Tech diving is a hard and expensive sport. It can be very dangerous for careless, wreckless or inexperienced diver. I often get into the water with well over 250 lbs of gear on my back. The price for 25 minutes of bottom time can ofter exceed $150. It takes years to develop the kinesthetic senses to be able to dive safely at this level. Your body sometimes takes a beating from decompression. You hearing goes bad. The dives in the Puget Sound and Lake Washington are really cold, dark, dirty and silty.
Today a friend of mine saw a video of the PB4Y which sits 150ft at the bottom of Lake Washington. She noticed how nasty the conditions were and she asked me what the attraction to this kind of diving was. I told her that when my buddies and I get out of the water we are usually laughing like goons.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Time Bandit
I have a knack for naming boats.
Several years ago a friend had a small black RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat). It must have looked pretty menacing to see a couple of guys dresses head to toe in black dry suits on a black boat. We used to get big stares from the passenger ferries in the Puget Sound. I named this boat The Jihad.
My friend Scott has a boat which he modified specifically to go wreck diving. Up until today Scott's boat did not really have a name. Today we dove the wreck of a WW2 Navy bomber called the PB4Y. This airplane sits at the 150ft depth of Lake Washington and is considered by some the Mount Everest of Lake Washington. This airplane almost looks like it belongs in a museum.
Scott's boat has a pirate flag on the bow. It is used to chase ghosts from the past that very few people ever get to see. I named this boat The Time Bandit.
Several years ago a friend had a small black RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat). It must have looked pretty menacing to see a couple of guys dresses head to toe in black dry suits on a black boat. We used to get big stares from the passenger ferries in the Puget Sound. I named this boat The Jihad.
My friend Scott has a boat which he modified specifically to go wreck diving. Up until today Scott's boat did not really have a name. Today we dove the wreck of a WW2 Navy bomber called the PB4Y. This airplane sits at the 150ft depth of Lake Washington and is considered by some the Mount Everest of Lake Washington. This airplane almost looks like it belongs in a museum.
Scott's boat has a pirate flag on the bow. It is used to chase ghosts from the past that very few people ever get to see. I named this boat The Time Bandit.
A Hard Choice
The Mark V is an awesome dive boat. It is custom build specifically for diving in the cold emerald sea around Seattle. The Mark V is designed to accommodate 14 divers but since this was a tech charter we only had 7. This was my first time on the Mark V. The dive plan was to do Dalco Wall which is off the south east corner of Vashon Island.
Dalco Wall starts at the advanced recreational depth of around 80ft. There are several small shelves as you go deeper. At 130ft Dalco Wall drops off into an abyss. The joke is that at Dalco wall you can go deep enough to see lights just like in the movie The Abyss.
The dive plan was simple, go down to 150ft for 25 minutes and then do about 25 minutes of mandatory decompression. The gas we would breath during most of the dive consists of 21% O2 35%He with the rest being N2. We add He for 2 reasons. First, He prevents gas narcosis. Second, He being a small molecule leaves the body much more quickly the N2. Helium is also easier to breath. We don't worry about O2 from the decompression point of view because O2 is metabolically active; your body consumes it. For a decompression gas we choose to breath 50% oxygen starting at 70ft. The extra O2 in 50% speeds cleaning up of metabolically inert gasses. We can't breath 50% O2 any deeper than 70ft because it is toxic.
The visibility on Dalco was pretty spectacular, at least 50ft. We dropped off right at a point where there are some underwater pinnacles. The dive was spectacular. We even saw the lights!
I was calling deco. Everything was going well until one minute into our 50ft stop. My buddy lost buoyancy control. Visibility was good so I held my stop and then headed to my 40ft stop. My buddy came back to me during this stop so I held an extra minute for his benefit. He popped a second time. This time I could see him at the surface and we didn't look like he was coming back down. We was still swimming so that was good. If we were to get a serious case of decompression sickness (DCS) that would be really bad. People have become incapacitated and even died from serious DCS hits.
My buddy missed 13 our of 25 minutes of mandatory decompression. I was concerned for his safety. I had to make a hard choice. He popped so gasses in his buddy probably fizzed. I had to place myself in a position where I could be the most helpful for him while also minimizing my risk. I monitored him from 40ft then 30ft. I decided to just do minute stops from 30ft. I cut out 7 minutes of deco, but more important, I would be in good shape and be able to help my buddy if necessary. The boat arrived to pick him up and he was already on the boat when I surface. When I was back on the boat he as already breathing O2.
After the dive all 7 of use that were one the boat debriefed about this incident. My buddy took a fairly hard hit and was really tired. I took a slight hit and was really tired by the evening.
Dalco Wall starts at the advanced recreational depth of around 80ft. There are several small shelves as you go deeper. At 130ft Dalco Wall drops off into an abyss. The joke is that at Dalco wall you can go deep enough to see lights just like in the movie The Abyss.
The dive plan was simple, go down to 150ft for 25 minutes and then do about 25 minutes of mandatory decompression. The gas we would breath during most of the dive consists of 21% O2 35%He with the rest being N2. We add He for 2 reasons. First, He prevents gas narcosis. Second, He being a small molecule leaves the body much more quickly the N2. Helium is also easier to breath. We don't worry about O2 from the decompression point of view because O2 is metabolically active; your body consumes it. For a decompression gas we choose to breath 50% oxygen starting at 70ft. The extra O2 in 50% speeds cleaning up of metabolically inert gasses. We can't breath 50% O2 any deeper than 70ft because it is toxic.
The visibility on Dalco was pretty spectacular, at least 50ft. We dropped off right at a point where there are some underwater pinnacles. The dive was spectacular. We even saw the lights!
I was calling deco. Everything was going well until one minute into our 50ft stop. My buddy lost buoyancy control. Visibility was good so I held my stop and then headed to my 40ft stop. My buddy came back to me during this stop so I held an extra minute for his benefit. He popped a second time. This time I could see him at the surface and we didn't look like he was coming back down. We was still swimming so that was good. If we were to get a serious case of decompression sickness (DCS) that would be really bad. People have become incapacitated and even died from serious DCS hits.
My buddy missed 13 our of 25 minutes of mandatory decompression. I was concerned for his safety. I had to make a hard choice. He popped so gasses in his buddy probably fizzed. I had to place myself in a position where I could be the most helpful for him while also minimizing my risk. I monitored him from 40ft then 30ft. I decided to just do minute stops from 30ft. I cut out 7 minutes of deco, but more important, I would be in good shape and be able to help my buddy if necessary. The boat arrived to pick him up and he was already on the boat when I surface. When I was back on the boat he as already breathing O2.
After the dive all 7 of use that were one the boat debriefed about this incident. My buddy took a fairly hard hit and was really tired. I took a slight hit and was really tired by the evening.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Friends
It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to add something to this blog. The past couple of months have been crazy. I have a new job doing security testing. I am getting a divorce from my wife of 19 years.
I have discovered that through diving I have made friends who love me. I have just spent the most wonderful weekend diving and driving around the Monterey California area. The diving was beautiful; much better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seeing dolphins 20ft from the beach was great. Walking around Pt. Lobos was beautiful. Watching condors soaring only a few yards away was spectacular. But by far the most wonderful thing I experienced this past weekend was my time with my friend.
She was and angel that spared me from the most horrible feelings I have ever experienced. Then she broke me heart so that I could learn to stand on my own without a crutch.
I have discovered that through diving I have made friends who love me. I have just spent the most wonderful weekend diving and driving around the Monterey California area. The diving was beautiful; much better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seeing dolphins 20ft from the beach was great. Walking around Pt. Lobos was beautiful. Watching condors soaring only a few yards away was spectacular. But by far the most wonderful thing I experienced this past weekend was my time with my friend.
She was and angel that spared me from the most horrible feelings I have ever experienced. Then she broke me heart so that I could learn to stand on my own without a crutch.
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