Getting closer and Closer, From Ocean Divers Big Green Boat.

this is an "I was there" picture.

And so were they (Mike and Rob).

Goodness Grandma, what big props you have!

 
Heading down with the small lift bag

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Working the Underwater Lift bag winch

Hey come here, I wanna put these zip ties in your pocket, along with the rest of the junk..

No.. Not my picture!!! Dive's Over Silly.

The water was deep blue and inviting... and the current was enough to rip your mask off

On Board the Lana Rose, Recompression chamber for the commercial divers.

Project Conference!!

Boat from Quiessence stands by.

After a mad flurry of refilling my tanks and stages with appropriate mixes I arrived in Key Largo early June 4th, loaded down with gear  and ready to go.    We had to play the long waiting game while they decided which boat would take us out to the wreck.   We hung out and waited and eventually we were told to go to Ocean Divers and get on their Big Green Boat :-).   On the boat we waited again while they loaded up an Enormous steel cable about 2 inches in diameter.   A giant lift bag and some other odds and ends.    I had watched with fascination for quite some time while they took the end of the cable and actually spliced it into a big loop,  it's amazing what you can do when you know how to do it.   By now it was 3:00pm.. and our work day was just beginning!    As the boat got closer I saw the point of the Spiegel Grove's  Bow sticking up out of the water and growing larger as we approached.  I could hardly believe that I was really seeing it.   That thing was really enormous close up.      

     The boat was put into position and the loop end of the cable was deployed.   It was incredible watching the huge cable snaking off the deck.   About 40 minutes later all 3 of us splashed in,  armed with all kinds of tools and giant shackles and lift bags and taking our stages since we did not know how much diving we would have to do that day and wanted to conserve our back gas.  This brought new meaning to the term ditchable weight!!!  Our depth on this dive was a little over 100ft and we were located on the top of the massive upturned hull.  We completed our mission within 40 minutes and surfaced, no tourist trips around the wreck just a working dive.    There is nothing like the feeling you get when you complete a successful dive like this, we were all on a roll, lots of high fives and hand shaking on our ascent.

After some surface interval later we  transferred over to a different boat from Quiessence and splashed again.   This time working some lines at the surface and then descending to 130ft.    This time a deeper dive and longer bottom time.    We used back gas for this dive since our stages were now all used.   This dive turned out to be a true challenge.     Lots of moving cables and lines around on the bottom, sometimes it took all three of us together to move the lines we wanted.    Especially one line we needed to bring down from the surface that was about 4 inches in diameter!!!!!  Everything about this wreck was really huge.   Fortunately the professional guys had showed us how to use lift bags as underwater winches which helped tremendously.     The best part was that also I got the chance to make Video with Rob's video camera when he was too busy to hold onto it.  The video tells a great story,  except for the blue bubbly bits where I had to put it down to give them a hand with the other stuff.

       As we completed our mission we lost daylight and the current really began to pick up.    With quite a few minutes of decompression to do and not desiring to hang like flags on a line,  we decided to hide inside the wreck to complete our deep stops and then hid in the lee of the hull to complete our shallow stops.   Inside the wreck I noticed how just my air bubbles caused the flooring above my head to become detached and rain down on us.    The neat part about this wreck is that you could complete your whole decompression actually on the wreck,  which is a pretty awesome thing.   At our 20ft stop we were up by the protruding bow, hiding behind it.   If you moved some 10ft away from the wreck the current rushing underneath would try to catch you and blow you off, so we hugged the hull and hung out where the giant anchor chains went through it.    I looked into the hole for the anchor chain, and it crossed my mind that if I took off my tank I could probably swim right through it!!!!   Fortunately we all had our big lights and deployed them as the daylight faded.    On surfacing we used them to signal the boat and were picked up right away.  With another completed mission under our belts.     We were all totally exhausted but still managed a visit to Sharky's afterwards where we met up with some of the project guys and everyone bought us drinks for helping out :-).    With an empty office to return to the next day I was forced to leave around midnight, and fell into bed exhausted.

Saturday afternoon, I was teaching a class when my phone rang.. and yep.. it was more of the same.  " We need divers, can you come and help???".. Well you bet I could help.    After class I zoomed home and grabbed a bunch of tanks together.   I was back in key largo by 8:00am the next morning,   I needed fills and could not make the boat ride out at 6:00am that my buddies were on, so I hitched a ride with Capt. Mark of Towboats US who was on his way out there anyway.    On this day we worked off the Lana Rose that was sitting out there already moored.     It was at this point that I realized that my Wing was missing and remembered it was still hanging up at home :-(, Oops.     This resulted in my not being able to dive with my buddies because I used theirs while they were on surface interval so ultimately we dived on opposite shifts all day.  But  I guess that's the beauty of everyone diving the same gear <g>, we were all interchangeable :-).     However the opposite shifts  worked well and I was still able to make a contribution to the effort.

      Sunday's dives were NOTHING like the ones on Tuesday, for those of you who are familiar with a really heavy current day on the Duane, well this was the same as that kind of day.      Our task was to go down and disconnect an airline, re-route it and reconnect,  followed by several other lower priority tasks.    I had been warned not to take a stage on this dive,  due to the current, so I used back gas.    I did not realize how bad it was at first since the Lana Rose was pretty big and we were in the lee of it when I splashed.     As soon as I began my descent,  Big old lift bag in one hand and the down line (a convenient bundle of air hoses) in the other the current literally tried to snatch  my gear off.     I got to the wreck and proceeded to crawl along the hull until I saw my goal,   the air line laying on the sand.   I knew as soon as I left the hull that the current would grab me but I had to descend an additional  40ft to the bottom of the hull where the current was now rushing under the ship.     Somehow I reached the airline and was able to dump every bit of gas from my wing to make me as negative as possible and and lay on the sand.    The darned hose connector just would NOT budge.  I wrestled with it, with both hands, even put it between my knees and wrestled with it.   It seemed that there was too much tension on the air hose for us to undo the connector.     My buddy (thank you John)  came down to assist me and even between the two of us we could not budge the thing.    Due to the depth, and my buddy not being a decompression diver we had to leave.    I returned to the deck sweating like crazy in my dry suit, (a first for me).   It is a terrible feeling to fail on your mission and  I was pretty mortified.    Fortunately a way was found to release the hose as needed without disconnecting it (Thanks Mike), I hear some digging was involved :-). 

    After giving back my buddies their gear, and taking  some surface interval while they dived their shift,  we were again given another task.  This time my first buddy John,  was done diving for the day and I dived with a new guy called Bob from Ocean Divers (thanks Bob).    We were given a large rubber and wooden plug to bolt into a hole that was in the side of the hull.   There were many of these in place to prevent air escaping as it was pumped inside.   Then there was a second mission to re-route another air hose and reconnect it on the other side of the bow.     To my relief the current had dropped significantly, and the ocean left us free to complete our task with no hitches.   The hardest part was locating the right  hole but once it was done we were home free and bolting on the plug was a piece of cake.     Then I wound my way through the forest of newly filled lift bags towards the bow section where were were to find the correct air line and connect it to a new air  line coming from the surface.  The vis was good so I turned on my back and  traced the line all the way from the surface to the point where it was tied off on the ship.    Again the hardest part of all this is making sure that you have the right line and the right spot.  Making the actual connection was not so difficult this time although all that line is pretty heavy to drag around while you are diving.    This part of our dive was shallow and we were working underneath the bow section with the deck above our heads.   It's a strange feeling,  your whole surroundings  being upside down when you are not.   Slowly I drifted back to the Lana Rose and surfaced to find my other buddies anxiously waiting to reclaim their gear and make their final mission of the day.    I assisted them into the water and then found a convenient place to sit down and tried to crash.   This work was exhausting. 

I was way too tired to drive home and actually wound up staying in key Largo overnight  (we had been donated a place to crash at  Quiessence)  rather than going home and driving back the next day.    Monday turned out to be a long day of waiting as the ship slowly turned over and no diving was done.     I returned to my "real" job on Tuesday enviously leaving my friends down there to continue with their efforts, but now cleaning up after the operation and not deploying new stuff.

Epilogue
I feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to do this work and make a small contribution to the effort.   It was a great experience for me.    Thanks to my excellent buddies (you know who you are :-)....), for asking me to join them and for their  great team work, both on the surface and in the water.  I cannot remember a time when I have experienced such a good buddy team, even bringing me sodas between dives.    I would also like to complement the people from Resolve, who worked with us so patiently to brief us and guide us on our missions.    It is no easy task to explain an underwater job to someone who has never done this type of work before,  yet everyone on board the Lana Rose was awesome and I was really impressed with their ability to get the most they could from us with their  "get the job done" attitude.  Oh yes... and my dinner was GREAT too :-).. thanks