Alki Cove 2 Line Run

lamont · Post by **lamont** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:02 pm

We had 3 teams of two in the water today. Two teams did setup and dropped O2 + 70 foot bottles and staged bottom gas 3k feet north of the I-beams (roughly the north end of the boat launch parking lot). The push divers (mark and walter) got out to 9.4k feet. We did the stage bottle drop and everything was pretty uneventful. It was interesting to get out on the line with some task loading, and we also did a little bit of line repair trying to tighten up the tie-offs some and get it off the bottom in places. Nothing very interesting critterwise today (although we did spot several different varieties of rebreather divers on our deco...) 119 foot max depth, 65 min total runtime for me with average depth of 70 feet.

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:46 pm

so when you guys are planning to go deep like this and make deco stops are there divers with you working as a suport team that do not have to meet deco cometmints

or do you do all your own stageing and recovery of the stage bottles

I have no wish to start deco diving but it does intrest me

Sparky

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:00 pm

lamont wrote:We had 3 teams of two in the water today. Two teams did setup and dropped O2 + 70 foot bottles and staged bottom gas 3k feet north of the I-beams (roughly the north end of the boat launch parking lot). The push divers (mark and walter) got out to 9.4k feet. We did the stage bottle drop and everything was pretty uneventful. It was interesting to get out on the line with some task loading, and we also did a little bit of line repair trying to tighten up the tie-offs some and get it off the bottom in places. Nothing very interesting critterwise today (although we did spot several different varieties of rebreather divers on our deco...) 119 foot max depth, 65 min total runtime for me with average depth of 70 feet.

Yeah, so this line- is it kind of a simulated cave dive? Plus, a marked route for tearing around on your scooters, I imagine?

lamont · Post by **lamont** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 6:25 pm

sparky wrote:so when you guys are planning to go deep like this and make deco stops are there divers with you working as a suport team that do not have to meet deco cometmints

or do you do all your own stageing and recovery of the stage bottles

I have no wish to start deco diving but it does intrest me

Sparky

for the dives that we did to set it up, they're close enough to the NDL that we don't need any support. for the push team we'll send in a team to meet them at 20 to make sure they're okay.

Nailer99 wrote: Yeah, so this line- is it kind of a simulated cave dive? Plus, a marked route for tearing around on your scooters, I imagine?

yup. for us its a way to build up experience in the ~100 foot range doing more complicated dives -- we're planning on 'repaving' the line down there out to 3k and replacing it all with fresh (and more visible) cave line, which will be a lot of added task loading for us. for the push divers its simulated cave (and since they're racking up huge deco obligation and dropping gas it really is cave -- they don't have the option of not getting back to their gas, so they might as well have rock over them), and its good practice for longer dives on the governor or the admiral sampson for them...

lamont · Post by **lamont** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:05 pm

Another cool thing about scooters is they intensify the illusion that you're a submarine. I don't know if anyone else gets this, but i own both the directors cut and the rediculously long version of Das Boot, so it fairly frequently occurs to me...

Today we were out nearly to 3k when something BIG (washington state ferry?) was probably leaving Elliott Bay making a thudding noise I could feel in my chest and all kinds of screw noises... I think that out towards 5-6k on the line it actually swings way out around the point and goes directly underneath the outgoing ferry lane, but we were definitely getting a lot closer to the screws than anything I've heard in cove 2 before (and a lot more low-end bass than the alki ferry going directly overhead at the pilings)...

In my mind I'm just thinking "flood tubes 1 and 2!"... "fire!"...

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:27 pm

I get it. Tubes 1 and 2 away, Captain!

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:09 am

Even more reason for your CCR Nailer... "Run silent, run deep."

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:25 pm

Wow!

This goes way beyond my dive limits! Sure is fun to read about it.
I had to read it about three times to understand it. Its not the writing thats the problem, Its the Technical terms and the complexity of it all. Again...Wow!

Thanks Lamont!

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:15 pm

lamont wrote:
yup. for us its a way to build up experience in the ~100 foot range doing more complicated dives -- we're planning on 'repaving' the line down there out to 3k and replacing it all with fresh (and more visible) cave line, which will be a lot of added task loading for us. for the push divers its simulated cave (and since they're racking up huge deco obligation and dropping gas it really is cave -- they don't have the option of not getting back to their gas, so they might as well have rock over them), and its good practice for longer dives on the governor or the admiral sampson for them...

Yeah, I get the idea. That's pretty cool, actually. But what exactly are "the governor" and "the admiral sampson?"

lamont · Post by **lamont** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:18 pm

Governor: http://www.scret.org/Governor/Governor.htm

Governor Reports:

http://www.northwestdiver.com/forums/sh ... php?t=6665
http://www.northwestdiver.com/forums/sh ... php?t=6662

Admiral Sampson: http://www.scret.org/Admiral/Admiral.htm

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:37 pm

Neat. I never heard of SCRET or any of those wrecks except for the Diamond Knot before. Thanks for posting that!

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:37 am

Nailer - it's worth going into 5thD and watching the videos. They might be for sale too, but it's much more fun to have Mark standing with you there talking about the dive as you're watching it. What I can't believe is how long it takes the team to dive 300' down a line on scooters... it's a real trip picturing the divers diving that whole time... then suddenly the wreck is right there in your face. Big fish too - it's a neat video.

The SCRET team are all great too - they're just as interested in helping a new diver get in the water as they are in going on a highly technical dive to 300'. Despite what some people may say, they're a great group of divers who are very approachable and who are quite generous with their time helping new divers get comfortable. The videos are the best part - just plan to be at the shop for an hour or two!

lamont · Post by **lamont** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:27 am

Yup, Mark owns and operates fifthd. Mark and Walter (who we were supporting on sunday) are two of the three senior SCRET founders that are still around here diving. They've already been down to the Sampson a few times this year, I think and they've got at least another charter to the Sampson and another to the Governor scheduled for later this year. Plus next weekend and the weekend after that they'll be trying to push the line that they ran on Sunday out past 9.4k to 12k or longer...

Also, here's laurynn's writeup of the dive we did Sunday (she was on the other support team):

This morning Geoff, Lamont, Larry and I arrived to an already crowded Cove 2 and unloaded our gear. We then got some bottles from Mark and Walter that we were going to tote down to various locations for them. After much complaining about how heavy everything was (until the boys told me to cut it out) we finally got everything clipped off and bubble checks done and off we went. Lamont and Larry comprised one team and Geoff and I dove together. After I had a bit of an adventure with my very reluctant ears on the descent Geoff and I made our way to the iBeams and the infamous "Log of Bottles" at 100ft. We dropped off Mark and Walter's stuff and continued onwards. Along the way we said hello to Larry and Lamont, who were tidying up the line around the 2000 ft area. We continued out and made it to 4000ft-ish along the line before turning the dive and heading back. On our way back, just before we returned to the bottles we dropped off, we passed by Walter and Mark as they were making their way out to do some work on the line a bit further out. It is always so cool to scooter at and then past a team that's heading the opposite way. Very surreal and sci-fi looking.

Visibility looked to be pretty solid at 20-30 ft all the way through until we returned to 60 ft deep at the cove at which point it was 10 ft or less for the remainder of the dive. Most of the time at depth there was plenty of ambient light; the dive light wasn't needed in many sections of the dive. Geoff and I came across some very cool sculpin and had a huge ball of herring or perch shimmering off to our side most of the dive; their reflections in the ambient light were quite spectacular. You could see most of the iBeams from one spot and that made it fun to go flying over them with the scooter. All in all, a great dive and it was fun to get back in the water with all of the toys again after a bit of a hiatus.

The four of us all made it back to the surface within minutes of each other and it appears that we ran very similar profiles. By the time we surfaced Mark and Walter still had 90 mins or so to go on their dive. Lamont, Larry, and Geoff hung around to say hello upon the team's return. I sadly had to hit the road and run errands, but it woulda been nice to take in the beautiful sunshiny day for a little longer after the dive. These beautiful, perfect days won't be around much longer...

Hope everyone got in some diving this weekend!
laurynn

And here's Walter's writeup:

It's amazing how many people show up at Cove 2 on Sunday, really early. I got there at 7:30 am and drove around looking for parking. On my second pass, Mark flagged me down and had a spot next to his car, across the street from the water.

We met up with Geoff, Larry, Lamont, & Laurynn, who had graciously volunteered to place some bottles for us. It really speeds us up on the way out, not to have to mess with placing extra bottles. Our plan was to get out to the hottub at 8,000 ft. and try to reestablish the North line beyond that point.

Mark and I left cove 2 around 8:30 am with two scooters each and North. On the way out we passed both of the other teams (Geoff & Laurynn and Larry and Lamont) on the way out. We dropped and picked up an 80 stage at 3,000 ft. and dropped the second stage at the Krispy Kremes (6,000 ft.). We arrived at the hottub (8,000 ft.) at about 42 min. I had never seen the hottub before. It one of those landmarks Mark found while he was wandering around one day, and you have to see it to truly appreciate it :-)

At that point, we cut away the old line, which was a mess, and started a new line. We headed out, following the old path and crossing sections of the old line. It was badly torn up. We found one 50 ft. section, but that was about it. We added 1,200 feet of new line and turned the dive. On the way, back, we added raypoles to the new section to keep it in place for future dives.

So, with the line out to 9,200 ft. we are set up for the next couple of weekends.

Outside of cove 2, visibility was pretty good. The coolest part of the dive was the clouds of baitfish that we kept driving through. They would burst into thousands of little silver sparks of light as they scattered to get out of our way.

We arrived back at the I-beams at about 94 min. and did our deco in split-fin city. Mark kept trying to find a clear spot, but I finally got him to stay still. We didn't really need to see the bottom, and if we stayed up off the bottom, the new divers went under us and didn't even seem to notice.

All in all, a great day to be diving.

Walter

lamont · Post by **lamont** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:49 pm

If anyone wants to start down the road of being able to do this kind of diving, Steve White is offering a Basics Workshop on Oct 14+15 for $175 that'll cover buoyancy, trim, s-drills, frog kicks and such. There's also a $75 rebate if you go on to take DIRF from Steve. No gear requirements, and Mark can demo you a BP/W for the class.

(I have no financial interest in posting this, but I do have ulterior motive in that I'll be needing support divers for my dives at some point...)

RSdancey · Post by **RSdancey** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:31 pm

BASSMAN wrote:This goes way beyond my dive limits! Sure is fun to read about it.

I see a lot of divers at Cove 2 that could really benefit from the introductory levels of GUE instruction. A dive to the I Beams seems like a trivial dip in the pool in the protected environment of Cove 2. As events of the summer reminded us though, that's deep, cold, dark water, and it demands our respect.

A "big guy" (I'm 6'6", 250lbs) taking an Aluminum 80 down to the I-Beams is just asking for trouble - especially if anything goes wrong down there with your buddy.

Sure, we all know that at NDL depths we could make a direct ascent to the surface if a problem developed. There are two factors that complicate that ascent: First, it has to be slow, or you'll have a very enhanced DCI risk. Second, you have to be able to stay with your buddy (potentially sharing gas on the ascent) through dark, cold waters with no visual reference points.

Learning some simple rules of how to calculate reasonable amounts of gas to take on the trip, and learning (and practicing) emergency drills with your buddy so that if the crap hits the fan you'll be able to act with experience rather than by trying to remember classroom lessons is, in my opinion, just smart thinking considering the risks.

DIR-F is a great way to learn these skills. It's a gateway to technical diving, but it's worthwhile in and of itself.

Ryan

Northwest Dive Club

Alki Cove 2 Line Run

Alki Cove 2 Line Run

Re: Alki Cove 2 Line Run