Scuba Experiences Not Widely Shared

I titled this blog to take into consideration most of the various diving experiences I have encountered over the past 60 years that I thought were adventuresome, fun or downright stupid.  I thought I would come clean about them so present and future divers can either learn from my underwater encounters or relate to them with their own experiences. 

Working on a Sunken Boat

I touched on this bit of macho diving in my book however, it fits into this blog as one of the stupidest things I got into because of my dive knowledge in the early days. 

Having started my diving out of Cleveland, Ohio I did the majority of getting wet in Lake Erie.  One day a tornado came from the North and made landfall where a major river emptied into the lake.  The force was so great that it pushed the entering water back up the river to the extent that the river water rose twenty feet from its original level and then, when the tornado passed, it dropped back to its original height. 

You can imagine what this phenomenon did to the boats that were parked at a marina about a quarter mile up the river.  Watercraft was tossed about like toys, rolled over or some raised so high that they were impaled on posts when the water receded.

Because divers were scarce in the Northern Ohio area, I was contacted by one of the crane barge owners who needed a diver to assist in the cleanup of the carnage left over from the tornado. 

Upon arrival at the site, I was informed that my job was to arrange lifting cables around the swamped boats so the crane could raise them above the water line where a high-volume pump could be thrown in to void the water from inside the boat.  This teamwork was doing the job to raise a number of the swamped craft until we ran into a very large cabin cruiser that the pumps could not get ahead of the interior water and the boat was too large for the crane to lift it containing the water. 

I was instructed to check under the boat to see if there was a hole in the hull that prevented the pumps from extracting the water.  Upon checking I found a two foot square hole right next to the keel which had to be patched before any headway could be made against the encroaching water. 

The crane operator found a three foot square piece of plywood which he coated the edge with caulking, handed me a hammer and nails and told me to see if I could close up the hole.  The most the crane could raise the boat off the bottom was about three feet which had me laying on my back in zero visibility water attempting to nail this patch over the hole.  I finally accomplished this but while I was in this position it went through my head, over and over again, just what would happen if the crane faltered and dropped the boat while I was under it. 

Did I think-at the time, I was stupid to have done it, no I just wanted to show that I could accomplish the task.  Do I think it was stupid today, your darn right I do! 

Diving with a Used Regulator 

Early in my years of diving we had a club member that was working on a crane barge off the coast of Lake Erie.  They were doing a job that required them to swing the crane out to the side but it also required them to drop a counterweight over the opposite side of the barge.  Unfortunately, someone forgot this later task and the barge heeled over and the crane broke off allowing the barge to snap back and swamp sending the whole operation to the bottom in 45 feet of water. 

Needless to say, our club found the spot a great dive location seeing known wrecks were at a premium in Lake Erie.  One day my buddy Don was going to try out a double hose regulator that he purchased for his girlfriend while we were diving the barge.  The barge had a three-foot square opening where you could go down into the lower portion so Don was going into the hatch feet first and when he got to about his chest the used regulator began to suck water.

                       Don With His Double Hose Regulator

 Don gave me the signal that he needed air so I offered him my regulator mouthpiece and we began to ascend to the surface.  After that Don had to take the regulator in for a proper servicing.  Fortunately, he at least tried it out himself prior to giving it to his girlfriend to use. 

Carrying Too Much Weight 

As I also had mentioned in the book, we used to search for anchors on the large breakwalls along the lakefront.  When we first started out if we located an anchor, we would carry it up the wall and deposit it near the top where we could recover it later and swim it over to the club boat.  The most common weights for anchors was either 10 or 15 lbs. which most of the time one was all we could handle while swimming over to the boat. 

On one outing Joe, our club president, was coming over to the boat struggling with a 10 lb. anchor in each hand.  Now most of us had some flotation device but not one that would support the weight of those anchors with only the diver wearing their wet suit.

Lake Erie Breakwall

So, here's Joe struggling to swim these anchors over to the boat, calling for some help in getting them aboard, and all that the rest of us could do was say "Joe you know you're not supposed to carry more than you can safely swim with especially when you're the president of the club".

Needless to say, Joe finally had to drop the anchors amid a lot of cussing, but it became a hard lesson for him to learn and I'm sure it stuck with him the remainder of his diving years.

 Surfacing Surprise 

We normally dove in Lake Erie on Saturday or Sundays because the weeks were for work or going to school.  This Sunday was no different so a lot of time we would just go out a couple of miles, erect our diver down flag and see what we could find on the bottom. 

After about a half an hour we had our fill of the mud bottom and decided to surface.  Now it was always the practice, while ascending, to listen for various motor noises either inboard or outboard and wait until the noise subsided.  Since we heard nothing to alarm us, we headed for the surface.  When I broke the surface a sailboat hull just missed my head by inches and scared the devil out of me and in a race there's more than one so we found ourselves in the midst of a whole group of them.  Needless to say, we headed below the surface again until the group passed after all none of us wanted to have our hair parted by a keel or centerboard.

Got to Dive the Big Wreck 

The largest known wreck near Cleveland was the Clevco an oil tanker that went down in the early 1940s and was laying upside down about 3 miles off shore in 80 feet of water.

                               The Cleveco on the Surface 

Most of the time when we dove this wreck it was a club dive and we all went out in the club's 35-foot trap netter fishing boat.  This time however, there were four of us that wanted to see the wreck and the club was not going out on the day we wanted, so one of the guys had an eighteen-foot open boat into which we piled ourselves in along with tanks and gear. 

We were pretty overloaded but the desire to see the wreck overshadowed our common sense.  I would say the top of the boat's gunnels were about 4 or 5 inches from the water.  We set out from Cleveland and were at the wreck site in about an hour, had a nice dive and now the weather started to look menacing so everyone got on board and we began the trip back to Cleveland. 

Now Lake Erie, being the shallowest of the Great Lakes was prone to getting rough in a hurry with the prompting of a North Wind.  In this case the North Wind was really encouraging.  We were only about half way back when it really started raining and getting rough to the point that we not only made the decision to head straight for the closest shore line but were making sure that our masks and fins were close by in case the boat capsized.  All of us were still wearing our wet suits so we knew floatation was not going to be a problem but we also had other gear we would not have wanted to commit to the bottom. 

It was touch and go until we finally spotted land and the entrance to a small boat marina.  Those last few moments until we were entering the marina were very intense.  As soon as we arrived inside the protective walls of the marina, we all piled out of the boat and floated on our backsides in the water.  Curious on lookers from the marina restaurant got a kick out of the four nuts romping around in the rain. 

Two surprises at the Coin Pile 

My buddy Victor and I frequented the area around the Buffalo end of the lake known as the Coin Pile.  As I had mentioned in the book, this area just outside one of the breakwalls was known to have coins that apparently were the result of a shipwreck back in the mid-1800s.  It was a time when all I had for water transportation was my little 13ft. boat which we would trailer up to Buffalo to work the area.

                                                 13 Foot Boat 

One weekend we took our usual trip up to dive both Saturday and Sunday at the site.  We launched on Saturday around ten o'clock and anchored the boat about twenty feet out from the wall where we learned was the most lucrative area for locating coins.  Now I should mention here that I dove with a set of twin 72 steel tanks and Victor used a set of steel 60s.  Aluminum tanks were not popular at the time. 

With the amount of air supply we had, it was not unusual for us to spend an hour and a half or more in the 20 feet of water we were searching.  During this time, I ran a compass course parallel with the wall and was searching near the wall itself when in the fanning process we used to search the debris, I saw something glitter and then disappear.  I knew I had seen something so I stopped and looked around the area and there it was, a gold dollar dated 1854 was sitting on its edge with the edge facing me which is why I didn't see it right away.  Also, this is the smallest coin minted by the United States. 

                                            Gold Dollar Size Comparison to Penny  

Ah but unknown to me the adventure that day was not over yet.  Seeing I was getting low on air I began running a compass course back to the boat.  It doesn't happen very often, especially to me, I hit the anchor line right on the button.  As I started up the line here was the deck of my boat rather than the bottom.  When I surfaced Victor was straddling the overturned boat saying "Ahab ye great white whale". 

What happened was that the wind picked up and the wave action had increased to the point that the waves bouncing off the breakwall had entered the back of my boat, over the transom, and it didn't have a splash well that would have let it pour out again. 

Another dive boat was working the area at the same time, called the Coast Guard who came and fixing a tow line to the front of my boat dragged my boat behind the breakwall, did a complete circle which righted the boat and allowed the water to flow out the back. 

Not to be discouraged, we found a Carbon Tetrachloride fire extinguisher and by shooting the liquid into the starter and other components it dried out the motor enough that we went out the next day. 

Unusual Dive Float 

Staying with my experiences diving in the Buffalo area, of course there were times when the weather was not accommodating and it was too rough to dive the coin pile so Victor and I would take the boat down the Niagara River and drift dive as mentioned in one of my earlier blogs. 

Now the current in the river is pretty swift, so much that you cannot anchor a boat and also drift dive.  So normally what you do is have a third person in the boat while the divers hold on to a rope attached to it and drift.  When it's time to surface you can easily re-enter the boat due to the fact that both you and the boat are going the same speed. 

Here's the catch, there were only two of us so we had no one to man the boat while we were down.  Is that going to stop these experienced divers from drifting down the Niagara, hell no!  Most of the time the boat traffic was light on the river so we came to the conclusion that our boat drifting by itself and us attached to a line underwater, would not cause any harm so we went for it. 

After about an hour on the bottom we surfaced to learn the boat was OK however, it was within 500 feet of going into a marina along the shore.  Had we not surfaced when we did there could have been some damage to our boat as well as those parked in the marina.  Dodged the bullet but learned not to repeat that stunt. 

Using My Son for a Dive Float 

When my son Gary turned 13, he became certified.  As he put it "he wanted to see where I was going when I left the house to dive".  So, after a few local dives he accompanied Victor and me to the coin pile.

                              Author and Gary at the Coin Pile 

For diving, I equipped Gary with a set of compact twin 40 cu. ft. tanks along with a double hose Dacor regulator that were still popular at the time.  Before entering the water, I attached a twenty-foot buddy line to a round eyelet at the back of his tanks so he could hunt by himself without losing contact with me.  During the dive I would occasionally go over and see how he was doing and then return to my hunting. 

About halfway into the dive Gary came over and signaled he was low on air so we both went to the surface and began swimming back to the boat.  As we were making slow progress into the current Gary made a trumpet like noise with his snorkel so Vic came up to see what was going on. 

Seeing we were making very slow progress against the current I suggested that I go back down to the bottom, where not only the current was less but I would be able to pull myself along from rock to rock.  As I started pulling Gary along with the buddy line, it had the tendency to pull him underwater because the line was attached to the back of his tanks.  Realizing what was happening, Victor detached the line and the both of them swam back to the boat partially under my power. 

This was a very scary situation for Gary as well as me and I'm glad it didn't turn him off on diving and aborted what could have been a more serious situation.  For Gary, the enjoyment of diving outweighed the incident.  

First Dive in the Ocean 

While I was working in the Cleveland, Ohio area I had the opportunity to travel to South Florida for a couple of days to gather some data.  I saw it as the perfect time to get myself wet in the ocean for the first time so I packed my gear along with my business clothes and boarded the plane for the sunny climate. 

Upon arrival I contacted a charter service that took divers out to the reefs off the East Coast.  I boarded the boat and began to unpack my diving equipment from up North that I have been using for the last eight years.  The other divers were interested in my double hose regulator as well as the other items that had since left the dive shops in the South. 

Oh yes, I exclaimed, I have been diving since 1956 and in areas where you can't see your hand in front of your face.  Most of them were mesmerized by my comparison of diving in Lake Erie compared to what they were used to. 

Then came the signal that we had arrived at the dive location.  In looking over the side I was completely blown away by the clarity of the water so I quickly got into my tank and regulator.  Donning my mask, I went over to the dive platform and jumped into this new environment.  It wasn't two seconds later that I was yelling for someone to throw down my fins that I forgot to put on in the hurry to get in the water. 

Talk about being taken down a peg in my expertness of the diving world.  The only saving grace was that my face stopped turning red by the end of the dive and little was said upon returning to the boat.  

Learning Which Fish Are Friendly 

It was the later part of 1975 when my company offered me one of 15 positions around the country as a District Manager.  The big surprise was when they said I would have to live in Florida should I choose to accept.  You can't imagine how difficult it was for me to hold back the excitement as I accepted the job.  My fellow workers, knowing how much I was involved in diving, wanted to know how I went about arranging the transfer to Florida and I answered that I had done nothing but if I had I would have probably ended up in North Dakota. 

Shortly after arriving in Florida my son and I were forced to trade in our double hose regulators for single hose ones due to the various types of ocean diving as well as the additional safety equipment that came along with them.  I also joined a local dive club to learn more about where were the best places to dive. 

Later when we were on a dive off West Palm Beach Tom, one of our club members, was busy trying to interact with the various reef fish as he encountered them.  He would play with the small fish close to the reef as well as try to entice lobsters from their hiding holes. 

  Puffer Fish Puffer Fish Expanded

Now Tom came upon a puffer fish that some divers, this one included, can't resist antagonizing to the point that they go into their defensive mechanism which is to suck in water turning into a spiny ball so a predator cannot swallow them. 

Either way, the puffer fish really looks cute so Tom couldn't resist playing with the puffer and in the process put his finger up to the puffer's mouth at which time the puffer bit off the end of Tom's finger.

They may look cute but, as Tom found out, they have a very sharp set of teeth in order to nibble at the coral much like a Parrot Fish. 

Computer Introduction 

Not ever using one up North, I soon learned that computers were a diver's necessity in ocean diving so I added one to my gear.  It was so cool that this little device would tell you how deep you were, how long you have been down, how much time you have before surfacing and even the temperature of the water. 

Unfortunately, the model I purchased, in the early days, didn't let you know how much air you had left.  I was diving with Gary off the Florida Coast and having a great time checking and rechecking my new computer.  Locked into all that new information I was being supplied I failed to check my air gauge.  When I finally did it told me you had better get out of here right now! 

I did a slow assent and Gary, who did not use air as fast as me, had enough remaining to cover me if necessary.  Back on the surface I told him what a valuable lesson I just learned which was that the computer may allow you to stay down for longer than your air supply, so check your air gauge as often as you check your computer. 

Charter Boats and Charter Boats

On another occasion Gary and I scheduled a two-tank dive on one of the many charter boats going out of the east coast of Florida.  We signed the usual release form that the charter operation thinks absolve them from any kind of negligence that may happen while you are aboard.  This is not necessarily true, there are certain liabilities they can't hide from in those forms. 

I see new arrivals to the situation carefully reading every line of the agreement and will sometimes tell them "What it says if you don't sign this you aren't going out".  Following this formality, you go out to the first dive site and spend about 45 minutes after which the boat crew takes a verbal count to make certain that everyone has returned to the boat. 

As they called Gary's and my name, we answered but we were still in the water about thirty feet behind the boat.  A weird thought came over us which was shouldn't they have at least taken a head count before roll call?  Such is efficiency and inefficiency in the dive charter world. 

Shuttle Boat Where Are You?  

I was attending a photo contest on the island of Cozumel, off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where there was a large number of divers attending from all over the world.  They had classes on photography that dealt with hints on how to best photograph various subject matter in the contest categories which were standard lens, wide angle lens and close up. 

Each day we were there we would go out on prearranged shuttle boats to attempt to capture the best shot in that day's category.  I budded up with a couple of guys from Mexico City and we had a great time diving as well as shooting photos.  On one of the dives, we went to the tip of Palancar Reef which is a beautiful reef off the Southwest end of the island.  The water is about 120 feet deep and the reef comes within 30 feet of the surface. 

We jumped on one of the shuttle boats provided for the various excursions that would take you wherever you wanted to go.  Upon arrival we experienced some of the most diversified reef life which gave us all the subject matter we could have hoped for. 

When we surfaced the winds had picked up a little which contributed to a certain amount of wave action not there when we went down.  On top of this there was no boat in site.  This was very disconcerting seeing the waves tended to hide our being there unless the boat was nearby. 

At that moment I was introduced to the Safety Sausage.  Both of the other divers had them and immediately inflated them so we were more visible from a distance.  We bobbed there for about fifteen minutes until finally the boat returned to pick us up.  The boat captain said he had to return to the dock to retrieve something he forgot.  Needless to say, there was a lot of Spanish being spoken between my dive buddies and the captain. 

Upon returning home I immediately purchased a safety sausage and attached it to my BCD.  As to the contest I didn't win a prize but did receive an honorable mention for one of my close-up shots of an Angel fish so it wasn't a total loss along with the great diving.                                    

Caught Up In The Moment 

Sometimes you do things impulsively that you think back later was not the smartest decision at the time but you survived.  Such was the trip to Bonaire with our dive club.  It was such a neat island that a lot of divers brought their wives, husbands or friends along. 

We had a great time experiencing the calm waters and small animals that Bonaire is known for.  We would travel out in a boat provided by the hotel and almost everyone went along for the ride.  My wife Adrienne was one of those who attended even though she doesn't dive but is comfortable snorkeling.  In fact, once we returned to shore, she and I took a snorkeling trip off the island and she viewed almost everything we went all the way out in the boat to see.                    

                             Author and Adrienne in Bonaire

On about the third day of traveling out in the boat, one of the other divers came to me and said he wanted to do a bounce dive to 200 feet.  Now if you don't know what a bounce dive is it's where you start your decent immediately and head for the depth you want to accomplish.  Once you hit that depth you immediately turn around and begin the assent for the surface.  The theory is that you don't stay long enough to experience any side effects associated with diving at that depth as you would for a longer period of time. 

In Bonaire the depths can go to 200 feet and beyond but it's not like a wall dive where it's a straight down situation.  Bonaire has a long sloping bottom at about a 45-degree angle which allows you maintain contact with it all the while. 

So, we announced out intentions to the rest of the divers on the boat and proceeded to swim over to an area where we could make the dive.  My dive buddy set his limit depth gauge to record the dive and we began our assent. 

On the boat some of the members were telling Adrienne that what we were doing was stupid and could very well maim us for life or even cost us our lives.  Adrienne's response was "If he wants to go this way, I can't stop him". 

When we reached 200 feet we went a little further for good measure and turned around to head up.  Here's where you know you reached a great depth because it really felt like we were climbing up the incline before we could begin swimming easily as we were so negative in the water.  When we reached about 30 feet, we spent the remainder of our air dumping any Nitrogen that may have accumulated in our system. 

After coming back on board, we checked the limit needle on the depth gauge to learn that we had gone to a total of 260 feet without incident.  To this day Adrienne reminds me of how stupid that probably was and I tend to agree with her.  There could have been all sorts of complications if one of us had the least bit of abnormally in our bodies that didn't react the way we felt it would. 

As I said in the beginning, I don't always relate a lot of these stories to just anyone.  I have to usually pick and choose my audience that might understand just why a diver gets themselves into various circumstances that they later say..................that was stupid!

George