Posted by John Walker on September 05, 2000 at 20:39:56:
In Reply to: Re: What Makes a Good Buddy? posted by Roger on September 05, 2000 at 16:54:01:
Roger,
Let me tell you what RUDE is. Two weeks ago (Aug 23) an advanced dive team and I descended on the wreck of the Al-Ind-Esk-A-Se which lies on the bottom of Pugeot Sound just North of Seattle Washington. We descended to 245 fsw with visability of about 3-5 feet and a light current of about 1/2kt.
Once myself and my three buddy's reached the grapple hook I lead the dive towards the wreck. We moved forward with full interity referencing one anothers position and progress with light signals via each team members 50 watt canister light. About 10 feet or so from the grapple I found a snorkel and a bit of a mask strap protruding from the mud. Initially my thoughts were of how odd it is that someone diving at this level would have a snorkel. I attempted to pull it from the mud but it was really stuck. Not wanting to pull any harder in fear of a complete siltout I signaled to my team and got return signals from each of them to move forward so we continued towards the wreck.
We continued about 10 feet further in approximently very low vis and I came across a set of fins. Thinking, WOW, theres a lot of gear down here and some of it looks expensive like those scubapro fins, I soon realized that the fins were attached to a pair of legs. Shit! Since I was leading the team to the wreck I ran right into a body. In dismay I was hoping this was a bad joke, maybe a mannequin.
After signalling my team to move closer and have a look I noticed that this body had a drysuit with an expensive set of dry gloves, twin tanks and some real $$$ in gear. A pistol grip UK400 light floated off the right hand with a huge amenome mounted to the lens. Several enenomes were attached to this body. I realized it had been here awhile. I continued to inspect this drab body and manuvered toward the shoulders. The head was missing. Shit is all I could say, over and over again. I had to do it. I had to confirm that this was a real divers body. I references my team once more, got as low to the bottom as I could without silting out. My face was about 1 foot from the neck seal of the dry suit then I stuck my light handle in the hole. Shit, Shit, ^#589(7, (*%$#!*.
What I saw did infact confirm that this was the real deal. I first notice a clavicle bone, some smaller bones and the inside lining of this divers drysuit undergarments. Further down was some intestinal tissue. The spin was moved up towards the left shoulder.
Know I had to make sure everyone is handling this OK. No one seemed to have a problem with the body but the visibility was putting alittle stress on the team. I tied up the line around his tanks and we moved on towards the wreck. I gave the #2 man in our team a question signal and asked him if he felt that our team should continue. He signaled that he would like to turn the dive. In an advancewd dive team anyone can call the dive for whatever reason and we all go back as a team. So thats what we did.
Once we surfaced we notified the Sherrifs and to my amazement my team members never knew what I was looking at for so long on the bottom, and the story continues.
After this horrifying dive I drove home to find that an acquaintance of mine died at catalina diving solo and I see all of these post supporting solo diving knowing that this year seven divers have died in So. Cal. each of them diving solo where I would love to be able to put money on it and say that a buddy could have supported them and possible saved them from their untimely deaths.
Know tell me, is it me thats rude or the reality of taking extra chances underwater and dieing is.
John