A Word About Helmets

Here at Dive Safe we have had the opportunity to dive an array of hardhats and bandmasks. So far in the class we have been able to jump a Kirby Morgan SL17K, a Gorsky, the infamous Desco and a Kirby Morgan Bandmask 28. In addition to these we are still looking forward to getting into an exo and an aga.

This past week we had the chance to dismantle and reassemble the SL17K. This was something I had been looking forward to for the whole class. Everyday that we jump with these helmets we trust our lives to the equipment. To finally take the helmet apart and see, not read, how they work gave me more confidence in the gear I will be using.

Deep Projects (March 3rd-4th)

As we moved away from the marina and into deeper waters we could feel that our instructors were beginning to trust us more or at the very least they had the trust that we weren’t complete neophytes to the diving world. With the deep project we were faced with more complicated dives. The complications came from the fact that we were limited in our bottom times to about 15 minutes and we would have to balance that with our surface intervals to maximize our bottom work time.

Our project was to attach a lift barrel to a steel gangway sitting in about 80 feet of water. To maximize our working ability we staggered our divers which gave us at least one diver at the site at all times. Even with this strategy pulling a lift barrel down about 75 feet is a time consuming and difficult task.

It was obvious that this project went much smoother for each of us. We are beginning to become more comfortable with our communications between diver, tender and rack operator. As a result the dives are going much smoother. We can all feel that our upcoming projects are going to become more difficult, interesting and exciting.

Line Pull Signals

Today (Feb 26, 2010) we went to a new dive site to practice line pull signals. The depth at the site was 33' and sea bed was wide and flat which was perfect for running search patterns. The point of this exercise was to familiarize us with the US Navy line pull signals in case of lost electronic communications. As soon as we hit the water we were on line pull signals which is a means of communication between the diver and his tender via pulling on the diver's umbilical. The diver's started the exercise by running a widening arc pattern on the bottom as directed by their tenders. Once the instructors were confident that the diver's were following the line pull signals correctly and making good arcs they started throwing small weights into the water all around the boat for them to find. It was a good exercise and each diver got quite a bit of bottom time to practice the signals. David Jones even got to spook a Blue Herring off of its perch by coming up beneath it at the direction of his tender.

HMCS Columbia

This day of diving can only be described as a day that was meant to be. Monday March 1^st was supposed to be a classroom day but because of some scheduling problems it was decided that we would head out to dive. Since we did not find this out until late in the morning our departure from the docks was delayed about an hour.

This delay turned out to be exactly the kind of blind luck we needed because as we made our way to the dive site we saw a pod of killer whales. This was not a common sight here in Campbell River at this time of year and even our instructor didn’t believe his eyes when Rob first spotted them. The pod of killer whales was a sight. I didn’t know whether to snap pictures or just sit and watch. They were huge and majestic. It was a great start to our dive day.

Our dive sight for the day was the HMCS Columbia, which was a decommissioned WWII Canadian Destroyer which was sunk in the 90’s to create an artificial reef. We completed two deep dives on the Columbia and it was spectacular. The dive plan was to first dive down to the tower which stood at around 50 feet to get our bearings. Once on the tower we would proceed down to the deck and move to the bow, at around 90 feet, or the stern, at around 80 feet. Climbing around the Columbia was a lot of fun and I was overcome by a feeling like I was walking on the moon or in a dream. Seeing the turrets of a destroyer underwater and up close was great and I could not help to imagine this turret firing on a German U-Boat in the Atlantic. While moving around the destroyer we kept our eyes open for entry points because our next trip to the HMCS Columbia will be a penetration dive.