The fishtrap trap thing is bullshit , too. They were yapping about that nine
years ago as well. There was one wire box, and no fish in it. The wreck is a
mess of wires - they blew it up violently. The freeboard of that ship it
about 15 feet - it is low and featureless other than the blown to bits part,
and the wreck is covered with sharks - blacktips and silkies. It is a stupid
dive, and I told Deans not to let people dive it after I saw it. The other
two guys on the boat dove it and that was it. It is bullshit, and the only
reason the other two wanted to dive was to go to 300 feet - apparently a
major accomplishment and milestone in tech diving for some people. That is
why he had me buoy it - 300 feet is bullshit to me as well.

He gave me the trip free in exchange for checking it out for him. While you
tough guys were out there working on your manhoods, P and I went and dove a
wreck at 90 feet off of a recreational boat where there was not one single
idiot an no "tech" bullshit. A real pleasure. The crew even put my gear
together for me - I loved it.

One big problem in tech diving is the preoccupation with depth.and the other
is the exaggeration of everything. Gavin told me a long time ago ,"what we
do is bad enough, understate it always". I have always tried to make it
shallower with gas, and then not do it unless there is a good reason, and to
tell what the real story is , not some exaggeration. That sends the wrong
message. Deans correctly wanted me to do this ( jump down on this mess ) so
as to not throw some new player into a tangle of wire , nets , debris and
sharks in a screaming current that in fact was the case. At least I got to
see Silkies for the fist time - they are beautiful. By the way, I was diving
a scooter made by somebody else and it imploded on me - that was a real
thrill. I had to surface straight from 300 and get Deans to drop me again
real quick before I got bent to get the job done - the scooter pulled me to
the sand away from the wreck before I could get rid of it.

That was the day I decided to start making scooters. I made the first one in
aluminum, which I still have, and then Gavin drew up the plastic one that we
made for a while and now we make the new version of that. So at least that
dive had one good outcome and was therefore productive, but you would never
catch me out there again. I also smelled a clusterfuck with those guys doing
the dive this past time, and it looks like that was a great call. Any boat
whose depth sounder can't pick up a WWI destroyer on a flat sand bottom is a
clusterfuck waiting to happen. JJ, P and I thumbed that whole operation
without hesitation.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Barnette" <aocfishman@ho*.co*>
To: <klind@al*.ne*>; <trey@ne*.co*>; <techdiver@aquanaut.com>
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2000 11:18 PM
Subject: RE: AUE Weekend Dive Report


> Hi Kent-
> No, the tides down here don't vary that much.  This discussion was
initiated
> because of a misperception (in my opinion).  I was told 326' from Deans'
> dive partner when they last visited the wreck; this depth was to a line of
> fish traps that they got video of in '93 that led off the deck and in the
> sand adjacent to the wreck (as you may guess, fish traps were, and still
> are, a very contentious issue down here.  not like SSLs, but...).  I was
> planning on locating these traps and taking a sample of the wire cage to
see
> rate of degradation of the trap material (related to ghost fishing, etc.).
> I am off the subject now, but as I have never dove the wreck, I went with
> this depth for planning.  When George dove the wreck 9 years ago, he
> apparently obtained 315'.   For some reason, this difference in depth
became
> a major issue for him.
>
> Cheers,
> Mike
>
>
>
> >From: "Kent Lind" <klind@al*.ne*>
> >Reply-To: <klind@al*.ne*>
> >To: "Michael Barnette" <aocfishman@ho*.co*>, <trey@ne*.co*>,
> ><techdiver@aquanaut.com>
> >Subject: RE: AUE Weekend Dive Report
> >Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 17:16:01 -0800
> >
> >This discussion has made me curious.  How much do the tides vary out
there
> >in Florida?
> >
> >Here in SE Alaska the change in depth from lower low to higher high tide
> >can
> >be 25' or more.  And the actual depths are often a couple feet different
> >from the predicted depths in the tide tables.  And finally, the tides are
> >semi-diurnal which makes things even more crazy.  Up in Cook Inlet the
> >tides
> >can change by 36' or more.
> >
> >So trying to peg the depth of a wreck is pretty difficult.  Even if you
> >know
> >what the tide is "supposed" to be on the tide table, the actual tide at
the
> >spot you are diving might be quite a bit different from the prediction
both
> >in terms of depth and time.  So you can't really even check your watch
and
> >depth gauge on a survey and then reliably translate that depth to mean
> >lower
> >low water using the tide charts.  All you can really do is mix and plan
for
> >max depth at high tide.
> >
> >-Kent-
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Michael Barnette [mailto:aocfishman@ho*.co*]
> > > Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 7:09 AM
> > > To: trey@ne*.co*; techdiver@aquanaut.com
> > > Subject: Re: AUE Weekend Dive Report
> > >
> > >
> > > Perhaps with global warming and sea levels rising you are
> > > correct.  I have
> > > yet to dive the Kendrick so I was going from first hand information
from
> > > those that have dove the wreck.  315' or 326' a'int enough to
> > > quibble over.
> > >
> > > Well, as I was without a scooter this trip, I was content on just
> > > swimming
> > > around the stern section a few times, checking out the hangar and
> > > the neat
> > > swim-thru, sliding into one of the side turrets, trying
> > > (unsuccessfully) to
> > > slide up into one of the big deck guns, poking about the interior
> >looking
> > > for "bottom junk," checking out all the neat controls in the
> > > superstructure
> > > rooms, but not jumping over to the bow.  I forgot to bring my
> > > census slate
> > > down or I would have run a couple of fish counts as well.  There
> > > are plenty
> > > of rooms and compartments to investigate just on the stern.  Gee,
> > > and I had
> > > a total run time of a massive 99 minutes (BFD).  I like to take
> > > my time and
> > > really soak up the scenery; not that any of this matters as we
> > > don't try to
> > > compete with anyone else -- we just try to have fun...
> > >
> > > Joe - you owe me a dollar.  It took longer than we thought, but...
> > >
> > > m
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: trey@ne*.co* (Trey)
> > > >To: "Michael Barnette" <aocfishman@ho*.co*>,
> ><techdiver@aquanaut.com>
> > > >Subject: Re: AUE Weekend Dive Report
> > > >Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 06:26:02 -0400
> > > >
> > > >I got 315 on the sand 9 years ago. I guess it got deeper. The
> > > Wilkes is 250
> > > >ish if you get under the concave part of the hull, 200 or so to the
> >stern
> > > >deck.
> > > >
> > > >When we did it in January, we hooked the bow, did that , then the
> >stern,
> > > >then the hangers and rooms back there, then the rooms up above on the
> > > >tower,
> > > >then the bow out to the tip, and the guns on the sand and such,
> > > and then up
> > > >and out in a 90 minute run time. What were you guys doing,
> > > crawling on the
> > > >bottom?
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >_________________________________________________________________________
> > > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
> >http://www.hotmail.com.
> > >
> > > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> > > http://profiles.msn.com.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to
`techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
> > > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to
`techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
> > >
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
>
> Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> http://profiles.msn.com.
>

--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]