Victoria... 10 years ago in 1996.. Has it really been that long??? Who ever would have thought it!
As most of you know, I lived in Victoria, Vancouver Island, for most of my life. I went to university there; got married and raised a family there; worked, started my own business there. It is a delightful city with a great history and right on the ocean so diving was always easy and free. Race Rocks [many of the worlds largest salmon have been caught here] is the area of many great shipwrecks and coral. You would never think that of northern climes but there are coral heads the size of Volkwagens.... vibrant purples and pinks. The current is always running at speeds of up to 10 knots so a drift dive is in order for this site. There are so many good dive sites, it would take decades to dive them all to a persons satisfaction.
Victoria also has Canadas' mildest climate. When the rest of the province is shivering in sub freezing temperatures in winter, you can pretty much count on Victoria to have above freezing temperatures. Where the rest of Canada gets snow, count on Victoria to have rain. Oh Victoria does get the OCCASIONAL snowfall. It might last 2-4 days.... a week at most. But that is it. People golf there 365 days a year. To make the rest of Canada jealous, Victoria has what they call a 'flower count'..... In February. During a one week span, people are encouraged to go out into their gardens, count the flowers and phone the number in to an organization. When the week is up, the daily numbers are totalled and the final total is sent to radio and media people across Canada. Kinda like a Victoria way of Nyah, Nyahing the rest of the country.
However, in 1996, there was a very dramatic reversal. During a one week [mostly compacted into 3 days] span, Victoria, mild, no-winter Victoria, got 5 feet of snow in 3 days and by the end of the week there was almost 6 feet. We had horses back then and it was a real chore to get all of the work done. I had to shovel a path to the barn,to feed and all of the necessary cleaning that goes with owning horses. There was no, and I do mean NO, traffic on the roads. Well, not quite, I did have my 68 Ford 3/4 4x4 with 39 inch tires on it so I was managing to get around. People everywhere asked if I could do this or that for the, No problem!! Buildings collapsed, houses were iimpossible to get out of. And the marinas. Well, there was the true measure of the disaster. Well over 400 boats were sunk that day, due to the weight of the snow. The snow was so wet and heavy, it literally pushed boats, boathouses, anything that could float, underwater,
Once the road came back to a semblance of normalcy, there was a mad scramble to repair the damage done to buildings, free up the roads and crews,. And there was a massive salvage effort put forth to try and recover the boats.I was a part of that salvage crew. There were 4 [if I remember correctly] separate diving crews. There were quite some number of marinas involved [Victoria has probably 2 dozen marinas] and so one crew got to cover more than one marina. A crew would consist of up to 12 divers. Ours was 6. The marina we were to work was out in Sidney, a small town about 15-18 miles north of Victoria. Davey Denton { I have mentioned him before in regards to my diving adventures] and I paired up and we arrived at the marina at 8:00 A.M.
A quick cup of tea [I am Canadian after all], into our wet suits [ugh!!!] and we hit the water. Remember, this is still winter [28 degrees or so] and we jump into the chuck!! Cccccccooooooollllllldddddd! Back to the surface and ask for some hot water to pour down our suits. They got some and we poured it down. A huge , blessed feeling of relief washes over us and down we go. We are inside a boathouse and on the bottom, still tied to the cleats of the boathouse, is sitting a beautiful Reinell...28 feet in length. First Dave and I have to do an underwater survey to insure that things are all okay. We go down and everything looks to be in good shape for raising the boat. Then we have to surface and get the sausages. These are huge tubes made of inner tube material and shaped like 'sausages'
We dragged these down to the hull and while one of us works one into the bow, the other goes into the engine compartment and stuffs the second in there. It may sound easy but I am here to tell you it is incredibly difficult wrestling this 6 foot long item into a very tight space underwater. After 10 to 15 minutes of fighting , cursing, swearing and sweating [yes you can, even underwater], we had positioned our 2 lifts. We sufaced and got the air lines to attach to the sausages. I stayed on the surface while Dave went down to monitor the lift of the boat. And it worked beautifully. At least it did until the boat hit the surface. Then it promptly turned turtle and settle on the bottom again. Jim , the owner of the salvage company, came hollering over, asked what happed and then set off on a tirade. We could not understand it. Everything was going so well. And then Jim asked the $64,000.00 question. "What type of boat was it?" " Reniell, Jim." Off he goes on another tirade. "Those dam#$ed Reinells.... they always do that" Etc.
So down we go again and try to correct this monumental problem. After 2 more hours, and several tanks of air, we finally get the boat to the surface, upright, and the shore crew sets to pumping her out. Off to the next boat. We were in the water that first day for 8 hours straight. We had hot water continually being poured down our suits and ate lunch while in the water. All the while we were in the water, fuel [gasoline, diesel, gear oil, etc] was floating all around us. We, literally, were swimming in a fuel tank. I am not much of a beer drinker, but it seemed as though every boat we raised, had beer in it. It was our one deference to 'looting'. After each successful lift, we would take a beer from that boat and wash the fuel taste from our mouths. UGH!!!. And the bottom.... it was totally littered with outboards, generators, fishing rods, reels... everything that you could imagine being on a boat. Unfortunately, we were not contracted to salvage those items..... only boats and so we left all of those accoutrements on the bottom.
By the end of the first day, we were cold, tired, and miserable. We told Jim we were leaving a little early and we were both getting drysuits. And so we did. The next day, it was back to the marina and more of our adventures. But at least we were warmer..... a lot warmer. We got 2 more power boats up, with no difficulty [we were getting pretty good at this] and the number 3 for the day lands in our lap..... a sailboat. And not just any sailboat. A 40 footer with a keel in the area of 4 to 5 ton. And that keel was buried, as was the rest of most of the hull, in thick mud and clay. No amount of lift bags were going to free this ship. Down Davey and I go to examine the hull and we surface again after a 10 minute examination. There is only one way to lift this boat.
We tell Jim to arrange a crane, and to get some sampson braid rope for us. We go down to the hull,measure a certain distance from the bowspit, and start to tunnel under the hull, one from each side. Visibilty was less than zero and the work was slow, painstakingly slow. 3 tanks each for the bow. The stern was considerably easier... that only killed one tank each. Once we had passed the sampson braid under the hull, fore and aft, we attached slings to the ropes and pulled the slings under. We then tied the slings off to each other and attached the lift cables to the crane. We both surfaced and gave the order to start it up. I really thought that we might have to salvage a crane that day.... the suction was so great on the hull. However, once she broke free, the sailboat came up just as pretty as you please. Another beer to wash out the mouth.
This whole exercise went on for 13 days. Each day we were in the water for 9-10 hours and worked like the blazes. The only other time we had problems was when Davey got tangled in some fishing line and I freed him up from it. There was no panic or anything but it was dicey for a short while. And still we had to leave all of the items we saw on the bottom. Yacht tenders, tools.... It broke the heart.
However, with the money I earned for those days, I did manage to buy another new dry suit [the fuel destroyed the first one. And a few tools for the shop.
Sunny skies
M
[attachment 20352 vict009.jpg]
[attachment 20353 vict018.jpg]
As most of you know, I lived in Victoria, Vancouver Island, for most of my life. I went to university there; got married and raised a family there; worked, started my own business there. It is a delightful city with a great history and right on the ocean so diving was always easy and free. Race Rocks [many of the worlds largest salmon have been caught here] is the area of many great shipwrecks and coral. You would never think that of northern climes but there are coral heads the size of Volkwagens.... vibrant purples and pinks. The current is always running at speeds of up to 10 knots so a drift dive is in order for this site. There are so many good dive sites, it would take decades to dive them all to a persons satisfaction.
Victoria also has Canadas' mildest climate. When the rest of the province is shivering in sub freezing temperatures in winter, you can pretty much count on Victoria to have above freezing temperatures. Where the rest of Canada gets snow, count on Victoria to have rain. Oh Victoria does get the OCCASIONAL snowfall. It might last 2-4 days.... a week at most. But that is it. People golf there 365 days a year. To make the rest of Canada jealous, Victoria has what they call a 'flower count'..... In February. During a one week span, people are encouraged to go out into their gardens, count the flowers and phone the number in to an organization. When the week is up, the daily numbers are totalled and the final total is sent to radio and media people across Canada. Kinda like a Victoria way of Nyah, Nyahing the rest of the country.
However, in 1996, there was a very dramatic reversal. During a one week [mostly compacted into 3 days] span, Victoria, mild, no-winter Victoria, got 5 feet of snow in 3 days and by the end of the week there was almost 6 feet. We had horses back then and it was a real chore to get all of the work done. I had to shovel a path to the barn,to feed and all of the necessary cleaning that goes with owning horses. There was no, and I do mean NO, traffic on the roads. Well, not quite, I did have my 68 Ford 3/4 4x4 with 39 inch tires on it so I was managing to get around. People everywhere asked if I could do this or that for the, No problem!! Buildings collapsed, houses were iimpossible to get out of. And the marinas. Well, there was the true measure of the disaster. Well over 400 boats were sunk that day, due to the weight of the snow. The snow was so wet and heavy, it literally pushed boats, boathouses, anything that could float, underwater,
Once the road came back to a semblance of normalcy, there was a mad scramble to repair the damage done to buildings, free up the roads and crews,. And there was a massive salvage effort put forth to try and recover the boats.I was a part of that salvage crew. There were 4 [if I remember correctly] separate diving crews. There were quite some number of marinas involved [Victoria has probably 2 dozen marinas] and so one crew got to cover more than one marina. A crew would consist of up to 12 divers. Ours was 6. The marina we were to work was out in Sidney, a small town about 15-18 miles north of Victoria. Davey Denton { I have mentioned him before in regards to my diving adventures] and I paired up and we arrived at the marina at 8:00 A.M.
A quick cup of tea [I am Canadian after all], into our wet suits [ugh!!!] and we hit the water. Remember, this is still winter [28 degrees or so] and we jump into the chuck!! Cccccccooooooollllllldddddd! Back to the surface and ask for some hot water to pour down our suits. They got some and we poured it down. A huge , blessed feeling of relief washes over us and down we go. We are inside a boathouse and on the bottom, still tied to the cleats of the boathouse, is sitting a beautiful Reinell...28 feet in length. First Dave and I have to do an underwater survey to insure that things are all okay. We go down and everything looks to be in good shape for raising the boat. Then we have to surface and get the sausages. These are huge tubes made of inner tube material and shaped like 'sausages'
We dragged these down to the hull and while one of us works one into the bow, the other goes into the engine compartment and stuffs the second in there. It may sound easy but I am here to tell you it is incredibly difficult wrestling this 6 foot long item into a very tight space underwater. After 10 to 15 minutes of fighting , cursing, swearing and sweating [yes you can, even underwater], we had positioned our 2 lifts. We sufaced and got the air lines to attach to the sausages. I stayed on the surface while Dave went down to monitor the lift of the boat. And it worked beautifully. At least it did until the boat hit the surface. Then it promptly turned turtle and settle on the bottom again. Jim , the owner of the salvage company, came hollering over, asked what happed and then set off on a tirade. We could not understand it. Everything was going so well. And then Jim asked the $64,000.00 question. "What type of boat was it?" " Reniell, Jim." Off he goes on another tirade. "Those dam#$ed Reinells.... they always do that" Etc.
So down we go again and try to correct this monumental problem. After 2 more hours, and several tanks of air, we finally get the boat to the surface, upright, and the shore crew sets to pumping her out. Off to the next boat. We were in the water that first day for 8 hours straight. We had hot water continually being poured down our suits and ate lunch while in the water. All the while we were in the water, fuel [gasoline, diesel, gear oil, etc] was floating all around us. We, literally, were swimming in a fuel tank. I am not much of a beer drinker, but it seemed as though every boat we raised, had beer in it. It was our one deference to 'looting'. After each successful lift, we would take a beer from that boat and wash the fuel taste from our mouths. UGH!!!. And the bottom.... it was totally littered with outboards, generators, fishing rods, reels... everything that you could imagine being on a boat. Unfortunately, we were not contracted to salvage those items..... only boats and so we left all of those accoutrements on the bottom.
By the end of the first day, we were cold, tired, and miserable. We told Jim we were leaving a little early and we were both getting drysuits. And so we did. The next day, it was back to the marina and more of our adventures. But at least we were warmer..... a lot warmer. We got 2 more power boats up, with no difficulty [we were getting pretty good at this] and the number 3 for the day lands in our lap..... a sailboat. And not just any sailboat. A 40 footer with a keel in the area of 4 to 5 ton. And that keel was buried, as was the rest of most of the hull, in thick mud and clay. No amount of lift bags were going to free this ship. Down Davey and I go to examine the hull and we surface again after a 10 minute examination. There is only one way to lift this boat.
We tell Jim to arrange a crane, and to get some sampson braid rope for us. We go down to the hull,measure a certain distance from the bowspit, and start to tunnel under the hull, one from each side. Visibilty was less than zero and the work was slow, painstakingly slow. 3 tanks each for the bow. The stern was considerably easier... that only killed one tank each. Once we had passed the sampson braid under the hull, fore and aft, we attached slings to the ropes and pulled the slings under. We then tied the slings off to each other and attached the lift cables to the crane. We both surfaced and gave the order to start it up. I really thought that we might have to salvage a crane that day.... the suction was so great on the hull. However, once she broke free, the sailboat came up just as pretty as you please. Another beer to wash out the mouth.
This whole exercise went on for 13 days. Each day we were in the water for 9-10 hours and worked like the blazes. The only other time we had problems was when Davey got tangled in some fishing line and I freed him up from it. There was no panic or anything but it was dicey for a short while. And still we had to leave all of the items we saw on the bottom. Yacht tenders, tools.... It broke the heart.
However, with the money I earned for those days, I did manage to buy another new dry suit [the fuel destroyed the first one. And a few tools for the shop.
Sunny skies
M
[attachment 20352 vict009.jpg]
[attachment 20353 vict018.jpg]
