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While back at the dock Capt Charlie, Ike Bullock, Becky, and myself clean the boat for the next trip. Rick Atkins left as crew and was replaced by Tom Sawicki. I could already feel the effects of the trip taking its toll on me, 27 hrs to drive the boat up to Montauk from Va Beach, my constant worrying about everything and then the trips them self. The next group was a charter by Christina Young and a small hardened Doria group of divers, she only had 7 in her group as she was even much more picky than I as to who went. Personally I want to thank her for all the help she gave me in locating a slip up there. It seems dive boats are not welcome up there by past performance of others , at one point she had gotten us a slip by an inside source at one of the major marinas. Then 2 months before the trips for some unknown reason the marina got amnesia about giving us a slip and had no record of the reservation done in the fall of 2000. Some fast action by Capt Charlie located a marina who would take us and to my surprise was cheaper and better suited for our needs. The owner was very nice to us and invited us back for next year.... As most complain about the high cost of the Doria trips, I did to when I went with other boats. The cost of running those trips can only be seen if you are paying the bill to do them, we had over $6000.00 in cost and had never left the dock for the first trip yet. Granted most boats would not have to endure the cost as we did to get up there, but once there the cost of everything is unreal. As departure time came near the weather forecast was good, a weather pattern of fronts were coming at perfect timing for our trips, we left an hour early. The group on this trip had formed as a team to recover some artifacts on this trip and all things hinged on being at the mooring I had set in place. The group was worried that several dive boats were slated to be out there at the same time and it is a well known fact that much of the crews on these boats have little skill at getting that "exact" spot, so these boats have taken up the habit of securing up to someone else mooring and use the excuse of divers in the water so they can't move while even knowing you were coming to the wreck to began with, I have been on one of those such trips. Once at the wreck, it was plain no one was on our mooring, no other boat was there and neither was our mooring. Once again I had to prove my way was the right way, the plan was the same as the first trip except Tom would be taking Ricks place if I could not located our mooring line on the bottom and send it up by lift bag. The group seem to have this uneasy look as I prepared to scooter down to the wreck, I'm sure Pete had told them "wait until you see this shit", they had never done such a thing which is really routine in FL, but with great vis down there, that is not the case on the Doria. Capt Charlie dropped me on the wreck at the same location as the mooring had been, again I hit the wreck with ease only to find vis was now 10ft, using Big Mike's(owner of LDC) way judging vis, 10ft in each direction means 40ft, hey it didn't seem so bad then..... Landing on flat hull plate in low vis at first I was confused at to what direction to go, everything was flat..... Then I saw my first porthole and knew what direction to go and with a few feet of that porthole I saw the chain at our mooring location. The line I could see headed out into the debris field, that really sucked. I undid my scooter and left it next to the chain, I knew from past experience it could not handle the depth of 250ft I could hit in spots out there..... The line which was over 200ft in length went straight out and down, I swam the distance to find it wrapped around 2 life boat davits and then down to 242ft, it was a long swim at that depth. The ball was deflated by the pressure of depth and I worked my way back untangling the line. Once back I put my lift bag and slide ring on the line to raise it up to the surface. I inflated the bag and up it went, but again the line got hung up in the debris field somewhere. I had to make a decision, should I go back out there and undo it or let Tom have a shot at it.... For me it was a no brainer, Tom had never been to the wreck and the Doria can be intimidating for ones first dive to it, not something I wanted to do to him. So without a second thought back I went, at the very end it was tangled in a net and I worked to free it. After getting it undone it did not go up, the lift bag had formed a upside down V in the mooring line and the ring did not slide. At 240ft and nearly 25 mins into the dive I checked my gas, I had used more than planned and found it risky to swim back to the mooring chain and try and work the bag up. I then attached my up line reel ( big wreck reel with 540ft of line on it) to the mooring line and started up for my deco. At my deep stops everything was fine, but the boat could not locate any lift bag and was unaware of the decisions I was making. I was hoping once on the surface we could just pull the mooring line up as it was no longer tangled in anything. At 70ft I made a gas switch and the current picked up, I was being blown down and could not obtain depth control, the big reel tension screw was as tight as I could get it, yet it kept playing out line like a big fish running on the other end. I then got my other reel and deployed my see me Float to help maintain depth control and for the boat to see, I would only turn loose of the reel that had the mooring as a last option, I had worked to hard to get it. I worked both reels through my deco and at 20ft the current backed off which made that portion of the deco easier. Once on the surface I saw the boat and they seem to wait for me to move to it, by this time all the reel was deployed off my big reel and I could not go anywhere, I signaled to the boat and Pete was the only one who realized I had the mooring line on my reel. He told Capt Charlie to back the boat up to me and I past the reel up then boarded the boat. I was spent, no more was it safe for me to do anything on deck, I was sure from the work load I was pumping bubbles, in 30 mins or so they should be gone and I would not take any kind of hit as that has been my window for past problems. Pete took over and pulled the line up as Dan reeled it in as the boat backed up, in a matter of minutes my lift bag and the float ball burst out of the water behind the boat, it reminded me of the movie "Jaws" with the barrels. Once the mooring line was secured to the boat the group was really happy and could hardly wait to start their dives. I asked Christina what she thought of what I'd done, she said something I don't recall, but it was my answer that I was ashamed of, I have always tried to be on a level playing field with all divers and I am ashamed to report that I told her "their was nobody else on this boat that could do what I just did", my ego had exposed itself, not a pretty sight.... it was short lived.... I spent most of the day in my bunk recovering from a taskful dive. They recovered lots of nice artifacts and had a real good time. I also remained in seclusion on this trip, not happy with my actions and not happy with the actions of one of my crew on a personal note , we did not speak to each other unless we had to, more stress for me. I was not having a good time.... Tom and I made 2 dives to the wreck, scootering the exterior of the wreck from one end to the other..... seeing what it would take others several dives to do... Again after 2 days the weather forecast was bad we had to go in most got 3 dives in some got 4..... JT Last trip coming up later when I write 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* -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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