Posted by Kevin on April 30, 2001 at 16:40:11:
In Reply to: Re: USS Moody - Here we come ! posted by MHK on April 30, 2001 at 15:46:05:
Mike you are and have always been an advocate of safety on this board. Whether it is supporting the chamber or giving out real good advice on advanced diving. I always read your posts, I admit I sometime laugh at how "excited " you get, but really its your passion and love for diving that motivates your posts.
You bring up an excellent question, I'll do my best to answer.
I have already sold seven spots on the boat in the last four hours, the first four are trimix divers. They will be making two dives that day, and they will be bringing their oxygen in Al 80's. I will be bringing filters so we can top off their doubles so they only need to bring one set. In other words we are gonna blow down their trimix for the second dive ( or air top ). I think they have laid out a very safe course of action.
I also sold two spots to advanced nitrox divers, they will be using EAN 28 and 50/50 for deco. They intend on three short dives. They will be brining three Steel 95's each. I advised them to watch their depth, as they will flirt with a high P02 if they hit the sand. They are intend on staying on top of the wreck, and this will be their 17th and 18th Moody dive. They will have an EAD of about 120 FSW. I have also observed these two on the Moody and Ace 1 and they are a very tight, safe dive team.
I also have an old friend who will be diving the Moody on air, plain old simple air. He plans to make three rather short dives, with a little deco obligation on each dive, and he will be using air to decompress. I have joked with him and counseled him that this is not the best plan of attack, but its how he has been diving the Moody for the last 15 years, and he has more dives than me on it, in excess of 100. I have explained to him that just because this is way he has always done it, doesn't mean thats its the best way. I am currently placing an order for him from Global, and he will be using oxygen to deco in the immediate future.
So its a mixed bag of pirates, and we all intend to be as safe as possible.
If it were a perfect world, I would check log books and service records on everyone's equipment, in addition to checking everyone's c-card. If it were a perfect world, everyone would be diving 25/25 and 50/50 and oxygen, and we would fill trimix aboard AND top off everyone's deo cylinders with a full fill of oxygen. If it were a perfect world I would suggest to some folks they update their gear, don't dive with junk, leave half the crap on the boat.
If it were a perfect world I would tell all the blue chattering divers they must use drysuit for local deep duration diving, but most can't afford a drysuit.
But it's not a perfect world, but I still will attempt to make the trip as safe as possible. As I did on all the other Moody charters we have done. Heck, I even got one really broke diver to buy an octopus and start diving with a buddy. That was a major step forward in safety for that individual diver. I would like to think that by getting divers safely on the Moody and opening thier minds to improving their diving skills, equipment, education and attitude I may improved diver safety just a bit.
If there is anything you can add or suggest or recommend to improve the safety of this trip, let me know. I'd like to think I'm smart enough to always have my ears open to new ideas ! Isn't that what this whole BBS is about !
See on Chamber, the locate pirates will be on the Valiant shipwreck.
Kevin