An Interesting Day
Feb. 5th, 2024 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
I went diving today - took a friend to see the Corsair plane wreck in Lake Washington that I first visited a couple of years ago.
https://youtu.be/2OiC8MqPWM0
Eric normally dives a rebreather, some space age tech that means he uses only tiny amounts of air because he has a scrubber system that removes the CO2 (it will also absolutely kill you if you don't maintain it with extreme care, which is why I won't touch one, but that's another thing). For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, he was diving on open circuit today, and using air like normal people.
Because Eric normally dives a rebreather, I have no idea how fast Eric goes through a tank of air. We were down at around 80-90 feet (24-27m) which is reasonably deep and means you use air faster.
We followed the line down to the wreck, found the cockpit and engine sections. I asked him a couple of times if he was okay for air, and he didn't give a number for the amount he had left, just said it was okay, so I went with it. He had a bit of a buoyancy control issue at one point because buoyancy is different between a rebreather and open circuit, so he floated up a bit and then dumped some air and came back down. We looked around a bit more, and then he pointed to the line that went deeper to the more scattered bits of the plane wreck. I asked him again if his air was okay and said he yes, so off we went.
And then he poked at me and went 'Nope, nope, turn around,' so we did and started back the way we came. (He explained later that he'd got the lines mixed up, and thought he was pointing at the line back to shore, and only realised otherwise when he saw we were going down, not up.)
Soon after we turned around, he was poking at me again, and clearly trying to tell me something, but I couldn't figure out what. There's a diver sign for 'I have no air' where you drag your hand across your neck like you're slitting your own throat. He said he did that, but I didn't see it. All I saw was him pointing at his regulator in his mouth. I looked at it and it wasn't leaking or anything, and I was trying to work out what he was trying to tell me, and then I realised he wasn't breathing out. And he's pointing at his reg while holding his breath - oh shit!
So I gave him my regulator to breathe from while I used my secondary, and we grabbed onto one another and slowly swam up to the surface with both of us breathing from my tank exactly as you're supposed to, and everything was fine. I don't think I've practiced an air share drill since the rescue diving course back in, er, 2013, because I'm a terrible slacker. They say you should practice air share drills and stuff regularly, but it's not the same when you're expecting your dive buddy to tell you they have no air as when it comes out of the blue. But we're both experienced divers and knew what to do, and I have to say Eric was a lot calmer than I might have been if I ran out of air and my dive buddy couldn't figure out what I was trying to tell them.
Anyway, after we got back to shore, he told me he had his back-up cylinder of air for emergency use in the car, but hadn't bothered to take it on the dive because he 'wouldn't need it'. Eric! There's no point having an emergency 'just in case' air supply in the car! If you take it with you and don't need it, that's fine, but if you don't take it and you DO need it... sigh.
https://youtu.be/2OiC8MqPWM0
Eric normally dives a rebreather, some space age tech that means he uses only tiny amounts of air because he has a scrubber system that removes the CO2 (it will also absolutely kill you if you don't maintain it with extreme care, which is why I won't touch one, but that's another thing). For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, he was diving on open circuit today, and using air like normal people.
Because Eric normally dives a rebreather, I have no idea how fast Eric goes through a tank of air. We were down at around 80-90 feet (24-27m) which is reasonably deep and means you use air faster.
We followed the line down to the wreck, found the cockpit and engine sections. I asked him a couple of times if he was okay for air, and he didn't give a number for the amount he had left, just said it was okay, so I went with it. He had a bit of a buoyancy control issue at one point because buoyancy is different between a rebreather and open circuit, so he floated up a bit and then dumped some air and came back down. We looked around a bit more, and then he pointed to the line that went deeper to the more scattered bits of the plane wreck. I asked him again if his air was okay and said he yes, so off we went.
And then he poked at me and went 'Nope, nope, turn around,' so we did and started back the way we came. (He explained later that he'd got the lines mixed up, and thought he was pointing at the line back to shore, and only realised otherwise when he saw we were going down, not up.)
Soon after we turned around, he was poking at me again, and clearly trying to tell me something, but I couldn't figure out what. There's a diver sign for 'I have no air' where you drag your hand across your neck like you're slitting your own throat. He said he did that, but I didn't see it. All I saw was him pointing at his regulator in his mouth. I looked at it and it wasn't leaking or anything, and I was trying to work out what he was trying to tell me, and then I realised he wasn't breathing out. And he's pointing at his reg while holding his breath - oh shit!
So I gave him my regulator to breathe from while I used my secondary, and we grabbed onto one another and slowly swam up to the surface with both of us breathing from my tank exactly as you're supposed to, and everything was fine. I don't think I've practiced an air share drill since the rescue diving course back in, er, 2013, because I'm a terrible slacker. They say you should practice air share drills and stuff regularly, but it's not the same when you're expecting your dive buddy to tell you they have no air as when it comes out of the blue. But we're both experienced divers and knew what to do, and I have to say Eric was a lot calmer than I might have been if I ran out of air and my dive buddy couldn't figure out what I was trying to tell them.
Anyway, after we got back to shore, he told me he had his back-up cylinder of air for emergency use in the car, but hadn't bothered to take it on the dive because he 'wouldn't need it'. Eric! There's no point having an emergency 'just in case' air supply in the car! If you take it with you and don't need it, that's fine, but if you don't take it and you DO need it... sigh.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-06 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-06 06:06 am (UTC)Which is why when I bought myself a back-up air supply, I didn't get one of those. I bought a Spare Air, which is tiny and weighs almost nothing, so I don't even notice I'm wearing it. People who dive with full sized pony bottles look at it and laugh, and say, 'How much air is in that thing anyway? That won't last very long.' They're right, it won't. It contains about 60 breaths of air, which isn't that much, but it's enough to get me from the maximum recreational diving depth of 40 metres up to the surface swimming at a steady, safe rate. Which is all I need a back-up air supply to do. And because it's small and causes no inconvenience to wear, I ALWAYS HAVE IT WITH ME. Which seems to be the most important factor...
no subject
Date: 2024-02-06 08:04 pm (UTC)I've always wondered why divers didn't take a class in ASL, it would make communicating underwater so much easier. I'm glad everything worked out well and you and Eric are safe. Thank goodness you were both calm and didn't panic!
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Date: 2024-02-06 08:19 pm (UTC)Sign language would be SO useful. I've seen video of deaf divers just chatting away underwater, and thought damn what a great idea! But of course it's not that useful unless everyone does it.
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Date: 2024-02-07 01:50 am (UTC)I admit, I had a Due South moment where Frasier and Ray2 had to share air... :D
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Date: 2024-02-07 05:02 am (UTC)That's the second DS reference of my day, funnily enough. Tuesday is my weekly watch of Burn Notice with my friend Sonja, who I first met via DS fandom in the 90s. We just started season two (which is when BN really gets nailed) and she was enthusing over how much fun it is. And I said, 'It's really like Due South. It's so much fun, snarky entertainment and then it will suddenly turn around and nail you through the heart with the drama.' Which is the aspect of Burn Notice she hasn't met yet, but she's starting to get there....
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Date: 2024-02-12 03:31 am (UTC)Looking at that video and that is fascinating to see the remains of a plane wreck and what time and the underwater elements have done to it so many years later.
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Date: 2024-02-12 04:56 am (UTC)There were two identical planes that collided. One was mainly intact, and that one was raised and restored and is now in a local flight museum. The one that's still down there broke up on impact, so honestly time and the elements have just made it rust and grow some crud (most obvious on the specs plaque, but obviously everywhere).
Lake Washington is pretty cold and lifeless overall. Anything that had been down on a tropical reef for 70 years would be so covered in coral and other growth it would barely be recognisable by now!