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--=====================_1378516==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The below report is my personnel view of the dives I did with the AUE http://www.mikey.net/aue divers on Nov. 18-19. It contains my thoughts and the facts of the dive. I would dive with anyone in this group or on the boat again and most likely will. I was invited to dive with the AUE divers on the wreck "Northern Light" and "Vitric" on the 18&19. I declined the dive to the Northern Light because I could not make the drive to FL in time from Va. I agreed to the dive on the "Vitric" depth 300ft. I was told to call Divers City ( www.diverscity.com ) and reserve my spot for the dive. I was told my ability to do the dive was vouched for by the AUE team and the required check out dive by the boat would be waved. I called and reserved my spot with no problem at that time. Soon I found that things were not as they seemed and was told I could not do the dive without doing a check out dive first. I had no problem complying with the shop or the policy the boat uses to police its technical divers. In fact I use this same policy for divers I do not know or for divers I am unable to get a reference on from someone I trust. Though I did not think I fell into either of these categories, I had no problem in doing this, but I could not be down in time for a check out dive before the "Vitric" dive. So with no other choice to be made, I cancelled my spot. A few days past and several email were exchanged by the AUE group, they were talking about trying to do a morning dive to the "Duane". I had been CC the email and thought I could make it down in time if they did a night dive to this wreck and it would be a good dive. I had not dived the wreck since 1993 and I would be doing that dive anyway because my girlfriend who only does the rec. dives would be coming down with me. I suggested this to the AUE group and they made it happen, as it turned out there was a waiting list to get on all the dives but the "Northern Light". Although the boat is certified for 12 divers, they will only take 6 on a techdive and would not compromise their policies on techdives for more money or for me. Though I find the idea of a check out dive reassuring, it suggest that the training one gets from ANY agency to obtain your certification card is questionable or unnecessary. It also suggest to the diver that the boat and crew should have far more knowledge and skill than that of the diver. I found this not to be the case on this boat or any boat for that matter. No one boat or person knows it all. I was waiting at the dock when they came in from the "Northern Light" dive and was eager to met everyone. There had been a long running debate between Mike Barrnett and myself. We had become on different ends of the lawsuit in the death of our friend Tai Wilkerson. Though neither of us had anything to gain in the out come of the lawsuit, we each had our own opinions about the accident. Many a debate he and I had over the issue of Tai's death, regardless of the winner in these debates or the lawsuit, we were both losers, never will we see Tai again. That is a loss we both suffered. I do not believe in the delusion that no one will ever die diving, though it can be avoided in some cases there will always be that one diver who makes the ultimate mistake and pays for it with their life. Everyone in the AUE group is very capable and the likelihood of any of them or me losing our life on a dive is very remote. I will not totally rule this out of ever happening because some things are unavoidable. Just like some of the best cavers have nearly drown in 9ft or less of water as well as caves have been known to collapse on divers. I live in the real world and so should everyone else. Mike and I have put this behind us, we will continue to have debates I'm sure, but not about Tai. Those who have not been around a diving death are very lucky, most of those who do a great deal of extreme dives have seen or known someone who has died diving. The only sure way to never have a diving death is to not go diving or ever put your head under the water. The night dive on the "Duane" 120ft max, is a very good dive, though easy for us, it did provide a test of what to do, when the plan has missed something. The boat departed for the site with 6 divers (Mike R, Mike B, Jeff M, Mark Z, Chuck R, JT ), we also had a few bubble watchers come along. This also included the AUE female mascot( I did not ever get her real name), but just like most of these type that hang around divers, they seem to always go after the big dogs and she took a real liking to me. Though my girlfriend was there she did not seem threatened by this "Hot Doll" and knew at anytime she could take the wind right out of her.;-)) We arrived at the site just after dark, all 3 mooring buoys on the wreck were occupied by fishing boats. The plan was to drop everyone up current to one of the mooring lines. We would do our dive and return up the same mooring line. The boat would be tied to one of the 3 mooring lines with a strobe on the latter and we would go to it, most everyone had run times near 60 min. I had failed to ask "what if none of the fishing boats left" to give up a mooring buoy. I entered the water and found it to have a little current, my scooter made it very easy and soon I was exploring the wreck. I went all around it, found a turtle sleeping, went inside, out again. At 35 mins BT I went to the same mooring I had come down to start up, I was the only one there. The water was so clear I could see the others going up on other mooring lines. I did not ever see the strobe on any latter. After the short deco I surfaced to see all 3 fishing boats still on all the mooring buoys. I saw our boat down current from these boats, I gave the OK signal with my light. I got none back. I wasn't sure if the boat was now going to come up current to get me or should we drift back to it. I did not like the idea of all 6 of us turning loose at the same time, my light was going dead, Mike R HID light was dead and he was already on his back up. I watched until I saw the last diver drift back to the boat and then I let go from the mooring line and scootered to the boat. What seemed like could have been a mess, was handled by experienced divers very easy. I was never told if I past the check out dive, it was the running joke between us divers. I found the boat was very fast, capable of techdive trips. The next morning we plan to dive the "Vitric" depth was 300ft, the wreck was said to be carrying Molasses from Cuba to FL and sunk in a storm. This would be a natural wreck much more to my liking. I have never done such a deep dive without support divers and was not sure how it would go. The plan was to snag the site with a wreckhook and place a buoy on it, then dive the wreck liveboat. I talked this over in detail with Mark Zurl before we left the dock, we had showed up early. He told me they were exploring different ways to dive these wrecks that are in deep water. After talking to him for awhile and looking at the line they plan to use, I did not have much faith in getting it. I have a great deal of experience in hooking wrecks, hooking very deep wrecks is a tricky process, even harder when they are small and broken down like the one we were going to dive. We (Mike R, Mike B, Larry R, Mark Z, Jeff M, JT) plan to dive as a group, after encountering rain and seas that were building we arrived at the site. Several attempts to hook the wreck were useless, almost everyone had an opinion as to how to do it. Though I tried to give pointers, it was not my trip and they soon found that pulling up that line each time you do not hook the wreck is very hard. The line was not rigged correctly, it had a snap every 100ft, I believe this was done so it could be used for different depths as a shot line, the chain was not long enough or heavy enough. They had no slide ring and float to pull up the hook with the boat and this could not be done with the snaps on the line if they did have it. Soon the decision was made to use it as a shot line and then smartbomb the wreck. Mike R had concerns about me taking my scooter to this depth after having other problems with it on deep dives, I told him it was a disposable scooter and I had another, this would be this last time I would use it at this depth if it did not work right. Little did I know that it would really be its LAST time. We marked the site, threw the shot line in, and then geared up for the drop. There was no current, the drop was perfect. I scootered down behind Mikey and Mike, never passing them, I could have with my scooter, but felt I needed to stay behind them. The wreck came into view at around 210ft, that means we had 90-100ft vis, the wreck only has relief up to 289ft, but was nearly 10 ft deeper than 300ft. I landed on what was the portside in the sand, collected myself and started scootering around the wreck counterclockwise. I past the stern and came up the STBD side and around the bow. I did this twice to get the layout of the site. Once back at the bow again, just starting down the port side after the windlass, I saw what I thought to be a spoon. I dropped down to the sand to examine it. It lay between an old fishtrap and the windlass among yards of fishing line. As I was about to pick it up I saw it was an old fishing lure. I was now at 307 ft, my scooter lay on the bottom at about 309ft. In a split second my scooter came to life and began to suck up all that fishing line, my light was jerked off my hand, the reflector off the light and landed on the sand, fishing line snag my knife off my belt and I could not find it. It landed in the trap! The prop finely became wrapped up, I took out my lift bag and hooked it on the scooter. I exhaled a few deep breaths into the bag. The scooter had flooded and was very heavy, Mikey came over and donated gas to the bag, all he could spare, I then added more gas from my deco mix and it started up. I began to locate the shot line, Mark Z made it easy because he was going up it. At 20 mins BT I was at the line. I saw the others come over and look up, do a head count, and start up. I had lost control of my breathing rate during the scooter mishap. I also lost some gas out of my tanks on the drive down(bumped valve?), but still had 2700psi of 12/52 in my double LP 104's at the start of the dive, which should have been plenty. I was using deco gases 50/50 & 02, which meant I had to stay on back gas from my first stop at 180ft to 80ft and then go on my 50% at 70ft. I looked at my pressure gauge 1450psi , I had miss my turn pressure I had imposed on myself of 1800psi.( I know its different than some of the agencies way to figure it)Though I was never in danger of running out, I only point this out because I had at my disposal at anytime 3 or more divers to share gas with me. The AUE group never knew what my gas psi was, but were always very close and asking me and each other if they were OK, like it should be done. The deco portion of the dive went uneventful except for the "Wahoo" that swim behind Mike R and I pointed it out to him to see. I had plan a 15 min BT, as did others around 16 min, conditions were so good I had stayed 20 min. along with the others, they stayed 21, we were all in sight of each other. The wreck looked like a couple of rows of gas tanks, there is very little left of the ship, no wood from the hull, it is long gone. I did not try to recover anything, Mike B showed me a fresnel lens during the dive. I would dive this site again and leave the scooter at home, it now has a crack in the engine housing and is wasted, now just parts for my other scooter. The AUE group is a good group, I would dive with them anytime. On Nov 20th I went and dived with "Bud n Mary's" ( http://www.keydives.com/ ) to the wreck "Eagle", at 120ft I last dived the wreck in 94, it is now broken in half and is a great wreck to train on. I went into the engine room and all through the superstructure. Nancy seemed to like it very well. I enjoy re looking at how the wrecks breakdown over time and the "Eagle" offers some penetration to those willing to learn. I would not enter the engine room alone, there is still some snags to get tangled in. I had dinner later that night with Bob & Priscilla Rea from "Bud n Mary's" ( http://www.keydives.com/ ), I had known them for years and they were lawyers up here. More than that Bob handled Admiralty Law cases and we began to talk over the many wrecks I wish to dive. I was unaware all the time I knew him that he had done business with Gregg Bemis the claimed owner of the "Lusitania". We had some very interesting discussions during dinner. Even about the "Edmond Fitzgerald", which he had read the report on. I found some of the things he told me very enlighting. JT I have place placed photos of this trip on my site www.capt-jt.com in the photo gallery titled FL AUE Nov 18-19/00 Hope you enjoy it. "You can't learn to dive on the net, sooner or later you have to get in the water" Your Guide to Great Wreck Diving along the East Coast & more Web Site http://www.capt-jt.com/ Email captjt@mi*.co* --=====================_1378516==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <html> The below report is my personnel view of the dives I did with the AUE <a href=3D"http://www.mikey.net/aue"= eudora=3D"autourl">http://www.mikey.net/</a><a= href=3D"http://www.mikey.net/aue" eudora=3D"autourl">aue</a> <br> divers on Nov. 18-19. It contains my thoughts and the facts of the dive. I= <br> would dive with anyone in this group or on the boat again and most likely= <br> will.<br> <br> I was invited to dive with the AUE divers on the wreck "Northern= Light" and <br> "Vitric" on the 18&19. I declined the dive to the Northern= Light because I <br> could not make the drive to FL in time from Va. I agreed to the dive on the= <br> "Vitric" depth 300ft. I was told to call Divers City ( <a= href=3D"http://www.diverscity.com/" eudora=3D"autourl"><font= color=3D"#0000FF"><u>www.diverscity.com</a></font></u> ) <br> and reserve my spot for the dive. I was told my ability to do the dive was= <br> vouched for by the AUE team and the required check out dive by the boat <br> would be waved. I called and reserved my spot with no problem at that= time.<br> <br> Soon I found that things were not as they seemed and was told I could not= <br> do the dive without doing a check out dive first. I had no problem <br> complying with the shop or the policy the boat uses to police its technical= <br> divers. In fact I use this same policy for divers I do not know or for <br> divers I am unable to get a reference on from someone I trust. Though I did= <br> not think I fell into either of these categories, I had no problem in doing= <br> this, but I could not be down in time for a check out dive before the <br> "Vitric" dive. So with no other choice to be made, I cancelled my= spot.<br> <br> A few days past and several email were exchanged by the AUE group, they <br> were talking about trying to do a morning dive to the "Duane". I= had been CC the email <br> and thought I could make it down in time if they did a night dive to this= wreck <br> and it would be a good dive. I had not dived the wreck since 1993 and I <br> would be doing that dive anyway because my girlfriend who only does the <br> rec. dives would be coming down with me.<br> <br> I suggested this to the AUE group and they made it happen, as it turned out= <br> there was a waiting list to get on all the dives but the "Northern= Light". <br> Although the boat is certified for 12 divers, they will only take 6 on a= <br> techdive and would not compromise their policies on techdives for more <br> money or for me. Though I find the idea of a check out dive reassuring, it= <br> suggest that the training one gets from ANY agency to obtain your <br> certification card is questionable or unnecessary. It also suggest to the= diver <br> that the boat and crew should have far more knowledge and skill than that= <br> of the diver. I found this not to be the case on this boat or any boat for= <br> that matter. No one boat or person knows it all.<br> <br> I was waiting at the dock when they came in from the "Northern= Light" dive <br> and was eager to met everyone. There had been a long running debate between= <br> Mike Barrnett and myself. We had become on different ends of the lawsuit in= <br> the death of our friend Tai Wilkerson. Though neither of us had anything to= gain in the out come of the lawsuit, we each had our own opinions about the= accident. Many a debate he and I had over the issue of Tai's death,= regardless of the winner in these debates or the <br> lawsuit, we were both losers, never will we see Tai again. That is a loss= <br> we both suffered.<br> <br> I do not believe in the delusion that no one will ever <br> die diving, though it can be avoided in some cases there will always be <br> that one diver who makes the ultimate mistake and pays for it with their= <br> life. Everyone in the AUE group is very capable and the likelihood of any= <br> of them or me losing our life on a dive is very remote. I will not totally= rule this <br> out of ever happening because some things are unavoidable. Just like some of= <br> the best cavers have nearly drown in 9ft or less of water as well as caves= <br> have been known to collapse on divers. I live in the real world and so <br> should everyone else.<br> <br> Mike and I have put this behind us, we will continue <br> to have debates I'm sure, but not about Tai. Those who have not been around= <br> a diving death are very lucky, most of those who do a great deal of extreme= <br> dives have seen or known someone who has died diving. The only sure way to= <br> never have a diving death is to not go diving or ever put your head under= <br> the water. <br> <br> The night dive on the "Duane" 120ft max, is a very good dive,= though easy <br> for us, it did provide a test of what to do, when the plan has missed <br> something. <br> <br> The boat departed for the site with 6 divers (Mike R, Mike B, <br> Jeff M, Mark Z, Chuck R, JT ), we also had a few bubble watchers come <br> along. This also included the AUE female mascot( I did not ever get her <br> real name), but just like most of these type that hang around divers, they= <br> seem to always go after the big dogs and she took a real liking to me. <br> Though my girlfriend was there she did not seem threatened by this "Hot= <br> Doll" and knew at anytime she could take the wind right out of= her.;-))<br> <br> We arrived at the site just after dark, all 3 mooring buoys on the wreck= <br> were occupied by fishing boats. The plan was to drop everyone up current to= one<br> of the mooring lines. We would do our dive and return up the same <br> mooring line. The boat would be tied to one of the 3 mooring lines with a= strobe <br> on the latter and we would go to it, most everyone had run times near 60= <br> min. I had failed to ask "what if none of the fishing boats left"= to give <br> up a mooring buoy. <br> <br> I entered the water and found it to have a little current, my scooter made= <br> it very easy and soon I was exploring the wreck. I went all around it, <br> found a turtle sleeping, went inside, out again. At 35 mins BT I went to= <br> the same mooring I had come down to start up, I was the only one there. <br> The water was so clear I could see the others going up on other mooring= lines.<br> I did not ever see the strobe on any latter. After the short deco I= surfaced <br> to see all 3 fishing boats still on all the mooring buoys. <br> I saw our boat down current from these boats,<br> I gave the OK signal with my light. I got none back. I wasn't <br> sure if the boat was now going to come up current to get me or should we= <br> drift back to it. I did not like the idea of all 6 of us turning loose at= <br> the same time, my light was going dead, Mike R HID light was dead and he= <br> was already on his back up. I watched until I saw the last diver drift back= <br> to the boat and then I let go from the mooring line and scootered to the= <br> boat. What seemed like could have been a mess, was handled by experienced= <br> divers very easy. I was never told if I past the check out dive, it was the= <br> running joke between us divers. I found the boat was very fast, capable of= <br> techdive trips. <br> <br> The next morning we plan to dive the "Vitric" depth was 300ft, the= wreck <br> was said to be carrying Molasses from Cuba to FL and sunk in a storm. This= <br> would be a natural wreck much more to my liking. I have never done such a= <br> deep dive without support divers and was not sure how it would go. The plan= <br> was to snag the site with a wreckhook and place a buoy on it, then dive the= <br> wreck liveboat. I talked this over in detail with Mark Zurl before we left= <br> the dock, we had showed up early. He told me they were exploring different= <br> ways to dive these wrecks that are in deep water. After talking to him for= <br> awhile and looking at the line they plan to use, I did not have much faith= <br> in getting it. I have a great deal of experience in hooking wrecks, hooking= <br> very deep wrecks is a tricky process, even harder when they are small and= <br> broken down like the one we were going to dive.<br> <br> We (Mike R, Mike B, Larry R, Mark Z, Jeff M, JT) plan to dive as a group,= <br> after encountering rain and seas that were building we arrived at the site.= <br> Several attempts to hook the wreck were useless, almost everyone had an <br> opinion as to how to do it. Though I tried to give pointers, it was not my= <br> trip and they soon found that pulling up that line each time you do not= hook<br> the wreck is very hard. The line was not rigged correctly, it had a snap= <br> every 100ft, I believe this was done so it could be used for different= depths as a shot line, the chain was not long enough or heavy enough. They= had no <br> slide ring and float to pull up the hook with the boat and this could <br> not be done with the snaps on the line if they did have it. Soon the <br> decision was made to use it as a shot line and then smartbomb the wreck.= <br> Mike R had concerns about me taking my scooter to this depth after having= <br> other problems with it on deep dives, I told him it was a disposable <br> scooter and I had another, this would be this last time I would use it at= <br> this depth if it did not work right. Little did I know that it would really= <br> be its LAST time.<br> <br> We marked the site, threw the shot line in, and then geared up for the <br> drop. There was no current, the drop was perfect. I scootered down behind= <br> Mikey and Mike, never passing them, I could have with my scooter, but felt= <br> I needed to stay behind them. The wreck came into view at around 210ft, <br> that means we had 90-100ft vis, the wreck only has relief up to 289ft, but= was <br> nearly 10 ft deeper than 300ft. I landed on what was the portside in the= <br> sand, collected myself and started scootering around the wreck <br> counterclockwise. I past the stern and came up the STBD side and around the= <br> bow. I did this twice to get the layout of the site. Once back at the bow= <br> again, just starting down the port side after the windlass, I saw what I= <br> thought to be a spoon. I dropped down to the sand to examine it. It lay= between <br> an old fishtrap and the windlass among yards of fishing line. As I was <br> about to pick it up I saw it was an old fishing lure. I was now at 307 ft,= <br> my scooter lay on the bottom at about 309ft. In a split second my scooter= <br> came to life and began to suck up all that fishing line, my light was <br> jerked off my hand, the reflector off the light and landed on the sand,= fishing <br> line snag my knife off my belt and I could not find it. It landed in the= trap! The prop finely <br> became wrapped up, I took out my lift bag and hooked it on the scooter. I= <br> exhaled a few deep breaths into the bag. The scooter had flooded and was= <br> very heavy, Mikey came over and donated gas to the bag, all he could spare,= <br> I then added more gas from my deco mix and it started up.<br> <br> I began to locate the shot line, Mark Z made it easy because he was going up= it. At 20 mins BT I was at the line. I saw the others come over and look= up, do a head count, and start up. I had lost control of my breathing rate= during the scooter mishap. I also lost some gas out of my tanks on= the drive down(bumped valve?), but still had 2700psi of 12/52 in my double= LP 104's at the start of the dive, which should have been plenty. I was= using deco gases 50/50 & 02, which meant I had to stay on back gas from= my first stop at 180ft to 80ft and then go on my 50% at 70ft. I looked at= my pressure gauge 1450psi , I had miss my turn pressure I had imposed on= myself of 1800psi.( I know its different than some of the agencies way to= figure it)Though I was never in danger of running out, I only point this= out because I had at my disposal at anytime 3 or more divers to share gas= with me. The AUE group never knew what my gas psi was, but were always very= close and asking me and each other if they were OK, like it should be= done.<br> <br> The deco portion of the dive went uneventful except for the= "Wahoo" that swim behind Mike R and I pointed it out to him to= see.<br> <br> I had plan a 15 min BT, as did others around 16 min, conditions were so <br> good I had stayed 20 min. along with the others, they stayed 21, we were all= in <br> sight of each other. The wreck looked like a couple of rows of gas tanks,= <br> there is very little left of the ship, no wood from the hull, it is long= <br> gone. I did not try to recover anything, Mike B showed me a fresnel <br> lens during the dive. I would dive this site again and leave the <br> scooter at home, it now has a crack in the engine housing and is wasted, now= just <br> parts for my other scooter. The AUE group is a good group, I would dive with= them<br> anytime.<br> <br> On Nov 20th I went and dived with "Bud n Mary's" ( <a= href=3D"http://www.keydives.com/"= eudora=3D"autourl">http://www.keydives.com/</a> ) to the wreck= "Eagle", at 120ft <br> I last dived the wreck in 94, it is now broken in half and is a great wreck= <br> to train on. I went into the engine room and all through the superstructure.= <br> Nancy seemed to like it very well. I enjoy re looking at how the wrecks <br> breakdown over time and the "Eagle" offers some penetration to= those <br> willing to learn. I would not enter the engine room alone, there is still= some snags to get tangled in.<br> <br> I had dinner later that night with Bob & Priscilla Rea from "Bud n= Mary's" ( <a href=3D"http://www.keydives.com/"= eudora=3D"autourl">http://www.keydives.com/</a> ), I had known them for= years and they were lawyers up here. More than that Bob handled Admiralty= Law cases and we began to talk over the many wrecks I wish to dive. I was= unaware all the time I knew him that he had done business with Gregg Bemis= the claimed owner of the "Lusitania". We had some very= interesting discussions during dinner. Even about the "Edmond= Fitzgerald", which he had read the report on. I found some of the= things he told me very enlighting. <br> <br> JT <br> I have place placed photos of this trip on my site <a= href=3D"http://www.capt-jt.com/" eudora=3D"autourl">www.capt-jt.</a><a= href=3D"http://www.capt-jt.com/" eudora=3D"autourl">com</a> in the= photo gallery titled FL AUE Nov 18-19/00<br> Hope you enjoy it. <br> <br> <br> "You can't learn to dive on the net, sooner or later you have to get in= the water"<br> <font color=3D"#0000FF"><u>Your Guide to Great Wreck Diving along the East= Coast & more<br> Web Site <a href=3D"http://www.capt-jt.com/"= eudora=3D"autourl">http://www.capt-jt.com/</a><br> Email captjt@mi*.co*<br> <br> </font></u></html> --=====================_1378516==_.ALT-- -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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