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Feature Dive - Chumpon Salvage


Brink15

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Sitting around the shop on Koh Tao, waiting for some new students to come in. All of the sudden in walks the Thai owner of one of the other shops. With a conspiratorial look on his face, he beckons the owner of my shop and myself to sit for a meeting.

Now, I'm a little hesitant as this guy has a reputation as being somewhat of a mafiosi. He tells us that a fishing boat went down about halfway between Chumpon and Koh Tao in fairly deep water. The Thai owners want the boat recovered and they are willing to pay us to help. The minimum we would see is about 20,000 Baht and the job should only take a few days. We agree to discuss it and get back to him.

We think it over and decide to at least go out on the first dives to survey the wreck. Heck I'm always up for a wreck dive anyway.

The team is going to be made up of ourselves, both instructors, an instructor from the other shop, and the Thai shop owner.

We board a fishing boat, which I find out is exactly the same as the boat that sank. The boat is roughly 30m long with about an 8m beam. As we are heading out I get a little more information. The Thais have located the boat on sonar, so at least we know the area where we'll be diving. The depth is roughly 60m, or about 20m deeper than recreational limits. The only surviving crewmember out of 13 is on the boat with us. He swam for about 24 hours before being rescued. All the others perished.

Given the depth, this is going to be a technical dive requiring decompression. One slight problem, there are only two of us who are technically trained (myself and one other instructor) and we have no technical gear. To make matters worse the Thai owner of the other shop has only his Advanced Open Water rating and not all that many dives. Unfortunately this is his trip so he will be diving.

It is left up to the two of us with technical backgrounds to come up with a dive plan. The first thing we do is assess the equipment and find that we are seriously short of stage bottles. Stage bottle are extra tanks you use when deep diving to allow for decompression stops. We decide given the Thais? relative inexperience he would carry an extra tank in case he ran low. He would also be diving with the other instructor. I would be carrying an extra tank and would be diving with the owner of my shop.

Our plan was fairly simple, each team would descend down the anchor line, and do a line search for the wreck. One team would go at a time so that the boat could move if the wreck was not sighted on the first dive. We all had computers so we would be following the decompression schedule on the computers.

We suited up and got our tanks prepared. Due to the height of the fishing boat, we were going to lower our tanks into the water first, then jump in with mask, fins, and snorkel and don the tanks in the water.

I inflated my BCD and lowered my tank into the water. My buddy had a brand new technical diving BC to which he had attached two tanks and two regulators. He hefted the tanks over the side, just as I noticed his BC bladder seemed empty. I tried to shout for him to stop, but too late. We peered over the side as over $2,000 of gear plummeted to the bottom 60m below.

OK, change of plans the first team would look for the wreck, while my buddy and I would search for his gear.

Now I'm not feeling real confident at this time. If he can't think to inflate his BC bladder, what else might he forget? I'm also thinking about the unknown depth of silt on the bottom. We are probably going to be looking for a silt plume or depression rather than the gear itself sitting out where we can see it.

My buddy grabs a spare set of gear and, this time, inflates the BC before putting it in the water. Since his missing gear is not near an anchor line we will have to do a grid search using a compass. I advise him on the descent procedure I want him to follow. He volunteers to do the navigation while I do the search.

We start our descent and I notice immediately our odds of seeing even the silt plume are not good. The visibility can't be better than 5 or 6m. My buddy starts descending faster than I had briefed him, which makes me concerned about narcosis.

For those who don't know, narcosis is the narcotic effect of nitrogen at depth. It starts at about 30m+ and gets stronger the deeper you go. It can slow down your reaction time, cause confusion, and even cause euphoria. It is not a good thing when your safety is at stake.

As I near the bottom, I see my buddy has managed to break another rule by landing hard and kicking up silt. He seems to have recovered OK, so after a moment I check in with him using hand signals. He signals that he is OK and starts his navigation. As a safety precaution I also look at my compass to get an idea of where he's headed.

He starts a grid search by swimming a certain number of kicks in one direction and then turns and does the same in the new direction. Ideally this should look like perfect rectangles where the sides are just far enough apart to cover your field of vision.

Unfortunately, when I look back at my compass, the numbers aren't adding up. I watch him, rather than look for the gear, and notice he is zigzagging. This is not at all good. In order for us to ascend properly we need to be able to find the anchor line. With his being off course, that isn't going to happen.

I check my air and my computer and see that our decompression time is starting to add up. We have to be very careful as our air is now limited by the loss of the other tanks. I signal my buddy that it's time to ascend. He signals that it's not. If I wasn't convinced before that he was narced I am now.

I grab him, and let him know we are way off course. I also force him to look at his computer and air supply. Finally the light bulb goes off.

We start our ascent in mid water, not a good thing. We stop at our first deco stop. Now comes the waiting. We can't ascend any higher until our computers give us the OK. If we do, we risk the possibility of decompression sickness, or the bends.

I'm now getting concerned about the where abouts of the boat as we seem to be drifting steadily. I'm also cursing my dive buddy under my breath for putting us in this situation, and myself for allowing it.

We surface, and now I scan the horizon for the boat. When I see it, my heart sinks, as it is at least a 1/2km away. I start to waive my arm, usually a distress signal but at this point I don't care.

After about 10 minutes I can see a speedboat racing in our direction. We have been spotted.

When we get back to the fishing boat its time for lunch and a surface interval before the next dive. I keep my mouth shut as to the abortion that just happened.

next....The Body

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gawd damn that's scary!

Don't care what all those other idiots who berated me that Scuba isn't dangerous. It is and folks do themselves a HUGE disservice not taking the course with good instructors instead of at a resort (which are generally concerned with you having a good time). It is relatively safe if you have a level head.

Hope your buddy has a decent regulator. You gotta take control cause your buddy doesn't have a clue and he's endangering you as well. Gotta talk to him when you get a moment alone.

Great story! Eagerly awaiting the next parts!

<<burp>>

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Racha,

No credit card numbers necessary.

Just make checks payable to the Bar Fine Fund and mail them care of me to..

 

Submerged Sanuk A Go-Go - where they're always going down

69 Soi Subaquatic

Watjerlikit, Thailand

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[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: Brink15 ]

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: Brink15 ]

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