Again, most of my stories take place in the 60s and 70s. This one is no different. In the early 70s, the diving fraternity was not recognizable by the standards of today. We had no pressure guages [we used J valve tanks], we also had the old capillary depth guages, suits were wet,..... Mostly just a by the seat of your pants diving experience. The one thing that was hammered into you though, and what I hammered into my students when I taught, was the decompression tables. I required an ability to memorize just how long you could stay at a certain depth and not have to decompress. This is the point where, if you stay at a certain depth longer than the recommended no decompression time, nitrogen would build up in your bloodstream, and cause the 'bends' when you surfaced. And most of us have heard of the bends.
On this particular dive, I had been called by a cement company in Bamberton, B.C. Seems as though a cement truck had plunged off the wharf and gone into the water below, This Company was located on Saanich inlet, near Victoria, and they shipped a lot of cement out by barge and truck. So I get the call to see if I was able to attach a line to this truck so they could hoist it up.
I arrive at the site, ask the usual questions[ when did it sink, how deep, etc] and get suited up.I did tell the company supervisor that I was going to do an exploratory dive first, to check the water conditions, depth [really!!! it was around 100 feet, so I was told. That gave me 25 minutes..... lots of time to do my work]. I waddle down to the waters edge, adjust everything and head down. I mean, it was right off this wharf. Just follow the lead line down, right?
I approach the 100 foot mark, and there is no sign of it. I did forget to mention that this is almost a vertical wall, with the odd outcropping on it..... but it was pretty much a 90 degree angle. I hit the 100 foot mark, and there is no sign of it. The visibility is around 40 feep so if it were there I should have seen it. I dropped down further and still did not find it. At around 150 feet I saw a shape below me.
At 180 feet down, I found this truck, balanced rather precariously, on on of those outcroppings I described. It was so well balanced, that I could, with not much effort, rock it back and forth. I came to the surface, while making certain that I had not exceeeded my no-decompression time, and came to shore. The usual crown was there wanting to know what was up. I told them that there was NO way I was going to go down to salvage that truck.. It was do dangerous to mess around with it tryingto attach a line to it.If I had tried to attach a 1 inch cable to it, there was a good chance it would have slipped further down.... not to mention that a person would have to decompress before coming up. It was not as though I could not do that [I had done it quite a few times before]; I just did not enjoy it.
I collected my few wages [I did not salvage the truck after all.... so you cannot charge for a job half-done], and headed home. Now here is where it gets dicey.
When I figured my time on the bottom, I calculated it for sea level diving. And that was fine. I had no problems whatsoever. However, to get home, I had to go up and over the Malahat. This is a sectuon of road that goes up over a pass. It rise, oh maybe 1000 to 1200 feet. Well, at that elevation, all of my well-prepared calculations went out the window. As I was starting to rise, I could start to feel funny little 'things' happening to me. First, I got a bit itchy, mostly in my elbows, then my knees. Then, I started to cramp, just a bit. At about that time it dawned on just where I had screwed up. "Okay, you are only 100-150 feet from the summit, then it is all downhill" I could not decide whether to continue over the 'hat or drive back down and take the ferry across to the other side and go home that way. I eventually toughed it out and drove up and over. Pretty good amounts of pain but you have never seen me drive downhill so fast. Once I started my descent, things improved wonderfully.
Ah well, even us so called experts, can screw up.
Thanks you for coming alond
Sunny skies
M
On this particular dive, I had been called by a cement company in Bamberton, B.C. Seems as though a cement truck had plunged off the wharf and gone into the water below, This Company was located on Saanich inlet, near Victoria, and they shipped a lot of cement out by barge and truck. So I get the call to see if I was able to attach a line to this truck so they could hoist it up.
I arrive at the site, ask the usual questions[ when did it sink, how deep, etc] and get suited up.I did tell the company supervisor that I was going to do an exploratory dive first, to check the water conditions, depth [really!!! it was around 100 feet, so I was told. That gave me 25 minutes..... lots of time to do my work]. I waddle down to the waters edge, adjust everything and head down. I mean, it was right off this wharf. Just follow the lead line down, right?
I approach the 100 foot mark, and there is no sign of it. I did forget to mention that this is almost a vertical wall, with the odd outcropping on it..... but it was pretty much a 90 degree angle. I hit the 100 foot mark, and there is no sign of it. The visibility is around 40 feep so if it were there I should have seen it. I dropped down further and still did not find it. At around 150 feet I saw a shape below me.
At 180 feet down, I found this truck, balanced rather precariously, on on of those outcroppings I described. It was so well balanced, that I could, with not much effort, rock it back and forth. I came to the surface, while making certain that I had not exceeeded my no-decompression time, and came to shore. The usual crown was there wanting to know what was up. I told them that there was NO way I was going to go down to salvage that truck.. It was do dangerous to mess around with it tryingto attach a line to it.If I had tried to attach a 1 inch cable to it, there was a good chance it would have slipped further down.... not to mention that a person would have to decompress before coming up. It was not as though I could not do that [I had done it quite a few times before]; I just did not enjoy it.
I collected my few wages [I did not salvage the truck after all.... so you cannot charge for a job half-done], and headed home. Now here is where it gets dicey.
When I figured my time on the bottom, I calculated it for sea level diving. And that was fine. I had no problems whatsoever. However, to get home, I had to go up and over the Malahat. This is a sectuon of road that goes up over a pass. It rise, oh maybe 1000 to 1200 feet. Well, at that elevation, all of my well-prepared calculations went out the window. As I was starting to rise, I could start to feel funny little 'things' happening to me. First, I got a bit itchy, mostly in my elbows, then my knees. Then, I started to cramp, just a bit. At about that time it dawned on just where I had screwed up. "Okay, you are only 100-150 feet from the summit, then it is all downhill" I could not decide whether to continue over the 'hat or drive back down and take the ferry across to the other side and go home that way. I eventually toughed it out and drove up and over. Pretty good amounts of pain but you have never seen me drive downhill so fast. Once I started my descent, things improved wonderfully.
Ah well, even us so called experts, can screw up.
Thanks you for coming alond
Sunny skies
M
