I witnessed an incident yesterday, July 31, 2010, while diving from M/V Marissa on the Yukon here in San Diego. The passenger load yesterday consisted of:
1. Two local female divers using rebreathers and drysuits.
2. A very experienced local male diver with nitrox doubles, pony and a drysuit.
3. An Arizona male instructor with doubles in a drysuit.
4. 3 Arizona students, two males and a female, all of whom appeared to be experienced divers. One male in a wetsuit (I saw him entering his 65th dive in his logbook), the other two were in drysuits.
5. An Arizona couple (M/F) for whom it was their 30th dive, both in wetsuits.
6. A very experienced local couple (M/F) with hundreds of local dives, both diving drysuits.
7. I am a local male diver with 45 local dives in a 7mm wetsuit, using an HP100. My 5th Yukon dive in my seven months since certifying. I have AOW and have completed the classroom and pool sessions toward a Wreck cert.
8. The crew consisted of captain and divemaster.
I dove with the experienced local couple. We let most of the boat go in the water ahead of us, figuring that the rebreathers and doubles might as well go first. Our group of 3 went down at 908am. The female in our trio called her dive immediately due to her drysuit flooding. My remaining buddy and I had a nice dive from the bow to the forward guns and back, my computer says 26 minutes, max depth 84 feet, 52 degrees. We did a 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet, along with the Arizona couple.
The instructor and 3 students were already back on board. Some time later, the nitrox doubles diver surfaced and reboarded. He said he had taken the rebreathers completely through the ship. About this time the rebreather duo surfaced at the buoy marking the stern, 350+ feet away. They signaled OK and went back down.
After the required surface interval, the instructor and one student, and my buddy and I geared up to do our second dive. The instructor and student went down first. Before my buddy and I could enter the water, the nitrox doubles diver said loudly, “We have a diver emergency!”
He and the divemaster moved to the rear of the boat, where the two rebreathers had surfaced. One diver was in obvious distress, pale and initially appearing unresponsive. She was pulled onboard and the divemaster began to assist her while the nitrox doubles diver got the O2 kit and got it ready for the DM. The diver was breathing and became responsive. She intermittently produced a mucousy fluid, the DM turning her head to the side, then readministering O2. The diver was coherent and answered all questions accurately.
Lifeguard vessels were at the boat within seven minutes and took the two divers and the distressed diver’s gear and computer and departed within five minutes. I know it took seven minutes for the lifeguards to arrive, because the experienced local female diver kept a detailed log of everything from the beginning of the incident, noting times. I’m estimating the five minutes before they departed.
When the two divers in the water surfaced and reboarded, the vessel left for the lifeguard headquarters in Mission Bay, where the crew and the nitrox doubles diver were interviewed by lifeguards and the Coast Guard. The owner came to the dock and produced the vessel and crew documentation and was interviewed as well.
I don’t know what happened to produce the incident. Two hours later we were told that both divers were in the chamber at UCSD due to an ascent from depth without any deco stops.
That’s all I know, and I could have some details wrong, especially about the passengers/divers particulars. I caught everyone’s first name, but am not going to put that kind of information out on the internet.
I have not speculated about the cause of the incident in this post, although we certainly spent much time doing so yesterday.
I will say that the response from the DM, captain and the owner of Marissa was extremely professional, as was the response of the other experienced divers onboard, several of whom were certified rescue divers and O2 providers.
1. Two local female divers using rebreathers and drysuits.
2. A very experienced local male diver with nitrox doubles, pony and a drysuit.
3. An Arizona male instructor with doubles in a drysuit.
4. 3 Arizona students, two males and a female, all of whom appeared to be experienced divers. One male in a wetsuit (I saw him entering his 65th dive in his logbook), the other two were in drysuits.
5. An Arizona couple (M/F) for whom it was their 30th dive, both in wetsuits.
6. A very experienced local couple (M/F) with hundreds of local dives, both diving drysuits.
7. I am a local male diver with 45 local dives in a 7mm wetsuit, using an HP100. My 5th Yukon dive in my seven months since certifying. I have AOW and have completed the classroom and pool sessions toward a Wreck cert.
8. The crew consisted of captain and divemaster.
I dove with the experienced local couple. We let most of the boat go in the water ahead of us, figuring that the rebreathers and doubles might as well go first. Our group of 3 went down at 908am. The female in our trio called her dive immediately due to her drysuit flooding. My remaining buddy and I had a nice dive from the bow to the forward guns and back, my computer says 26 minutes, max depth 84 feet, 52 degrees. We did a 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet, along with the Arizona couple.
The instructor and 3 students were already back on board. Some time later, the nitrox doubles diver surfaced and reboarded. He said he had taken the rebreathers completely through the ship. About this time the rebreather duo surfaced at the buoy marking the stern, 350+ feet away. They signaled OK and went back down.
After the required surface interval, the instructor and one student, and my buddy and I geared up to do our second dive. The instructor and student went down first. Before my buddy and I could enter the water, the nitrox doubles diver said loudly, “We have a diver emergency!”
He and the divemaster moved to the rear of the boat, where the two rebreathers had surfaced. One diver was in obvious distress, pale and initially appearing unresponsive. She was pulled onboard and the divemaster began to assist her while the nitrox doubles diver got the O2 kit and got it ready for the DM. The diver was breathing and became responsive. She intermittently produced a mucousy fluid, the DM turning her head to the side, then readministering O2. The diver was coherent and answered all questions accurately.
Lifeguard vessels were at the boat within seven minutes and took the two divers and the distressed diver’s gear and computer and departed within five minutes. I know it took seven minutes for the lifeguards to arrive, because the experienced local female diver kept a detailed log of everything from the beginning of the incident, noting times. I’m estimating the five minutes before they departed.
When the two divers in the water surfaced and reboarded, the vessel left for the lifeguard headquarters in Mission Bay, where the crew and the nitrox doubles diver were interviewed by lifeguards and the Coast Guard. The owner came to the dock and produced the vessel and crew documentation and was interviewed as well.
I don’t know what happened to produce the incident. Two hours later we were told that both divers were in the chamber at UCSD due to an ascent from depth without any deco stops.
That’s all I know, and I could have some details wrong, especially about the passengers/divers particulars. I caught everyone’s first name, but am not going to put that kind of information out on the internet.
I have not speculated about the cause of the incident in this post, although we certainly spent much time doing so yesterday.
I will say that the response from the DM, captain and the owner of Marissa was extremely professional, as was the response of the other experienced divers onboard, several of whom were certified rescue divers and O2 providers.
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