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From: Art.Paltz@R2*.CO*
To: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: RE: The Doria second trip Long
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 16:22:44 -0400
JT,

Most importantly, what was brought up?

Art.


 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Capt JT [mailto:captjt@mi*.co*] 
Sent:	Wednesday, July 18, 2001 4:24 PM
To:	vbtech@ci*.co*
Cc:	techdiver@aquanaut.com; FLTechDiver@mikey.net
Subject:	The Doria second trip Long

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*


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