Dive 165 - Hide And Seek in the Dark

Just back from Diving Union Lake tonight in a non-typical night time dive.

Because Keith and Mills had the last dive of their Overhead class set for today Chad and I were to tag along, but turn our lights off once they entered the simulated overhead so they could do a lost diver search. James cunningly placed a glow stick and our lights would have interfered with their search for it so into the darkness we went.

It started out pretty cool - following their lights and it was pretty clear they didn't know where we were. Of course we soon got our of range of their lights and entered what was pretty much total darkness at 30 feet.

One issue with total darkness in the water is your start to lose your reference points and since you're starting off weightless you can lose where your position is in the water pretty easily. Which of course, I did.

Moving along to keep up with the field of light cast by their lights, I would occasionally lose them completely, enter total darkness and swim along. Then on just a couple occasions I would feel a soft sensation enveloping me as I hit the silty bottom - that was rather embarrassing, but it told me where I was. Getting off the bottom, I would continue on, heading toward their lights if I saw them.

On the way back, we saw some nice sized Bass lying on the bottom, and since our lights were off they didn't even bother moving as we passed them.

So it was a good dive, if a bit muddy at times. Very instructive in terms of no light night diving and plenty to work on as usual.

Dive #164 - Watching the Ovehead Protocol Class in Union Lake

Today I went to watch a few of the dives in the UTD Overhead Protocol class. Unfortunately Mills and Keith forgot to tell me they were doing an overhead class with James and began without me. Had I but known, I would have been in it with them. Now I have to wait until we can get another group of divers together to do it. Sigh.

The Overhead Protocol class gives you the skill set you need to advance to take a cave or shipwreck penetration class - it involves a lot of no-mask or dark mask (taped over masks that you cannot see through) and line work.

On the upside, the weather was sunny and warm, the water 59 degrees and I got to come along on some of their final dives and watch James kick their butts all over the place. I was following Maki who was handling the video of the class dives and it was quite interesting. I had it pretty easy - just working on keeping perfect trim and buoyancy and keeping out of the camera's way -- not easy when the action kept shifting as things kept happening.

When Keith and John both had their dark masks on and were doing a line drill they both hammered into the silt releasing a massive and spreading dark cloud (I figure I'll do the same when my time comes) that soon separated myself from Maki and everyone else. Viz dropped so much you couldn't see anything, so I just stayed by a line so I wouldn't get lost and eventually they made it through the silt.

After that it was easy - watching and following ascent drills and keeping out of the way on lost line drills - they look like fun and I can't wait to take the class. Keith and Mills did great on the dives so I'll really have to work at it to get to their level in the class when it happens.

Dive time: 2 hours.
Average Depth: 28 feet.
Viz: very good with occasional bursts of silt.

July 5 - Wreck Diving in Thunder Bay

After geting back to the US in time for the 4th of July fireworks, I packed and prepared for a dive charter to Lake Huron in Thunder Bay -  my first time diving the wrecks of Thunder Bay.

My regular dive team of Wes and Keith and myself accompanied by our instructor extraordinaire James and with our friendly fellow (and more advanced) diver Mills went on the trip, Chad having bailed this very morning and missing a fine charter.  Traffic was light as we rolled north to Thunder Bay and we made it in very good time.

The boat was a six-pack, run by Captain Frank Rosinski of Great Lakes Dive Charters.  It is a nice boat but not to easiest to gear up on prior to striding into the water or getting back onto from a dive, but the Captain had a very efficient system worked out that served quite well. He's also stronger than an ox, really knows his stuff and does a great charter - what more could you ask for?

These were the final dives of our UTD Rec 2 Class with James supervising and videotaping but othwerwise not inserting himself into the dive planning process or execution.  For each dive he wanted to hear our dive plan and he gave us a mission for each dive tailored to the ship

We first dove the Grecian and then the Montana.
 
Here's the Grecian, a  296 foot long freighter of the Turtleback design (the turtlebacks were successors to the interesting looking whaleback freighters)  underway:

The Grecian sank in 1906 two miles from Thunder Bay while being towed after she had run aground.  The propeller design was quite interesting - each blade was removable and replaceable independently so that if a blade was lost the entire prop would not have to be removed and a new blade was just bolted on.

The Grecian is split in two with the bow detached allowing access to all levels of the stern of the ship and its huge cargo holds - as you approach the break you can see the entire cross-section of the ship open and waiting for you.

The mission for our Grecian dive - find the replacement propeller blades in the cargo hold in the stern section of the ship.

So we headed down the line in some medium level current onto the stern, admired the propeller at about 100 feet, which was missing two blades and headed up to the deck rail at 75 feet:

Over the rail and onto the stern deck we went.

We traveled forward along the top deck, passing over the open cargo holds.  We'd be coming back to the stern inside and through them to inspect them more closely.

And slipping into the cargo hold we found the replacement prop blades:

After traveling through the cargo holds we ascended up the last open hold and surveyed the stern until we reached our no deco limit and began our ascent, saying goodbye to the awesome wreck of the Grecian.

Visibility was incredible for Lake Huron and again, my camera got nice clean shots as long as the flash was off.

After a surface interval we headed off to dive the Montana.

The Montana was a 235 foot long steamer built in 1872 that burned and sank in 1914.  We decided to stay on the stern as it has Montana's most impressive feature - the huge boilers and coal fired steam engine that is intact and rises from 70 feet up to 30 feet underwater.  Our mission on this dive was to find the huge wrench located on the stern.

Can you say needle in a haystack?

Fortunately it is a really big wrench and it stood out:

It weighed about 45-50 pounds and it was impressive.


The fireboxes on the boilers have their doors intact and now house gobies where coal once burned.

The boiler and engine is immense.

Here's the top of the engine, and then a shot of the same with Wes in for scale.

The manufacturer's plate on the boiler is still legible after almost 100 years underwater.

After viewing the engine and boilers we traveled through an overhead and went to look at the Montana's prop:

  We then looped back for another look at the engine and boilers and then took the up-line back to the surface.

After the dives when we returned to port we were able to see the winch system for unloading tanks in action.  It was amazing - the tanks were hooked up, raised and then lowered right into the bed of Wes' truck - making it the easiest boat unloading ever.  The we battled massive holiday traffic, made worse by a goofball on Highway 75 who had a flat in the left lane and instead of pulling over stopped right there in the lane - that blockage cost us 45 minutes just by itself.  So tired and after a long day I returned home after having two fantastic wreck dives - visibility was great, the weather pleasant, the waves cooperative, and the Lake a balmy 58 degrees.

A great way to spend a day on the 4th of July holiday (even if it was the 5th).

Dive #133 - A Night Dive at Union Lake

Wes, Keith and I, accompanied by the far more experienced Chad and Maki went for a night dive last night.

Chad lent me one of his Oceanic Shadow masks to try out - a real nice mask with a great fit and no leaks like my current mask so I may have to get one.

Night dives are pretty cool - you can only see as far as your light cuts through the dark, and you can lose your reference points pretty easily if you're not paying attention. The lake is different at night - more of the small fish come out and you see things you don't notice during the day.

I saw a really big Mudpuppy as we were doing our ascent. These strange creatures are rather shy and not seen on every dive. Neat to finally see one.

During our practice over the sunken pontoon boat, I finally completed a full valve drill! I could reach all my valves and get them closed and opened in proper sequence. I stayed in control and maintained decent buoyancy while doing it. This was my current diving bugbear and now that I've been able to complete it, its time to work on refining it. Lots of arm stretches and changing my undersuit to a more flexible garment have really helped me reach my valves. Hooray for me!

We did some back kicks, out of air drills and some general good team practice - nice team awareness and communication and a smooth ascent - still lots to work on but we're really coming together as a team and have made a ton of progress!

We got out of the water and completed our decompression obligation at The Library Pub with a few drinks of choice. A nice night for a dive.

Rec 2 Class - Dive 2 Getting Better

Yesterday was dive 2 of the UTD Rec 2 Class.

In many ways it went a lot better - my trim was really good, kicks were much improved and things were going ok. Our drills are still taking to long and we're still not keeping the tightest formation but that should come with more practice.

Overall, the dive started lousy but then started to get better, we started getting our trim down, my kicks started coming together pretty nicely and life was getting good.

Then James pulled my mask off.

Ouch. A 48 degree slap in the face and no mask to put back on. I stayed calm, kept my trim and buoyancy and put my right hand out and started waving my light for assistance. Wes saw me and kept me steady with signals by holding my right hand, but we lost our buoyancy and went up. Next time, remind Wes my spare mask is in my right pocket. I suspect this will happen again during class.

Then the dive continued, and wouldn't you know it, my can light was declared inoperable - switched off by the black hand of death. I'm rather happy with my response - kept my trim, deployed my backup light and went to catch up with my team, which didn't see I had an issue as our video divers light was washing mine out. No big deal. I caught up and life was good. Makes me appreciate how bright the 10 watt can light is compared to my little backup light.

Then, to add to the fun, James throws Wes out of air and he comes over to me. Of course, I trapped some of my long hose under my can light wire that was clipped off as it wasn't working - a good heads up not to do that again. But in any case, Wes had air, we made a good approach to the exit and it was a safe ending.

I can see us improving as a team which is a good thing indeed, 'cause we sure can use the improvement. Excellent after action analysis by James and Chad really helps with the learning process - it is very instructive to see your mistakes on video, and heartening to see it when you do it just right.

Great class, great dive team, and 4 more dives to go to shine.

Rec 2 Class - Dive 1 - The Train Wreck Begins

The worst part was this train wreck was self-inflicted.

So we meet Sunday morning at Union Lake and do our pre-dive briefing.

A simple dive plan - kick out to the solitary far boat on the north east line rather than the boats and pontoons on the near east line. Do modified frog kick, modified flutter kick and Frog kick. Then at the boat do the Basic 6 drill (1. Reg out and replace, 2 regulator exchange, 3. Regulator thrown over shoulder and recovery, 4. Modified Air share drill, 5. Mask flood and clear, 6. mask remove and replace.) then do back kicks and helicopter turns and then do a 7 minute ascent drill stopping one minute at 18 feet, 15 feet, 12 feet, 9 feet, 6 feet and 3 feet).

Easy right?

Not so much.

So we head out into a fine cloud of silt that another group of divers had created and visibility sucks. James the instructor is coming along, as is Chad working the video camera and Reichy and Skip just for giggles to watch the approaching train wreck.

Of course, we're all off buoyancy wise - Wes and I are too negative, Keith too positive so we're a little staggered in our formation and already beginning not at our A game.

So we get through the silt cloud, and head for the boat. And of course two other divers are hanging around just where we're about to set up. Thankfully they head off.

Wes ties off the flag and we start the drills. Of course we start backwards - doing the back kick and helicopter turns first. We need practice on those and my trim is terrible - very knees down, I've got a lazy left foot, and pretty negative too boot.

On with the Basic 6 - not bad until we hit the lovely mask remove and replace.

Keith goes up on removal - once you lose visual orientation its hard to tell where you are in the water column. So we pull him down, he gets his mask on and life is good.

The Wes goes and hits the bottom once his mask goes off. He gets it back on and we're ok.

My turn.

Thump. There went my buoyancy.

Knees hit the bottom. My face really isn't enjoying the 46 degree F slap in the face it just received. I get the mask back on, clear it, get my buoyancy back and we're A-OK.

Then we do the ascent drill and we truly mess it up. It takes much longer than 7 minutes. I of course begin the goof up as I start it from the current depth of 35 feet as we had moved from the originally planned 21 foot location to this one - that was my mistake, I should have confirmed that and not assumed. We should have went immediately to 21 feet and started there. Of course we have trouble holding our spots on the way up and it is a mess.

James is not happy.

So we set to dive back and get the flag and swim back to the entry point. We're swimming along happily and then James throws Keith out of air. Keith skips Wes as he's busy with the flag and comes to me. I get him a reg and then watch as up he goes. And up he goes. Then my long hose comes flopping down, with no diver attached to it.

That just can't be good.

Keith is gone, up on the surface.

As the long hose comes down, it catches the flag line as Wes also went up but had a ton of line in the water. The line in addition to getting on the long hose had also fallen on me and I get wrapped up like a diving turkey, ready to be stuffed. This sucks. Keith comes down and unwraps the line - off the reg, off the arm, off the legs. Given I was face down midwater and stuck, the help was appreciated.

Line lives to tangle divers and this line was laughing and snickering all the way back to the end of the dive.

It was not our finest hour by any stretch of the imagination, and we did far worse then in our preparatory dives.

So we get out of the water then watch the video and James carefully and thoroughly critiques our every misstep and error. Many of which we didn't even consider to be problems until they're pointed out, and many where we knew they were errors. In either case we need to fix them - most especially my #!@#! trim problem.

Basically you gotta check your ego at the door in these classes and keep working on making improvements as you go as you're gonna get beat on constantly until you improve. Then you'll get beat on some more.

Dive Number 2 is set for Wednesday and we plan to do a heck of a lot better. We've got the team that can do this and we will.