jwvanno
Contributor
I'm going to avoid a detailed "story" if I can, but share the details as we reconstructed them after the dive.
Three of us were diving as a team. Myself and one other have done 49 dives, and the third in our party has around 400 dives, and is a full time firefighter paramedic. We wanted some non-penetration, deep dive/wreck exposure with a more experienced diver who we knew and trusted. Since my normal buddy and I had never been below 100 feet, the PRIMARY reason for the dive was to get some "supervised" aquaintance with Nitrogen Narcosis. The wreck was strictly secondary and only chosen for it's depth.
We were diving a 28% mix on a wreck which was 110 on deck and 135 to the sand.
The current was ripping stronger than anything I or my normal buddy had ever experienced, (even stronger than some of the first magnitude springs we've dove.) but we felt we could handle it on the way down the anchor line, and if it was the same on the bottom, we would abort the dive.
The plan was to drop down the line, then off the side of the wreck and hover about three to five feet off the sand and check all gauges and see if 1) we could make sense of them at depth, 2) see if we could be aware enough to maintain depth and hovering, and 3) simply feel what the narcosis was doing to our heads. We planned no more than 2 minutes at 130 feet. Then we planned to rise to the deck for 8 or 10 minutes of sightseeing, at 110, then air permitting, 2 or 3 minutes looking into the wheelhouse before ascending the anchor line.
The current on the wreck as very manageable if we stayed low and within a few feet of the deck, so we decided to proceed with our plan.
The descent to 130, the hovering drill, and the ascent to the deck went exactly as planned. (although looking back at my own photos, I was FAR more narced than I thought at the time!!
)
11 minutes into the dive, I looked to my right, and as I brought my head back to the left, the swivel that connects my primary regulator to the hose blew out its o-ring. It's the same one as can be bought here: http://scuba.com/shop/diving.asp_cat_37_scuba_1_gear_034155_pn_PROMATE-REGULATOR-SWIVEL although I bought it at a LDS. The set screw had come loose and backed out enough to open a gap in the seating surface, and the O-ring blew out the side.
I may have been more excited and closer to panic than I want to admit, but I KEPT THINKING THROUGH THE PROBLEM!!!
I went to the secondary of the most experienced diver. My ruptured hose fell between us across our arms, and we were blanketed in a white out of bubbles. This was the closest point I came to just losing my self control!! I couldn't see, and all I could hear was air leaving way too rapidly. By the time he turned my tank off, and we could see, we'd been blown off the wreck and had lost our second buddy.
We got bouyancy control back and with the exception of the first 20 seconds where we were totally out of control getting blown UP and off the wreck, the computer logs show a very clean ascent. Since we were still within our NDL times, we did 1 minute at 50 feet, followed by 3 minutes at 15 feet, then surfaced.
Another buddy team saw the blowout and the two of us get blown off the wreck. They aborted their dive, grabbed my girlfriend, and became a new team of three for a completely "normal" ascent up the anchor line.
We estimated that in that 4 1/2 minutes, it took us to surface, we were 3/4 mile away from the boat. We both had Sausages and deployed them, then bobbed and waited till all the other divers got back on board and the boat came for us. Within 15 minutes, we were ALL safely back on board and shaking with adreneline.
After an hour or so, we went on and did a drift dive on a 15-20 foot reef to let everyone just calm the heck down and enjoy themselves again.
Lessons learned:
1) We had talked about if my normal buddy and I get seperated from the third, that we would not search more than 30 seconds, abort our dive, and focus strictly on each other to the surface. We never talked about what if my normal team was broken. I got blown off the wreck with my third, but had no idea where my second was. (Until I saw her on the bow of the boat.) She saw us get blown off, but didn't know whether to follow or ascend the line. (She decided the safest course was ascend the line, and as she was just beginning to ascend, is when the other pair stopped her and buddied up.)
We were all within arms reach of each other... Did I make a minor mistake heading for the more experienced diver than my normal buddy??? I don't think so. I think his greater experience saved ME from panic and trouble, but I would have never lived with myself if my GF of 6 years was lost...
2) The extra task loading of the current wasn't accounted for in our plan. We were briefed there was a "fairly strong current". We talked about it, but we didn't re-evaluate it AS A GROUP when we got in the water. The experienced diver did, but at 90 feet, when he was asking me: "Are you sure this is O.K.??" I took him to be asking: "Ready?" Neither I nor my buddy thought any farther than "It's O.K. if we stay low on the wreck."
3) No one on the boat afterward, admitted to ever having thought to check the set-screws on these swivels, even though almost all of the 10 divers had them attached to their regs. It's a point of failure that just a tiny drop of Lok-Tite (r) would have settled.
What other "lessons learned" am I not thinking about as I type?? I felt fine during the drift dive, and the dive home, but didn't sleep too well last night, (just nerves. We've both been monitoring ourselves for any signs of DCS, but feel fine and it's been 26 hours.) but I might be missing something else that we talked about last night....
If you're using one of these swivels, think about that set screw as well as the rest of your hose systems!!!
Just wanted to share.
Three of us were diving as a team. Myself and one other have done 49 dives, and the third in our party has around 400 dives, and is a full time firefighter paramedic. We wanted some non-penetration, deep dive/wreck exposure with a more experienced diver who we knew and trusted. Since my normal buddy and I had never been below 100 feet, the PRIMARY reason for the dive was to get some "supervised" aquaintance with Nitrogen Narcosis. The wreck was strictly secondary and only chosen for it's depth.
We were diving a 28% mix on a wreck which was 110 on deck and 135 to the sand.
The current was ripping stronger than anything I or my normal buddy had ever experienced, (even stronger than some of the first magnitude springs we've dove.) but we felt we could handle it on the way down the anchor line, and if it was the same on the bottom, we would abort the dive.
The plan was to drop down the line, then off the side of the wreck and hover about three to five feet off the sand and check all gauges and see if 1) we could make sense of them at depth, 2) see if we could be aware enough to maintain depth and hovering, and 3) simply feel what the narcosis was doing to our heads. We planned no more than 2 minutes at 130 feet. Then we planned to rise to the deck for 8 or 10 minutes of sightseeing, at 110, then air permitting, 2 or 3 minutes looking into the wheelhouse before ascending the anchor line.
The current on the wreck as very manageable if we stayed low and within a few feet of the deck, so we decided to proceed with our plan.
The descent to 130, the hovering drill, and the ascent to the deck went exactly as planned. (although looking back at my own photos, I was FAR more narced than I thought at the time!!
)11 minutes into the dive, I looked to my right, and as I brought my head back to the left, the swivel that connects my primary regulator to the hose blew out its o-ring. It's the same one as can be bought here: http://scuba.com/shop/diving.asp_cat_37_scuba_1_gear_034155_pn_PROMATE-REGULATOR-SWIVEL although I bought it at a LDS. The set screw had come loose and backed out enough to open a gap in the seating surface, and the O-ring blew out the side.
I may have been more excited and closer to panic than I want to admit, but I KEPT THINKING THROUGH THE PROBLEM!!!
I went to the secondary of the most experienced diver. My ruptured hose fell between us across our arms, and we were blanketed in a white out of bubbles. This was the closest point I came to just losing my self control!! I couldn't see, and all I could hear was air leaving way too rapidly. By the time he turned my tank off, and we could see, we'd been blown off the wreck and had lost our second buddy.
We got bouyancy control back and with the exception of the first 20 seconds where we were totally out of control getting blown UP and off the wreck, the computer logs show a very clean ascent. Since we were still within our NDL times, we did 1 minute at 50 feet, followed by 3 minutes at 15 feet, then surfaced.
Another buddy team saw the blowout and the two of us get blown off the wreck. They aborted their dive, grabbed my girlfriend, and became a new team of three for a completely "normal" ascent up the anchor line.
We estimated that in that 4 1/2 minutes, it took us to surface, we were 3/4 mile away from the boat. We both had Sausages and deployed them, then bobbed and waited till all the other divers got back on board and the boat came for us. Within 15 minutes, we were ALL safely back on board and shaking with adreneline.
After an hour or so, we went on and did a drift dive on a 15-20 foot reef to let everyone just calm the heck down and enjoy themselves again.
Lessons learned:
1) We had talked about if my normal buddy and I get seperated from the third, that we would not search more than 30 seconds, abort our dive, and focus strictly on each other to the surface. We never talked about what if my normal team was broken. I got blown off the wreck with my third, but had no idea where my second was. (Until I saw her on the bow of the boat.) She saw us get blown off, but didn't know whether to follow or ascend the line. (She decided the safest course was ascend the line, and as she was just beginning to ascend, is when the other pair stopped her and buddied up.)
We were all within arms reach of each other... Did I make a minor mistake heading for the more experienced diver than my normal buddy??? I don't think so. I think his greater experience saved ME from panic and trouble, but I would have never lived with myself if my GF of 6 years was lost...
2) The extra task loading of the current wasn't accounted for in our plan. We were briefed there was a "fairly strong current". We talked about it, but we didn't re-evaluate it AS A GROUP when we got in the water. The experienced diver did, but at 90 feet, when he was asking me: "Are you sure this is O.K.??" I took him to be asking: "Ready?" Neither I nor my buddy thought any farther than "It's O.K. if we stay low on the wreck."
3) No one on the boat afterward, admitted to ever having thought to check the set-screws on these swivels, even though almost all of the 10 divers had them attached to their regs. It's a point of failure that just a tiny drop of Lok-Tite (r) would have settled.
What other "lessons learned" am I not thinking about as I type?? I felt fine during the drift dive, and the dive home, but didn't sleep too well last night, (just nerves. We've both been monitoring ourselves for any signs of DCS, but feel fine and it's been 26 hours.) but I might be missing something else that we talked about last night....
If you're using one of these swivels, think about that set screw as well as the rest of your hose systems!!!
Just wanted to share.
