of the gear I was told to clean well with "Dawn" dish soap to get the oil off. With the cloth pieces I have no trouble with it, but both of us were wearing dry suits and the seals are a different story. It's just been one day, and they have begun to turn grey.
Will the seals survive, or are they destroyed?
They are still soaking in soapy water right now.
What other problems should I be on the look out for?
If anyone has experience with this I would appreciate any tips.
Thanks
Tim
Here's the situation. (questions at the bottom)
Yesterday my girlfriend and I were heading out to repair a trout holding net in a lake near me, and when we got to the marina we were drafted into a half sunken boat recovery. This 25ft ish boat had swamped during our recent unusual rains and was only hanging on to the dock by two ropes. The bow was the only thing out of the water. The inboard engine in the stern was holding at about 15ft down. When we first assessed the situation there wasn't much oil or fuel floating so we decided to drop down to see what we could do. When we got to the boat we checked for any breaches that would stop it from floating once the water was out. We didn't find anything that looked wrong. After checking the hull we looked at the cleats to make sure they were sturdy enough to tie ropes to as it was lifted. The first time I shook one of the cleats on the stern the engine hatch popped open. As I was moving out of the way in case it let completely loose and shot up I saw globs of oil and fuel bubbling to the surface. At that point we had the others with us call in the environmental team to help with the situation. We put out the spill kit floats to try to contain the oil. We then decided it would be best if we got it out of the water as quickly as we could. The only things we had to work with were a couple of 30gal trash cans, a couple of buckets, and some ropes. We tried for about 2hrs with that stuff and got the stern to about 4ft below the surface but couldn't get it any higher. After that first 2hrs one person from the environmental team showed up and made a call to get some 55gal plastic drums out to us. Took another hour to get those out there. The owner of the boat finally showed up at about hour 4 after being called before we ever got in the water. Once we had enough lift it took us about an hour to get it up and pumped out. So all done we spent about 5 hrs in oil/fuel soaked water and went completely through 7 aluminum 80 tanks.
Now here's my questions
Both of our regulators are being cleaned and serviced at our local shop. (The CD that works there brought us spare tanks to use on the recovery)
The rest of the gear I was told to clean well with "Dawn" dish soap to get the oil off. With the cloth pieces I have no trouble with it, but both of us were wearing dry suits and the seals are a different story. It's just been one day, and they have begun to turn grey.
Will the seals survive, or are they destroyed?
They are still soaking in soapy water right now.
What other problems should I be on the look out for?
If anyone has experience with this I would appreciate any tips.
Thanks
Tim
