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Brien Checks his gear as we load the boat. Note the brand
new 17hr shoulder tatoo. His reason for diving dry.
Ready to leave, fully loaded
Team photo L->R Brien, Pat B, Pat N. Dean, Tom and myself.
Last Minute Details
Brien Chats with Capt Bob!
Team 2 surfaces having managed a nice long 30 minute bottom time :-).
Patrick N, waits to get into the boat.
Scooter Lift (groan)
Reporter Mode!! Sir can you tell
me how many man eating sharks you saw!!
Click here to see underwater pics
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Planning and Background
I felt very honoured to be asked if I wanted
to join in on this project. A group of friends who were getting together
to make themselves a video of a dive on the Northern Light. Each team
member had their own private reasons for being on the dive but ultimately we had
a team goal, which was to get some nice pictures that we can show to our mums
and look back on when we are old and fat. Tom Scott
was joining us. He had worked on the original Northern Light
Archaeological project and has close to 50 dives on this wreck but had not visited her
for 10 years. For Tom this would be a long awaited return to
his roots. For myself it would be another opportunity to dive this
interesting wreck and possibly get to see parts of her I had never seen
before. For Brien it was an opportunity to gather video of the
inside of the wreck and get some great footage.
One Thursday evening a couple of weeks ago we all met
at Quarterdeck to discuss the dive plan, assign teams and get everything sorted
out. It was a long meeting, sometimes seeming to go in
circles with everyone talking at once, yet eventually with the help of
Tom's stick drawings of the wreck and a good moderator, we came up with a
workable plan. Some of us had never dived together before so
it was also decided to meet that Sunday and execute a shakedown dive on
the Atria with a similar dive plan and full gear, so that we could
get used to each other in the water a little.
On Sunday August 4th we made the Shakedown dive and had a
great deal of fun and got some bonus video at the same time :-). The
following week by email we discussed the shakedown dive and our individual
observations about how it went. The main thing was that
everyone was comfortable with their dive team members and we made a few
adjustments to our diving styles to synchronize the group.
The Dive
One week later August 10th, the day of the dive rolled
around. Traffic was bad on my drive down to the Keys, I
ended up in park mode on at least two spots of the 18 mile stretch, and got
drenched in a couple of downpours to boot. Fortunately both
the traffic and the weather improved by the time I got there.
I was also happy to find I wasn't the last to arrive since the boat wasn't back
from the morning dive trip anyway. After loading up the boat
we set out on the 1 hour run to the wreck. All divers were
using the exact same equipment configuration and Mixes. Trimix 18/45
with 50% and 100% for decompression gases. The outside of the
wreck was at 180fsw but we planned for 190fsw since we felt that inside the
wreck we may hit a deeper depth. Our team plan was to splash
first, and drop to the wreck. Tom would search for some
particular penetration areas he wanted to check out and phase 1 was to make a 5
minute penetration. I would time the penetration and run line if
necessary. Brian would video and Tom would navigate.
This meant that the video guy would get the best visibility and be first
in, while I took care of the run of the mill stuff.
Initially we got off to a wrong start as we descended we did
not see the wreck. At 150fsw we halted and I could hear someone
cursing through their reg (not telling who it was ;-)...
). We turned and swam in the opposite direction and then
as we started our ascent to get a second drop the cursing buddy suddenly spotted
it and we all switched to those happy reg noises that you hear underwater,
and we were able to drop back down successfully. As we dropped
down there were several (Tom says he saw four) of what appeared to be Bull
Sharks scatter off the wreck as we arrived. There have been sharks
on this wreck every time I have been there. Knowing that we were
behind schedule we dropped directly to our first penetration spot and Tom
started hunting. It was about this time that my light began to play
up, and the problem appeared to be the wet connector in the
cable. I got it back going again and continued to wait for Tom
to find the hole he was looking for. Unfortunately we
didn't find it but Tom commented that the wreck has collapsed significantly
since his last visit, and holes that were 15ft high before were now only half
that. He also commented that there were several new places
that had opened up, but the wreck had changed markedly. I saw the
signal for us to move to phase 2 of the plan which was a 10 minute penetration
into the boiler room. At this point the scooter team arrived and
after the handshakes filmed us going into the wreck.
Because we were behind schedule and of course lower on gas due to our original
swim around, we shortened the 10 minute penetration but still got some
excellent time inside the wreck. The vis inside was a crystal
clear untouched 200ft, compared to a decent 70-80ft outside the wreck. There is
already line in this section of the wreck so that made life a little easier for
me :-). We turned the penetration at 17minutes and emerged from the wreck
at about 19 minutes. I also noted that the floor where the stern meets the
bow seemed to be sandier than I remember, or maybe there is just more sand that
has arrived there recently?
With a little time left over we made a tourist run up towards the
bow and admired the huge winches there and watched the other team as they were
entering the upturned hull right where we had exited only a few minutes
prior. I was envious and wanted to go back and play inside with them
some more. By my timing I had seen them arrive at about 11-12
minutes into our run time. At 23 minutes we turned and
returned back to the line which was attached to the top of the giant rudder
which so incongruously points skywards towards the centre of the
wreck. We completed our deco uneventfully including a visit
from the safety diver to make sure that we were doing well, and returned to the
surface after a total run time of 70 minutes.
For information regarding the wreck I direct you to the AUE web page that was
constructed after they dived her, and as usual contains some awesome underwater
shots, Click
Here . As more information and pictures become available I will add
them to this report.
Returning from the deep!
Epilogue
We were generally very pleased with the dive and
everyone had a good time. Tom still thinks that the areas we were
looking for may be found and we are returning for a second attempt to catch the
bits we missed sometime in the near future. One of the key
things about this dive was the amount of attention we paid to operating as a
team. Considering we were relatively new buddies, I believe
that this dive went as smoothly as it did because of our efforts to do
this. Even having a hard time dropping on the wreck, and then having
problems finding the phase 1 penetration spot, we still came back
with a large chunk of our goals completed. It was pretty awesome and
I can't wait to do more. Bottom line though, We had fun and
came back safe, and when we go back we will have some more fun :-).
I would also like to thank Capt. Nick Palmer for graciously loaning me his
Pro 14, 18watt HID :-) since I was waiting for my new Helios 9 to
arrive. Without this loan I would have had to pass on the
dive. It weighed me down a bit <G> but I just chucked
out the 4# that I usually carry. Nick, I need to buy you a
beer or two :-).
I would also like to add, even though there is line in this wreck, I do not
recommend penetration unless overhead trained :-). It is an old and
collapsing wreck. The existing line still remains but is not in
great condition.
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