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(Forwarded from JT Barker) Hi George I will just send this to techdiver as you will get it away , I will still only answer to you. THE DIVE At 5:30 am I awoke to get an early dive in , Charlie McGurr and a new diver to the Doria and a another more experienced diver who had dived with Charlie many times before had planned to dive early also , I was told the current was ripping and it was.Soon everyone was up no one was going to try to dive in that current.At 7:25 am I took a good look at the current and believed I could dive it , I suited up and prepared to enter the water , as I was about to go I heard someone say " he's got both is tanks on the same side" and I also heard some answer " thats the WKPP shit " , I hit the water and the current was no problem for me , I did my dive and on my deco I saw Jackie and Alston go by me , the mid water current was still ripping.I did not see any other divers , I went to my own hang line to deco and never saw another diver.I got on the boat and degeared , put my china away.I was able to get a photo of the 2 Mikes from Ca. before they went in the water , they were the last 2 to go. The group of 3 that Charlie was a part of had already gone.We did not know there was a problem until after the new diver came back from his dive and as he was boarding the boat , ask where Charlie was , he had never seen him. This is what I believe happen based on the info from all divers involved , this is what I believe and all on this trip may not believe as I do. It was reported by a diver who was decoing at 50ft on the anchor line of what he saw , the leader of the group came by first , the current was still very strong , the new diver came by next and had a very hard time getting by the diver decoing , to the point that he had stopped going down and after giving an OK sign to the deco diver for having a hard time to get by him.Unknown to the new diver, Charlie McGurr made his fatal move , the decoing diver reported that Charlie had let go of the anchor line to pass them both and the current had him , the decoing diver said Charlie was kicking and using his hands to try and get back to the anchor line , he said that he could see Charlie had made it to the line as vis was about 30ft vertical here , the new diver had never seen this I think based on the info at hand , as he had a great deal of trouble doing the pass and still believed that Charlie was behind him. It was reported by the lead diver that Charlie came to the wreck but not all the way , as he looked up Charlie waved him on and pointed up , and gave the OK sign.This was not uncommon for him I was later told , vis here was only 20ft vertical. Charlie then started up out of sight , a few mins. past and the new diver got to the wreck , he look for Charlie behind him , the lead diver signaled that Charlie was OK and going up.The new diver did not know that Charlie was in front of him and that he should have past him coming down as Charlie was going back up.The fact that he ask where Charlie was and said he never seen him tells me this.In his mind Charlie was always behind him. This all tells me that something happen to Charlie between 160ft and 140ft , the wreck is at 180ft , the new diver had to be around 100ft as he was so slow and had trouble passing the decoing diver.The vis did not let either diver see what happen , the leader had gotten the OK sign and Charlie was going up , the new diver could not tell him he did not pass him , because Charlie should have been behind him. Once the lead diver came up we ask him where Charlie was , he told us Charlie came up did not do the dive , Charlie is now missing .The lead diver goes down (never got out of his gear or on the boat) and counts every diver that is decoing , the number is one short , the chase boat does a surface search , miles from the Seeker , the CG is called , they drop a beacon in the water to measure the speed and direction of the current , in case he is on the surface drifting. I have now been out of the water for 150mins. , Capt. Dan plans to go look for Charlie , I offer to go with him , I run new tables for 240ft 20 and 25 mins , with 180 min SI , we make a plan of area to look based on the facts and the direction of the current .Dan will lead , I have never been to the area we are to look , no line will be run , to cover more area.WE will look in the debris field , the tie in is 60 ft aft of Gimbels hole. At this point George what questions do you have? On my next post , I will tell where and what happens when we find him, also what I believe happen to him.As much as I could place on my web site , I did a lay out photos of the trip as it happen. www.capt-jt.com go to the gallery page and click on the Andrea Doria I now have one very easy question for you: Which is more likely to kill a diver: A) a diver who does not follow rules of thirds B) Zip ties JT -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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