You worst underwater job ever

Over the years I have a few friend who are in the underwater salvage and boat recovery bus as well as water dept work. When they need a 3rd buddy thats when I get the cal. They want someone who will not sue and who is comfortable in ZERO visabitity doing dirty sometimes dangerous jobs in wells- holes- rivers and bays as well as the ocean my name seems to come up. Sometimes its work for the coast guard sometimes its a city water supply. My all time worst job was a few years ago on and mostly in a million gallon tank. This is a holding tank that has river water which in that month of april was our rainiest on record and it was snow melt-brown and cold-low 40s. As its river water the mud settles out and when it gets to be around 15 feet deep on bottom we go to work sucking it out. This tank supplies a pulp mill and is the surge tank. My rig is a Kirby Morgan my buddies have aga masks. The mud took 3-4 weeks to suck out with 2 divers in and one on top working 5 days a week in the rainiest month on record. We had full comunication with saftey diver and each other in zero vis for a month. This job was not for the week of heart or maybe for the stupid which I feel the latter may be my niche.

Yes the pay was good but not that good and speaking of a guy who is over 50 it was hard on the bod. You need 40 plus pounds on to counter the dredge head. I wore overalls over an old wetsuit to keep from shredding it so soon. You wear through glove quik. I swore i never wanted to see this tank again- which is 40Feet high x 80 feet in diameter. The rig has a bail out bottle upside down on back and all air is surface supplied and depth is under 33 feet regulated by controllers miles away buy radio. Now again they have asked about us doing it again-And I'm actually thinking about it?? This job seperates the sane from the men . Any of you guys looking for fun work underwater-will not even need to bring a camera and leave your fins at home-just bring a suit and lots of lead. Mark

My only one is taking students on their first "open water" dives, in a quarry <_< and doing mask clear and lost mask drills.. Not good in 3-4oc of water in Feb...

But then I did it for free as well.. What am I NUTS...

Dive safe

Dean(brrrrr !!!)B

I don't do zero vis dives now but....

I remember helping out getting a sediment sample from a large boulder seabed once. To be 'safe' we were roped up and had someone feeding us the rope from the boat. We went down like this - roped to the surface - and got the rope tangled around some scaffold poles on the seabed (thats what they felt like - they shouldn't have been there according to everyone concerned, but...). We couldn't untangle so ended up climbing up the rope which was still dropping down from the surface. It was a mess! To add insult to injury we then had to climb an ordinary ladder tied onto the back of the workboat. Never again will I attempt such work. I figure that you can't have an imagination to do it!

So to answer your question, no, you'll have to find someone else (fortunately I'm too far away)! I detest ropes underwater now too.

I don't do zero vis dives now but....

I remember helping out getting a sediment sample from a large boulder seabed once. To be 'safe' we were roped up and had someone feeding us the rope from the boat. We went down like this - roped to the surface - and got the rope tangled around some scaffold poles on the seabed (thats what they felt like - they shouldn't have been there according to everyone concerned, but...). We couldn't untangle so ended up climbing up the rope which was still dropping down from the surface. It was a mess! To add insult to injury we then had to climb an ordinary ladder tied onto the back of the workboat. Never again will I attempt such work. I figure that you can't have an imagination to do it!

So to answer your question, no, you'll have to find someone else (fortunately I'm too far away)! I detest ropes underwater now too.

Summer 1992. Port Sudan. mvLady Jenny V.

We had entered the harbour and the captain had decided to drop anchor in the centre of the port even though the harbour master told us to move. A RoRo ferry came in from Jeddah and lay stern-to to the quay, laying out its forward anchor chain across and on top of ours.

Then the captain discovered that our vessel's owner had taken the ship's papers with him when he had visited us earlier in Sharm el Sheikh. The local agent advised us to get out while we could or we would be arrested.

That is how two of us came to do a covert dive in order to saw off the shackle that held our anchor to its chain so that the chain could be winched under that of the RoRo ferry. My job was to send the anchor up with a large lifting bag.

The water was hot yet the viz was so bad I dould hear my fingers banging on my mask but could not see them. I could not find my octopus so resorted to using my primary eg to fill the bag from my tank.

We surfaced with port authorities taking shots at us (it is highly illegal to dive in the port) as we dashed for our vessel's ladder as it started to get under way. The passengers later complained that we seemed to go into Port Sudan for no particular reason. They noticed nothing else! I had a violent debilitating stomach bug for about a week.

Later we were shot at by the Eritreans too. I was arrested by the Yemenis in Hodeida. A memorable trip!

And a great dive!

Sometimes I dive to check some of our projects like ports, docks, concrete caissons etc... but usually vis is not that bad unless we had poured underwater-concrete... One time I was underwater with a client when one of our floating concrete caissons of 44x25x14 meters (imagine a 14 level building floating...) approached us being pulled by tug. Even with the tug pulling some 200 meters away we could feel the tugs current so we had to get out of there really fast but saw the caisson passing in front of us and it´s a weird feeling, like when a whale shark appears in bad vis waters, slow, relentless and huge...

I used to do sediment sampling near ocean dump sites with regular scuba. We would stand on the deck aftwerward naked and have to have the crew dump dissenfectant over us. Not real pleasant. The company was too cheap to fully enclose us and we were too stupid to turn away the work

Joe

OK, here's one- we had to sample all of the outfalls in an estuary in the south of Chile, for sediment and water quality (I'm a biologist). It was winter, the water was 5 centigrade, and the visibility was close to zero.

The first couple we did were sewerage- I was on surface supply in a drysuit, but only with a regular scuba regulator & mask, so when I came up I was covered in various unspeakable items.

At one point my umbilical got tangled in a fallen tree, & I had to untangle myself in zero viz, bumping into large branches all the time.

But the worst outfall was the slaughter-house. When I first got in the water blood was gushing out like a torrent from the pipe, which was above water (it was running up to national day, so lots of cattle getting the chop). I was diving in nearly pure blood, so we had to call them & get them to shut off the pipe. The viz cleared a little & it turned out the river bed was composed of grass-cuttings from the intestines. Everytime i pushed the corer in, the water went red again with blood. When I came up there were large pieces of cow intestine hanging off my mask & reg.

To add to the discomfort I had a bad case of the runs from something i ate the night before & had to make a hasty exit from my drysuit when back on the boat. Not a great job, but luckily after a hot shower & a lot of disinfectant I didn't end up with any lasting effects.

OK, here's one- we had to sample all of the outfalls in an estuary in the south of Chile, for sediment and water quality (I'm a biologist). It was winter, the water was 5 centigrade, and the visibility was close to zero.

The first couple we did were sewerage- I was on surface supply in a drysuit, but only with a regular scuba regulator & mask, so when I came up I was covered in various unspeakable items.

 

At one point my umbilical got tangled in a fallen tree, & I had to untangle myself in zero viz, bumping into large branches all the time.

 

But the worst outfall was the slaughter-house. When I first got in the water blood was gushing out like a torrent from the pipe, which was above water (it was running up to national day, so lots of cattle getting the chop). I was diving in nearly pure blood, so we had to call them & get them to shut off the pipe. The viz cleared a little & it turned out the river bed was composed of grass-cuttings from the intestines. Everytime i pushed the corer in, the water went red again with blood. When I came up there were large pieces of cow intestine hanging off my mask & reg.

 

To add to the discomfort I had a bad case of the runs from something i ate the night before & had to make a hasty exit from my drysuit when back on the boat. Not a great job, but luckily after a hot shower & a lot of disinfectant I didn't end up with any lasting effects.

Crikey I had thaught I had been involved in a couple of ugly missions but you have beat me big time here.....

Paul C

I had to scour a wetland dam for a bout 2 weeks in zero vis and pretty well solids. It was raing / sleet topsaide and was getting more slush and runoff all the tim. The final outcome was the retrieval of 2 badly decomposed kids. It gave the parents and community closure - but I still pray for those kids evry day and I'm sure I can see them playing.

That's really not a nice job. I was also once involved in a search for a child's body. I was lucky not to be the one to find it. But as you say somebody has to do it- for the sake of the family. That sort of thing affects me much more now I have my own child.