Trip report:

Sunday, July 21, 2002 found 4 Nova Tech divers diving
out of Virginia Beach, VA on the Miss Lindsey with
others with whom they regularly dive of the VB Tech
group.  Nova Tech group divers consisted of Todd
Clagett and Allyson Clagett diving as a buddy team 1 
and David Dalton, Sr. & David Dalton, Jr. diving as
buddy team 2.  Team 1 is generally more interested in
artifact recovery and Team 2 leans more toward
sightseeing.

We arrived at the site of the Eureka (118 fsw) at
approximately 10:30, geared up and were in the water
at 11:30.  Visibility was a spectacular 70 ft and
water temps on the bottom were a pleasant 61 degrees,
with surface temp being much warmer.  There was a
strong current and it was very nice to be using
scooters to deal with it.  More on that later!

Team 1 went right to digging in a hole that wasn't
more than 15 feet from where the wreck was tied in.
They left the numerous bottles they unearthed for the
second dive bringing up just one.  Team 2 toured the
wreck with D1 (Sr) pulling D2 (Jr) with his Gavin
scooter.  D2 carried a camera and shot two rolls which
are in the process of being developed as I write.  The
clarity of the water allowed one to get a very good
understanding of the layout of the wreck.  Viewing the
two large anchors on the port side of the bow, at the
same time was incredible.  Both Teams completed their
planned 40  minute bottom times and required deco and
got back on board.

Todd advised that he had just broken into a new crate
of bottles and showed one he had stuffed in his
pocket, a square bottle of Dr. Prichard's Castoria
with the good doctor's name and the product name cast
into the bottle. Although these bottles were from the
1890's when this ship sunk, D1 is old enough (54) to
remember taking this patent medicine as a child.  It
was still sold in a square bottle and appeared that
the only change was from a cork to a screw top.

Todd's discovery generated considerable excitement
between both teams and both decided to concentrate on
excavating that hole on the second dive.

Both teams brought bags down to carry back bottles on
the second dive.  Todd, being the master digger with a
scooter, went to work while the other 3 stuffed the
bags as he handed out bottles.

About 20 minutes into the dive Allyson developed a
problem with one of her regs and after the situation
was handled both teams decided to end the dive.  Team
1 started their ascent and deco and Team 2 hooked up
the two bags of bottles and started their ascent. 
Rather than hang on the line like a flag in the breeze
we were doing "drift and run deco". Drift 50 or 60
feet from the anchor line and then run back to it with
the scooter, then drift again and repeat, obviously
only a technique one would employ in good viz. 
Between 40 & 50 feet the current picked up quite a bit
and we (Team 2) inadvertently drifted out of sight of
the anchor line.  We ran some circular patterns on the
scooter but to no avail.  We settled in, shot a bag,
completed our deco drift style, and upon completion
surfaced to find the boat several hundred yards away. 
We dropped down to 15 feet and scootered toward the
boat for about 2 minutes.  We surfaced again and saw
that we were making progress so we dropped down and
tried it again.  This time I could hear the motor on
the scooter slowing and realized we were out of juice.

We returned to the surface, and found we were even
farther away than before.  We fully inflated the lift
bag, hooked up the dive-alerts an honked them and
flashed the HID light in the direction of the boat.

Todd later advised that he saw us as soon as we
surfaced but we were not aware of this. Consequently
we continued to signal and honk.  Interestingly no one
heard the dive alert (other than us!) and the HID
light (a 10 Watt EE Pro 6) was more visible than the
yellow lift bag. (Note to self: Never dive in the
ocean without the HID!)

As we were the last divers in the water the boat
didn't have to wait TOOOOOOOOO long before coming to
get us.  The mate went in to pull the hook, they
pulled up the hangbars and gear lines and got
underway.  All of this took about 30 minutes which
doesn't seem like too long, but when you don't know if
anyone knows where you are and you re drifting farther
and farther from the boat, I can assure you it seems
like much longer!

Lessons learned:

1) Switch batteries on the scooter between dives.  If
we had fresh batteries in the scooter we could have
made it back to the boat even following our drift
deco.

2) Make sure you have appropriate signaling devices.
Lift bag, safety sausage, HID light, dive-alert.  On
the last, while the dive-alert has it's place, which
is probably in situations where fog blows in and you
are relatively close to the boat, its not much good at
longer distances as I have now learned.

Along this same line it would be comforting for the
team in the water if the boat had someway of signaling
back that they knew where you were and would come get
you shortly (Horn, flare, guy in a lime green drysuit
waving his arms on the top of the boat)!

3) This situation pointed out the need for chase boats
when diving in strong currents, or for the boat to be
able to put a float on the anchor line, so they can
leave to pick up/attend to the divers on a lift bag.
While the Miss Lindsey has a chase boat it was not
used in this case.  In this case we were able to
complete our deco, surface and wait to be picked up. 
If a diver was injured or did not have appropriate gas
to complete his deco (like hanging it off the boat
instead of carrying it with you) the outcome might not
have been as favorable.

4)  Stay calm.  While we were concerned as to whether
or not anyone knew where we were, we remained calm
which helped to contribute to the favorable outcome of
this dive.  There was no reason to panic, the water
was warm, we were in trilam drysuits with thinsulate
undergarments, we had a 10 watt hid that would burn
for 5 + hours which would be especially good for
signaling in the dusk or at night and we had 4 back up
lights between us.  We had just eaten several Miss
Lindsey "Deco Dogs" before the second dive so our
nutritional requirements were taken care of (those
things will stay with you forever!).  We were well
hydrated and I had a P-valve in my drysuit - too bad
my son did not (You've never seen anyone get out of a
drysuit and run for the head so fast)!!!!

5) If you are doing a "drift and run" deco, make sure
you don't lose sight of the anchor line.

All in all, it was an incredible day of diving, great
weather, great viz, great bottles (yes we still had
both bags when we got back on the boat), and a very
worthwhile learning experience.  What more could you
ask for?

Dave Dalton


=====
Dave Dalton

"You just can't show up for "Game Day" and expect to win.
  You've got to go to practice if you want to be ready!"

     http://home.earthlink.net/~toddclagett/NovaTech/

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