Ken Kurtis
Contributor
If you survived watching that UCLA/Washington State game Saturday night without any heart problems, your cardiac system is in good shape . . .
CONCEPTION UPDATE - The investigation is now at a point where the NTSB (IMHO) is going to sit on what they're doing until they reach some conclusions, which could literally be a year or two. It certainly seems from press reports that they're focusing on lithium-ion batteries, which are found in just about every device we use, let alone the ones we bring on boats. These type of batteries are likely in your cameras, strobes, underwater scooters (of which there were NONE on the fatal trip), cell phones, computers, and more. Not every rechargeable is lithium-ion, but many are.
FIRE ORIGIN - This is still one of the big mysteries. We know from the crew interviews that the engine room was NOT on fire when they came on from the stern and tried to access the bunkroom. Ironically, among all the boat captains I've discussed this with, the fairly universal opinion has always been - and the USCG regs are written this way too - that any boat fire would likely start in the engine room where things like generators and compressors (not to mention engines) run frequently and it's hot and there may be wiring that gets exposed. That's why the engine rooms are fitted with automatic fire suppression systems to knock anything out right away. Along those same lines and as a direct result of the Conception fire, the Coast Guard has ordered a nationwide mandatory re-inspection of all T vessels, with specific instructions to check firefighting abilities and wiring. T vessels are any small (under 100 gross tons - Conception was 97) passenger vessel that caries more than 6 people but less than 49 overnight, so pretty much every commercial diving, fishing, and other commercial passenger vessels that aren't cruise ships or 6-packs. If you'd like to read more about T vessel regulations, here's the USCG New York sector version: T VESSEL REGS.
STANDARDS & OVERSIGHT - One issue that's being discussed among the operators is whether the Conception fire issues will reflect back on th USCG in terms of inadequate design standards &/or oversight. The Conception was built to applicable federally-set standards and was inspected annually by USCG to make sure everything was in order. (And not just Conception, but all commercial passenger vessels.) So if you've built your boat to those standards and ever year the USCG has inspected you and pronounced everything OK, when something goes wrong, how do they then turn around and go, "Well, it's not OK and this is YOUR fault, not ours." Again, the thought is that there will be some major changes coming down the road.
I WON'T BE DOING ONE OF THESE UPDATES EVERY WEEK - Unless there's some new information to pass along, there won't be one of these updates every single week. One thing that has changed, and certainly for the better, is that there's a heightened awareness on the part of both passengers and boat operators of these issues and everyone's taking all of this VERY seriously to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is worldwide. And as I've been saying all along, hopefully something good can come out of all of this and that would certainly seem to fit the definition.
Onward . . .
AVALON THIS PAST SATURDAY - The ride over was great. The weather was gorgeous. The water was warm. The visibility . . . not so good. 20-30 feet, fairly green, and there was a ripping north-to-south (left-to-right) current on the third dive. But we did spend a nice day exploring the Avalon Underwater Park on Saturday. Water temp was around 70º above 45 feet and I even did the first two dives in my 3mm suit with a 7/5mm drysuit hood. Temp dropped to 65º-ish below 50 feet with occasionally blasts of even colder water (upper 50s). But our main quest was to find Giant Sea Bass and we got them on every dive. In fact on the first dive, we found a cluster of SIX of them, all hanging out together around the 60-foot mark pretty much straight out from the stairs. They were generally not too spooked by us so we hung with them for a good 20 minutes. We saw one enormous one of dive #2 in the Pinnacles. And then had two more on dive #3 back in our first spot. Despite the crappy viz, really special times. You can experience some of it without having to get wet through this 96-second video I put together from the third dive: SEARCH FOR GIANTS.
CHECK YOUR AIR - One of our divers had a problem that could have been extremely serious due to a simple oversight of not having the valve on the tank fully turned on. About 15 minutes into the dive, as we were all mesmerized by the enormous Sea Bass in front of us, the diver came up to me and signaled a reg problem. I instinctively reached back and checked the valve, and turned open almost three full turns. That should have restored full air flow but by this point, the diver had swallowed some water while trying to get breaths, was not a happy camper, and signaled "UP" so we aborted the dive and the two of us surfaced together without further incident. But . . .
MY PET PEEVE - It really underscores one of my pet peeves which is when people hook up their their regs, turn on the air to check pressure, and either haven't fully turned it on or - even worse - turn it off while leaving the reg hooked up, so they won't "lose" any air prior to the start of the dive. Instead, you run the chance of losing your life. (We've had a couple of fatalities where this behavior was a primary cause of the death.) First of all, reg-to-tank is a sealed system. It's not going to leak. If it IS leaking, you have a different problem to solve before you start your dive. If you absolutely insist on turning your air off, then also remove the reg from the yoke so it won't look like everything is all set to go when your dive starts many minutes later on and you've forgotten that the air is off. Turning off the air or not fully opening the valve is simply stupid, puts your life at risk, and you're smarter than that. So if this is something you're doing, don't send me a note explaining how it's OK, just stop doing it. End of rant.
FALL STARTS MONDAY - It actually "starts" at 12:50AM so if you read this Sunday night, you've still got a little of summer left but if you read this on Monday or later, welcome to Fall. Of course, the upside of all of this is that the Fall TV Season starts Monday as well and I'm looking forward to seeing if Ziva really faked her death or if Gibbs' mind is simply playing tricks on him.
LOBSTER SEASON STARTS NEXT SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 @ 6:00AM - Don't forget that the start is no longer 12:01AM. Limit is still 7/day and you're got to have a lobster card in your possession whether you attempt is successful or not (and you have to log failed attempts as well). If you're unclear if you're up-to-date on the dos and don't, here's a link to the CDFW website: 2019-2020 LOBSTER REGS.
DIVE SAFELY PLEASE - Remember that no lobster is worth your life. Don't be stupid in your quest. Let's not have a repeat of a few years ago when there were FIVE fatalities in the first few days of the lobster opener. Use your head. Turn your air on all the way. (And watch your gauge throughout the dive!!!) Oh yeah: Have good time.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
CONCEPTION UPDATE - The investigation is now at a point where the NTSB (IMHO) is going to sit on what they're doing until they reach some conclusions, which could literally be a year or two. It certainly seems from press reports that they're focusing on lithium-ion batteries, which are found in just about every device we use, let alone the ones we bring on boats. These type of batteries are likely in your cameras, strobes, underwater scooters (of which there were NONE on the fatal trip), cell phones, computers, and more. Not every rechargeable is lithium-ion, but many are.
FIRE ORIGIN - This is still one of the big mysteries. We know from the crew interviews that the engine room was NOT on fire when they came on from the stern and tried to access the bunkroom. Ironically, among all the boat captains I've discussed this with, the fairly universal opinion has always been - and the USCG regs are written this way too - that any boat fire would likely start in the engine room where things like generators and compressors (not to mention engines) run frequently and it's hot and there may be wiring that gets exposed. That's why the engine rooms are fitted with automatic fire suppression systems to knock anything out right away. Along those same lines and as a direct result of the Conception fire, the Coast Guard has ordered a nationwide mandatory re-inspection of all T vessels, with specific instructions to check firefighting abilities and wiring. T vessels are any small (under 100 gross tons - Conception was 97) passenger vessel that caries more than 6 people but less than 49 overnight, so pretty much every commercial diving, fishing, and other commercial passenger vessels that aren't cruise ships or 6-packs. If you'd like to read more about T vessel regulations, here's the USCG New York sector version: T VESSEL REGS.
STANDARDS & OVERSIGHT - One issue that's being discussed among the operators is whether the Conception fire issues will reflect back on th USCG in terms of inadequate design standards &/or oversight. The Conception was built to applicable federally-set standards and was inspected annually by USCG to make sure everything was in order. (And not just Conception, but all commercial passenger vessels.) So if you've built your boat to those standards and ever year the USCG has inspected you and pronounced everything OK, when something goes wrong, how do they then turn around and go, "Well, it's not OK and this is YOUR fault, not ours." Again, the thought is that there will be some major changes coming down the road.
I WON'T BE DOING ONE OF THESE UPDATES EVERY WEEK - Unless there's some new information to pass along, there won't be one of these updates every single week. One thing that has changed, and certainly for the better, is that there's a heightened awareness on the part of both passengers and boat operators of these issues and everyone's taking all of this VERY seriously to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is worldwide. And as I've been saying all along, hopefully something good can come out of all of this and that would certainly seem to fit the definition.
Onward . . .
AVALON THIS PAST SATURDAY - The ride over was great. The weather was gorgeous. The water was warm. The visibility . . . not so good. 20-30 feet, fairly green, and there was a ripping north-to-south (left-to-right) current on the third dive. But we did spend a nice day exploring the Avalon Underwater Park on Saturday. Water temp was around 70º above 45 feet and I even did the first two dives in my 3mm suit with a 7/5mm drysuit hood. Temp dropped to 65º-ish below 50 feet with occasionally blasts of even colder water (upper 50s). But our main quest was to find Giant Sea Bass and we got them on every dive. In fact on the first dive, we found a cluster of SIX of them, all hanging out together around the 60-foot mark pretty much straight out from the stairs. They were generally not too spooked by us so we hung with them for a good 20 minutes. We saw one enormous one of dive #2 in the Pinnacles. And then had two more on dive #3 back in our first spot. Despite the crappy viz, really special times. You can experience some of it without having to get wet through this 96-second video I put together from the third dive: SEARCH FOR GIANTS.
CHECK YOUR AIR - One of our divers had a problem that could have been extremely serious due to a simple oversight of not having the valve on the tank fully turned on. About 15 minutes into the dive, as we were all mesmerized by the enormous Sea Bass in front of us, the diver came up to me and signaled a reg problem. I instinctively reached back and checked the valve, and turned open almost three full turns. That should have restored full air flow but by this point, the diver had swallowed some water while trying to get breaths, was not a happy camper, and signaled "UP" so we aborted the dive and the two of us surfaced together without further incident. But . . .
MY PET PEEVE - It really underscores one of my pet peeves which is when people hook up their their regs, turn on the air to check pressure, and either haven't fully turned it on or - even worse - turn it off while leaving the reg hooked up, so they won't "lose" any air prior to the start of the dive. Instead, you run the chance of losing your life. (We've had a couple of fatalities where this behavior was a primary cause of the death.) First of all, reg-to-tank is a sealed system. It's not going to leak. If it IS leaking, you have a different problem to solve before you start your dive. If you absolutely insist on turning your air off, then also remove the reg from the yoke so it won't look like everything is all set to go when your dive starts many minutes later on and you've forgotten that the air is off. Turning off the air or not fully opening the valve is simply stupid, puts your life at risk, and you're smarter than that. So if this is something you're doing, don't send me a note explaining how it's OK, just stop doing it. End of rant.
FALL STARTS MONDAY - It actually "starts" at 12:50AM so if you read this Sunday night, you've still got a little of summer left but if you read this on Monday or later, welcome to Fall. Of course, the upside of all of this is that the Fall TV Season starts Monday as well and I'm looking forward to seeing if Ziva really faked her death or if Gibbs' mind is simply playing tricks on him.
LOBSTER SEASON STARTS NEXT SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 @ 6:00AM - Don't forget that the start is no longer 12:01AM. Limit is still 7/day and you're got to have a lobster card in your possession whether you attempt is successful or not (and you have to log failed attempts as well). If you're unclear if you're up-to-date on the dos and don't, here's a link to the CDFW website: 2019-2020 LOBSTER REGS.
DIVE SAFELY PLEASE - Remember that no lobster is worth your life. Don't be stupid in your quest. Let's not have a repeat of a few years ago when there were FIVE fatalities in the first few days of the lobster opener. Use your head. Turn your air on all the way. (And watch your gauge throughout the dive!!!) Oh yeah: Have good time.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week, and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
