My first big wreck dive, turned into a rescue dive (LONG)

[Animal]

Hey wulfie:

We found the divers about 30 yards from the wreck, in the direction the current was flowing to. They were behind some corals, and it seems the huge profile of the sunken ship prevented the currents from taking them further. The dive master pretty much had a good idea of where they would be. The visibility was excellent as it always is around these areas, and the divers were using bright equipment.
The miracle was not that we found them as they were relatively close to the wreck -- it was that they didnt run out of air.

Now my tale is fairly long but everything happened quite fast, I guess as soon as they jumped into the water, most of the divers were swept away. The ones we found underwater had no idea what had happened, they were just enjoying the dive. Had they known they were in some kind of danger, then it would have been a tragedy for sure, as they would have panicked and spent their air supply faster. Or maybe they would have tried to rush their way up and you know what would happen then.

The reason I was not wearing a wet suit is that I was feeling nauseated from all the puking going around, and the pressure from the suit would have made me feel worse.

Good call on the tourists, and I hadnt though about their experience that way. I guess you are right about most of their dives being nice dives with the help of babysitters. They dont check logbooks around these parts, so as long as you show your card, you can rent a tank and go dive anywhere you please.
My buddy wich I talked about in the story is a very good diver, we have been diving together for more than four years now so we dont even have to comunicate much to know what each other is doing. We can even tell whats going on with each other just by looking at our swimming and movements. He is a big safety freak, so he was very distressed with everything that happened and vowed to never dive with these people again. We usually dive with a highly experienced group and this was our first time with this St. Thomas school.
I dont know how they risk taking tourists to this wreck but they definetly should not. And I'm not going back there unless every single diver on my group I can trust to help me if I am the one in distress.

If you take a trip around these parts - give me a holler. It would be a pleasure to do a few dives with you, I always enjoy diving with the experienced guys. No matter how good I think I am, I always end up learning new tricks and safety lessons.
When it comes to Scuba and Aviation, I much rather learn my lessons from others mistakes and not my own. So if you have a few good tips, let me know so I can learn them and pass them on to my friends.

[StSanta]

Heh Animal - no penetration? Wreck diving without prenetation can be compared to sex without penetration - you're missing a pretty important bit .

Plus, must be a wussy dive. What, you're not wearing a dry suit. No double tanks. No decompression. 30 meter visibility and no cold. Come to DK if ya wanna experience REAL wreck diving. It is my biggest passiona nd I can show ya some wrecks that'll make that many hair on your chest stand up

Seriously, welcome to the world of wreck diving! Sounds like an excellent first wreck dive - I warn you though. Within two years you'll have specialist training (and I don't mean PADI wreck diver here, I'm talking IANTD or GUE). Then, you'll start spending lots of money on gear. You'll throw out the BCD you own now and replace it with a simpler bladder-harness system. You'll get more and bigger tanks. Suddenly, decompression diving will seem like a good idea. In short, you'll be very short on money if the wreck diving bug bites ya .

I have some questions about the dive though - hope ya don't mind answering them?

This was my first big wreck dive, so I was kind of nervous. I was warned that the currents were strong so I decided to take a Nitrox tank, to have that extra oxygen help me fight my way thru it.

Pretty shallow dive then eh? In my experience you get enough oxygen with normal air. Pressure increases, so does o2 levels. I'm usually so lazy that I will not exert myself underwater to such a degree that I am huffing. Did the boat operator not drop you in front of the boat so you'd just slide with the current to the boat? Or did ya want nitrox for swimming around the wreck, or to increase no decompression time?

Titanium knife - check

had one of those. Lost it. Now I have a cheap arse knife that gets replaced every 10th dive on my hip and a small one placed on the harness near my chest. Titaium knives are very flashy and good status symbols, but I just CANNOT afford to lose another one .

...not the case with this group.

This is the reason i stay away from dive operators. They HAVE to go by lowest common denominator and adjust the dive accordingly for it to be safe. Sometimes it means you're virtually herded around like sheep, with the inexperienced doing really stupid things, destroying visibility and generally preventing you from having fun. But, sometimes you have no choice but to go with dive operators :/.

It was pitch dark inside, you could only see what you were pointing at with your flashlight, very creepy and cool. I was expecting to find some corpses or treasure, but all I could find was some tires, ropes, and empty beer bottles  
That is the only picture I have of the boat inside as all others didn’t come out well.

Ah you did do some penetration. What kind of penetration - PADI standard 'keep sight of the exit at all times'? If not, did ya carry guidelines with ya? Redundant gas and regulators? Penetration without the proper gear is extremely dangerous - about as safe as B.A.S.E jumping.

Going up the current was INSANE. Holding on to the anchor line was hard, I thought all of my equipment would detach from my body and be swept away by the current.

Oh man, I've tried that once. That stuff is toejame hard and extremely tiring. No way they should have put inexperienced divers in the water under those circumstances.

Regarding the rescue: you're absolutely right - that's a life threatening situation right there. The dive operator should be fined and have his licenses revoked. If you read rec.scuba on the usenet you'll find more than one story about people getting lost at sea because of strong currents - and not found again.

Animal, a group from my dive club are going to PR in two weeks time. I couldn't afford it this time around. But there's another trip next time which I will be on. I'll send ya a mail at the time so we can go diving together, eh?

It's a good way to kill someone. Scuba diving accident.

[Wlfgng]

scuba tards eventually become examples of Darwin's law

[midnight Target]

One of my associates here was an underwater welder for many years. He just got back from Bikini Atoll. He saved for years to go and dive there.

I guess they only allow 10-12 people at a time on the island, and they dive the wrecks from the Atomic test of 1946-7?

He had pics of the Saratoga and an Avenger.. cool stuff. I will see if I can get something scanned in here.

[Gunthr]

If you are in a kicking current at that depth, and you have to work to do to acomplish what you want to do, Nitrox sure doesn't hurt.

Wreck diving is so dangerous, Animal.  I've been a little deep, 120 ft., but to me it becomes actually not fun at that depth if you go inside something. Simple things become emergencies very fast.

I have gone (penetrated) two rooms away from the light. My wife, more adventerous then I, went further, into a room with a large cuda that only wanted to get away from us noisy things.

He kicked real hard past my wife and stirred up mud. He zoomed  past me on his way out and bumped my mask, breaking my seal. It was not the end of the world, but we were both blind. My wife panicked, and I could hear her yelling underwater.

We had plenty of air, but we did more intense hugging there in the dark than ever before or since. I will never go inside a wreck, a barge, a ship, nothing, ever again. Aint worth it.

Now if I can get my wife to not spear everything she sees, I will be at equilibrium...

glug glug,
Gunthr.

[funkedup]

Originally posted by Wlfgng
scuba tards eventually become examples of Darwin's law

Jumping out of a perfectly good boat is almost as stupid as jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.  

[Animal]

Hey Santa, this is the Caribbean, only newbies wear dry-suits
Well seriously, I really dont like wearing my wetsuit unless I'm going under 60 feet. The deepest I registered in this dive was 54 feet and that was when picking up the stranded tourists.
Now I'd love to do some scuba around DK sometime, but it would be more for the experience than to have fun. To tell you the truth I'd be scared as hell.

Originally posted by StSanta
I have some questions about the dive though - hope ya don't mind answering them?

This was my first big wreck dive, so I was kind of nervous. I was warned that the currents were strong so I decided to take a Nitrox tank, to have that extra oxygen help me fight my way thru it.

Pretty shallow dive then eh? In my experience you get enough oxygen with normal air. Pressure increases, so does o2 levels. I'm usually so lazy that I will not exert myself underwater to such a degree that I am huffing. Did the boat operator not drop you in front of the boat so you'd just slide with the current to the boat? Or did ya want nitrox for swimming around the wreck, or to increase no decompression time?

I wanted Nitrox for two reasons. First,  it was my first wreck dive and I wanted to stay around for a while and enjoy it. Second, I was told the currents were strong, and Nitrox really does help you make more effort until you are exhausted.

Titanium knife - check

had one of those. Lost it. Now I have a cheap arse knife that gets replaced every 10th dive on my hip and a small one placed on the harness near my chest. Titaium knives are very flashy and good status symbols, but I just CANNOT afford to lose another one .

I have a titanium obsession. Titanium watch, titanium everything. I use my knife not just for scuba, but for camping and other stuff. Ive had it for a while now and its still good as new. I love that alloy.

...not the case with this group.

This is the reason i stay away from dive operators. They HAVE to go by lowest common denominator and adjust the dive accordingly for it to be safe. Sometimes it means you're virtually herded around like sheep, with the inexperienced doing really stupid things, destroying visibility and generally preventing you from having fun. But, sometimes you have no choice but to go with dive operators :/.

Tell me about it. I have learned my lesson now.

It was pitch dark inside, you could only see what you were pointing at with your flashlight, very creepy and cool. I was expecting to find some corpses or treasure, but all I could find was some tires, ropes, and empty beer bottles  
That is the only picture I have of the boat inside as all others didn’t come out well.

Ah you did do some penetration. What kind of penetration - PADI standard 'keep sight of the exit at all times'? If not, did ya carry guidelines with ya? Redundant gas and regulators? Penetration without the proper gear is extremely dangerous - about as safe as B.A.S.E jumping.

Well then I guess I was kind of stupid here. The only security measure I had was the backup tank I brought with my friend, and two flashlights each. It was pitch dark, but I didnt dare to go deep into the boat, we left 8 glowsticks around the area we entered and we never wondered too far off where we could have gotten lost. Besides, I only had a chance to explore the boat for 10 minutes before I started to wonder where the hell everyone was and went to look for them, and the ordeal began.

Going up the current was INSANE. Holding on to the anchor line was hard, I thought all of my equipment would detach from my body and be swept away by the current.

Oh man, I've tried that once. That stuff is toejame hard and extremely tiring. No way they should have put inexperienced divers in the water under those circumstances.

This is where the Nitrox may have been the difference between making it to the boat or being one of the drifters.

Animal, a group from my dive club are going to PR in two weeks time. I couldn't afford it this time around. But there's another trip next time which I will be on. I'll send ya a mail at the time so we can go diving together, eh?

It's a good way to kill someone. Scuba diving accident.


I'm not gonna be here in two weeks, but if you do make it for the next time, YOU BETTER send me an email. We will do some nice relaxed sightseeing dives, maybe some fishing, and then we'll go and have fun around town.
That is, if you already have a job and can afford coming to America :-P

[Animal]

Originally posted by Gunthr
If you are in a kicking current at that depth, and you have to work to do to acomplish what you want to do, Nitrox sure doesn't hurt.

Wreck diving is so dangerous, Animal.  I've been a little deep, 120 ft., but to me it becomes actually not fun at that depth if you go inside something. Simple things become emergencies very fast.

I have gone (penetrated) two rooms away from the light. My wife, more adventerous then I, went further, into a room with a large cuda that only wanted to get away from us noisy things.

He kicked real hard past my wife and stirred up mud. He zoomed  past me on his way out and bumped my mask, breaking my seal. It was not the end of the world, but we were both blind. My wife panicked, and I could hear her yelling underwater.

We had plenty of air, but we did more intense hugging there in the dark than ever before or since. I will never go inside a wreck, a barge, a ship, nothing, ever again. Aint worth it.

Now if I can get my wife to not spear everything she sees, I will be at equilibrium...

glug glug,
Gunthr.

Sounds like a scary experience. Did your wife guide your way back to the surface? I would have been scared toejamless.
I'm still not confident enough as a diver that I will be cool and confident enough  when *I* am the one in an emergency, that I can stop and think calmly for a solution, in a situation like that.

[StSanta]

Funked said:
"Jumping out of a perfectly good boat is almost as stupid as jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. "

There ain't such a thing as a perfectly good boat or plane .

Why did the skydiver jump outta the plane? The door was open.

The dangers are overstated. They're obvious, which is why these sports get a reputation as being dangerous. SPLAT if you hit the ground with bad chute, gurgle if you're trapped and run outta air.

But you can go SPLAT in a number of ways in life - they're just not so obvious.

Penetrating wrecks is the most dangerous thing I do v- and I am acutely aware of the dangers. A clusterdiddly inside a wreck means you're hard pressed to survive. But how can you NOT do such things? It's the spic of life. I become depressed if I can't go skydiving or scuba diving. Life seems bland without meaning, with little purpose except enter the rat race and eventually die.

It might kill me. But life itself is SURE to do the same, so why not have some fun in between birth and death?

Gunthr, good example of why penetration is dangerous. I don't go into a wreck unless I got a) a qualified buddy with more than 150 wreck dives on his/her belt b) enough gas. 1/3rd for the penetration, 1/3rd for me in case of emergency and 1/3rd for my buddy. C) redundancy. Extra knives, tanks, regulators and lights. D) guideline. Absolutely necessary.

Been called a whimp for refusing to penetrate with some of my dive buddies, but I will NOT go if I know I can further reduce the risks.

I won't do B.A.S.E jumping either. You just got one chute and a minor error in packing it might see it deploy, twist 180 and then smack you into the mountain. Hell, I'm FOND of my life, unlike those nutters that BASE jump. And they say about me "man, you need to LIVE life. I'd be bored outta my skull if I couldn't .

ANimal, come dive in Norway with me. It'll be much like where you dive (i.e good visibility, plentiful wildlife, good numer of wrecks) except it'll be a bit colder. On dives down to 100 feet you can easily use a wetsuit. You can dive to 140 with a wetsuit too, except then you get cold unless it's made of crushed neoprene. You'll love it - best diving I've ever done has been in Norway. In the fjords they got sheer cliffs dropping thousands of meters straight down. Very humbling experience to be as deep as you can go and know there's a virtually bottomless pit below ya .

[Pongo]

Wow...
Up here in BC we have sunk some 50s era destroyers in 80ft of water to make reefs out of them. I wouldnt dream of going inside...
very cool story. Man the current can be a squeak! There is one dive site in town called 10 mile point and it is like a moter bike ride you go arround the wall so fast in the current..have to time your exit or you could be walking quite a bit....

[Gunthr]

"Sounds like a scary experience. Did your wife guide your way back to the surface? I would have been scared toejamless.
I'm still not confident enough as a diver that I will be cool and confident enough when *I* am the one in an emergency, that I can stop and think calmly for a solution, in a situation like that."
"



Well, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I just cleared my mask kneeling on the deck and my light was on a lanyard, so it wasn't an actual life threatening situation. My wife was ok, and we weren't far from the outside - just two doors away with no wrong turns possible.  Its just that the funny feeling in your stomack when panic is trying to bloom... it was too close, and I don't want to do it again.

Don't have to anyway. Plenty of fun to be had in less than 70' around here, even for spearing fish.

St. Santa - you cold water divers! Anybody can dive in warm water! I did a good bit of diving in the Great Lakes around Michigan, some wrecks at 80 ft, in current, some deep river diving where you fly along the bottom and get picked up a mile down river at a bend in the river, in early spring with dry suits after the ice goes out, and 6 foot tether with your buddy due to low visibility. I did one ice dive - bottom only at twenty feet depth uder the ice to see what it was like. (cool ) I remember the burning icey fire around your face and the shock on entry, and trying to get the breathing under control.

 I can tell you when I first experienced subtropical waters around 1972, in fact the first time I'd ever been in salt, I knew I had to move here. The life in warm ocean around here makes the cold water that I've been in look sterile. I never come home without food for the table, unless I'm just sightseeing.

Anyway, I feel very lucky being privy to the beauty that exists in
 the ocean. I think if you dive, you wind up having a feeling of concern for the environment no matter where you dive.

[rc51]

Theres a reason those with out wreck and cave certs should stay out of over head inviroments!
Ya did good dude.
Hey Animal you ever go over to the BVI?
Beeen there 5 times ans ST John once.
Love it there.
Ofcourse had to do the RHONE LOL!!
PI Is a great place ( you lucky bugger).
Have Fun Be safe.
Ps Im a PADI divemaster with over 800 dives and I do not ever do deep penetrations.
Like Clint Eastwood said.( a mans got to know his limitations LOL)