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Egypt 2002 A Dive Marshals prospective
A logistical breakdown of events by 2002 expedition leader Leigh
Bishop
| Interestingly enough not all deep wreck dives
go to plan, which through the inevitable event of such a breakdown,
a synopsis of every conceivable and possible occurrence that
may arise must be examined in advance. This particular overview
is seen through the eyes of surface control and not via an in
water prospective, which to the extent provides a more than
interesting account examining a single area in deep wreck diving
practice where team managing, planning and logistics are fed
into a single channel for the end result. Safety becomes the
primary concern over any such deep-wreck dive; in this case
experience |
Team Decompression in the Atlantic Ocean |
| dictates that time alongside practice evolve a mature and
furthermore aerial perspective over deep dives. For us as a
developing wreck diving team specializing in deep exploration,
there was no such published material, as the following text
will dictate. With this in mind our case was to sit down in
advance and cover various possible situations and account for
them should they arise? As and when these events rear their
nasty little heads they too bring with them further difficulties
and it is these that build such experience over time. Agreed
in an uncontrolled and unpredictable environment such as deep
British wreck diving not all areas may be covered however time
may indeed bring them to light, when they do then we shall marinate
them into an existing mold. |
Decompression by Jamie Powell |
We had made the journey straight from the Flying
Enterprise to the wreck site of the Egypt the month July the
year 2002. Loyal Watcher had steamed from the Enterprise site
44 nautical miles due south of Plymouth another 100+ to our
position almost 25 miles west off Ushant in the Atlantic Ocean.
Egypt sank in a location that can within hours produce some
of the most treacherous seas in the world! Big swells from across
the Atlantic and with them heavy weather conditions. For this
is the area where the images are taken of the famous lighthouses
of Ushant are completely engulfed in crashing waves. Should
a window open to the team in order to dive we would have to
act fast. At one time we would travel and meet in London to
discuss logistics, today the Internet provides us to utilize
e-mail as a private forum to plan and debate as a group from
said corners of England. From the results of such debates a
final dive briefing aboard the ship face to face would iron
out any remaining problems, from then each team member would
use the hours of remaining steam time to address their personal
and team tasks.
|
| As expedition leader the previous years expedition
to the site led by Chris Hutchison had laid a solid base from
which to work, thus making my job respectively easier. On arrival
at the site Steve Wright Loyal Watchers Skipper would analyze
tidal conditions prior to any in water time. This was an area
that had been dived only by us and for a limited period of time,
which inevitable meant that we had little knowledge of what
Atlantic tidal conditions would bring to this part of the world
no matter how much nautical data we would could prime ourselves
on. In home territory local knowledge of slack and tidal conditions
was second to none however having said that unpredictability
still plays a large part as it would here in the Eastern Atlantic.
It was the beginning of a nine-day period in which we would
further examine the condition of the wreck picking up from the
previous years exploration. On day one I would allow only six
divers to be deployed into exploration this would then leave
me more than that figure to control operations for the in water
team. UK law permits only 12 paying customers to charter a dive
vessel; in turn this meant that we would have no room for support
divers as our team consists of approx. 12 core members. Already
we have crossed a small logistical problem in that we require
support although we have no allocated space for such a requirement
in an offshore wreck environment. In comes Starfish
Enterprise policy number one, whom better to have in support
of you than one of your colleagues themselves. |
Teresa Telus starfish lead diver
and deep support on Egypt 2002 |
| Divers that actually know and understand what
you require! This means we would then have 12 explorations divers
aboard and 12 support divers aboard. As each individual pays
a equal share towards the charter costs this may sound like
a raw deal as on days when your roll is support sometimes not
even entering the water you pay the say costs as your friends
exploring the wreck below. What's more you are going to work
incredible hard for your |
Expedition vessel Loyal Watcher makes her way
through the Islands of Ushant after a days diving on the SS
Egypt. The divers use the deck lights to prepare equipment for
another days dive. Click the image to see a large version of
this time exposure. |
Colleagues to dive the wreck only for them to sit down and
tell you tails of adventure at the end of the day. But as I
always say "what goes around comes around" and the
following day you will be in their shoes. So as you can see
the price is paid in more ways than one, or do you go into such
a practice blarzy and selfish with of course your fingers crossed.
Having deployed six divers to the wreck site on the word of
skipper Steve Wright and only after he was happy would I even
contemplate deploying those divers in question, I was then left
with 6 experienced divers and a proportion of the crew to deal
with any such situation should one occur? After we had estimated
a period of slack water Steve then hooked into the site almost
an hour before by allowing a lightweight grapnel to float along
the seabed from a position well up-tide thus finding its way
into the wreck. |
We could then watch the surface pill directly
below the main buff for signs of an on coming slack period.
Today I would not be diving the wreck instead my concerns would
lie with the safety of my colleagues, as would each Starfish
member in charge of day ones operations. As the sign was given
I then deployed my first pair of divers whom would descend to
the wreck and tie a length of line smaller in diameter and strength
than the main down line into the wreck from the grapnel. This
would then ensure that the following divers WOULD have a secure
path down to the wreck and more importantly a secure and safe
path back to the grapnel line and thus the support team at the
shallow depths. A colour coded marker would then be sent to
the surface by the first pair of divers to indicate either the
path down is secure or the grapnel has effectively broken loose
and the dive is terminated. In the event of the later the first
pair will then ascend to the surface the tide and surface conditions
will then deflect if the wreck is hooked into once again. On
an extreme deep dive this may not be possible as the distance
between the decompressing pair and the new shot line will effectively
grow. On a shallower dive quite possibly the decompressing team
one would have far less decompression obligation during a slack
water period and could also be monitored from the surface.
|
Hutch prepares for
deep support with
his meg rebreather on Egypt 2002. |
| This entire method of deploying divers onto a
wreck and the way the grapnel system works is known as the 'Weymouth
Way', a time honoured practice that works click here 'See Safety
logistics' to find out more. Jamie Powel and David Wilkins made
their descent to the wreck to carry out the duty as described
above successfully, as and when the surface marker appeared
I could then deploy my remaining two pairs, Mark Elliott and
Tim Cashman then Bob Hughes and Andy Mumford. From here on I
was then left with a team of six Teresa Telus/Deep Support,
Christina Campbell and Des Murray in Shallow support, Chris
Hutchison on surface standby duties, Gordon Bell and Kevin Pickering
on boat support in the RIB which left myself on board as dive
marshal with a diving set rigged and ready to go should I need
to. I also had Phil Hodgson a CCR trimix instructor and experienced
diver established with Deep Blue whom was also on board. After
each pair had descended deep support would enter the water at
a pre determined time set by |
| myself to deploy the lazy junction line at a
depth of approx. 45m Teresa Telus in this case then descended
to meet the first pair at their first gas switch at 60m depth.
Her timing was just so that from the time she entered the water
and deployed the lazy line she would meet the first exploration
divers without impairing any unnecessary decompression obligation
herself. After a period of three mins the rib team would then
deploy the decompression down-lines for each pair onto the lazy
line from the surface. The decompression station in use by the
team on this expedition is a varied and modified type from the
original Lusitania 94/ King Edward97/Britannic98 models. Deep
Support at this time had met the |
The chase boat in action; a valuable item
to any offshore deep wreck expedition. |
| first ascending pair and awaited the final pair.On
the surface the conditions where glorious and all appeared well
then the inevitably happened, two decompression bags appeared
a distance off the shot. What this meant is that two divers
had failed to reach the line to ascend to the decompression
system and thus the support crew. Chris Hutchison my standby
diver immediately fired up his megladon rebreather that was
in standby mode and descended to meet the stray divers at depth.
With him he carried 17/19 HeliAir the divers first gas switch
at depth should the need arise. I was now faced with the fact
that I had two open circuit divers drifting away from the main
downline, which was still connected, to the lazy junction, Teresa
deep support waited for a period of time before she realized
the remaining two divers were in fact not using the station.
She then released the lazy junction that gave us a distance
of approx.½ mile between each set of decompressing divers,
which through fog or shipping could become the product of disaster.
|
Kev Pickering support on Egypt 2002. Until the
turning point Kev was preparing to dive the wreck on day two
of operations with girlfriend Teresa Telus. |
Activity aboard the dive vessel and
support rib had just sparked up a little, I now had Loyal Watcher
to drop a shallow support diver with the drifting pair as well
as the emergency drop line with staged decompression gas. The
pair that had bagged off the wreck had incurred difficulties
finding the shot line in what can only be described as extreme
tidal conditions encountering strong undercurrents preventing
return to the grapnel at 420ft depth.The rib team then deployed
a shallow support diver on the decompression station that would
effectively take over from deep support but not until the final
decompression gases that belonged to the drifting divers were
removed and taken over to the pair in question. The task of
deep support is often mistaken although shallow support on a
starfish expedition is one of the most demanding tasks and is
taken considerably serious. Shallow support must remain in a
position throughout the final phase of the exploration divers
decompression and monitor them, as it will be this point of
the dive that high CNS levels will be reached. The task can
often take on long duration's and where possible the team will
break the duty between two divers. In the situation that had
now occurred I had lost a shallow support to each module as
well as a deep support therefore shallow support would have
a longer duration than expected. Should the situation settle
down to a position where upon I was happy with the way surface
operations were unfolding I would then take over from a shallow
support myself, |
| as would Phil Hodgson whom was also left on
board with me. By now the only personal aboard the Watcher were
Phil Skipper Steve Wright and myself all glued to binoculars
and monitoring events. Each surface vessel Loyal Watcher and
the Rib would now monitor a module each as well as stay in radio
contact over the 1/2 mile distance.The only problem in the equation
was now the distance between each module, if we could bring
the two together the shallow support divers could be relived
at sooner periods. This would also blend a far safer environment
in that all divers could decompress through the 4-5 hour period
as a group whilst the Watcher covered us against shipping and
any adverse weather conditions should those problems arise.
I therefore tasked the rib support team with towing the main
station |
| component towards the drifting divers.
By towing the main station my theory was that the heavy weight
components would not act upon the decompressing divers when
being dragged through the water as to effect their depth profiles.
With the support ribs painter lashed to the station Gordon Bell
& Kevin Pickering would then select reverse on the engine
gearbox and slowly work their way in a direction to the drifting
divers. This practice had worked in Greece back in 1998 on the
Britannic
project for us and worked well in this situation on the
Egypt. Back in 98 Jamie Powell was tasked with releasing the
grapnel on the very final day at the termination of his dive,
the current was so strong that when he cut the grapnel free
the accumulating weight of the station and divers above physically
ripped away into the distance. Jamie was therefore left in a
position to make a free ascent from the 400ft deep wreck where
he would meet the respected standby support team to monitor
him and feed him his required deco gas. On both occasions the
towing process took approx. two hours but here in the Atlantic
in 2002 the task was completed in the said time thus making
the working environment a little more relaxed with more resources
now available as such. Our Knowledge of tidal conditions in
the area was obviously not like local knowledge back home and
we had not accounted for the unknown deep tidal currents. As
we studied nautical data |
The team aboard the dive boat making adjustments
to the decompression station. The team is here anchored within
the deserted islands of Ushant northwest France. |
Diver prepares to enter the water 2002 |
of the area we discovered that strong tides forcing
their way from the Bay of Biscay and up round northwest France
were not as predictable as we would have liked. By day two it
appeared that the conditions where not likely to change in the
coming days so as a team we decided to leave the area and return
at a later date with hopefully local knowledge. We can now understand
why it took the SORIMA team 4-5 years to recover the gold from
the wreck! Our expedition then switched into plan B emergency
Egypt bailout whereupon we steamed the Watcher across North
France to the Sept Isles where we could carryout filming &
photography work on HMS
Charybdis & Limbourne. On our way back home we could
also drop on the Flying Enterprise a wreck we had located as
a team back in June of 2001. Despite the deep conditions on
Egypt the following 7-8 days provided us with perhaps the best
diving conditions of the year so all in all we did however return
back to the UK more than happy. |
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