fpsndiver
Contributor
NORMANNIA Incident
On June 4, 2004, my buddy and I found ourselves lost at sea. It is painful and embarrassing to tell this story, but I do it because I learned a great deal that day. I hope that by sharing the story that others may also learn without experiencing. What caused this incident was entirely of our own making. We basically had to do a free decompression ascent with no anchor line, because our anchor wasn't where we left it. 45 minutes after leaving the wreck, we surfaced, and no boat in sight 42 nm offshore.....and it was getting dark. I was still on my 15 ft. stop when my buddy popped the surface above me. I saw him spin around 360 degrees above me and throw out his arms in frustration. I popped the surface, and said,
"Crowder we are *****d". My buddy had noticed the same shark I did while we were on our 30 foot stop and reminded me by responding, "Yeah, when is feeding time." I tied into my buddy's rig with my Jon line so we would stay together....I figured 2 divers would be easier to spot than 1......that way we were a bigger needle in the haystack. We started inflating safety sausages, blowing whistles, and trying to stay on top of the water as much as we could. I was already cold, shivering, when I surfaced. I figured that we would be spending the night out there waiting for the Coastees to arrive, and Jeff and I tried to keep our spirits up. We were actually laughing at stuff that in hindsight was not very funny. We were telling jokes and stuff. Before the dive, I had offered Jeff one of the sandwiches I made. We were out there floatin around awhile, and Jeff breaks the silence with, "I wish I would have eaten that *******in sandwich now." We laughed. The seas were running 3-4 feet, and the wind was howling. The safety sausages were just being bent in half, and weren't doing any good, so I stuffed it under my knees to help float my legs. We were beginning to discuss cutting our tanks loose to gain more bouyancy (not ditch our rigs, just the tanks-- steel doubles). Fortunately for us, 2 other experienced divers(My brother and Scott Corbett) were on Jeff's boat, and finally realized that something was amiss, and came looking for us. After we had been up for 2.5 hours,they found us, and got us back on terra boata. When the accident happened, I had the following: lift bag(lost it during the dive could have used it to mark our position on the surface while we were decompressing),reels, dive lights 2, strobes 2, whistle, and safety sausage. My dive buddy actually had 3 waterproof aerial flares, which we shot 2. None of that stuff helped them find us, the GPS on the boat and good seamanship is what found us......but if they didn't find us, and we had to rely on the Coast Guard at night................when I got home, I bought a lot more equipment....and it is all very compact and goes with me on every dive. I simply attach the kit to my wing.
My kit contains:
Signal Mirror
Aerial Flares (waterproof)6 buy them at any boat store and we have had them 140fsw and tested them and they still worked, but they don't have any guarantees.
2 Strobes (Makes the aerial search at night a lot more plausible for the Coastees)
Flashlights (that is how the C-130 found a diver recently off Frying Pan Shoals, they saw his dive light.)
2 Safety sausages they work well for added bouyancy, but tend to lay over in the wind like we had that day.
Dive Alert (in case you are close enough to your boat) Whistles wear you out blowing on them for 2 hours.......and the Dive Alert uses what ever is left of your gas.....
Dye Marker 2 tubes (one green and one orange)
I wear a bigger wing with more lift capacity to get me as far out of the water as I can.
I am still waiting on EPIRB prices to go down. I don't need the submersible one, I figure I can stuff the normal one into my camera housing. I have a portable VHF radio I could stuff in my camera housing too, but what can I really tell anyone that is listening........I am passing under the earth's sun....now.
Before going on a dive, I file a float plan with my wife..It has the equipment I carry listed, the color of my suit (black), and our anticipated time of arrival back at the docks, our boat's description, our destination for the day, and any alternative destination. My wife is instructed to call the Coast Guard if she doesn't hear from me by the anticipated time.
The biggest thing we do now to correct the mistake that led to this whole fiasco....is to change the way we anchor to the wrecks.....to tie in. The problem this day....on the shipwreck Normannia in Southeastern North Carolina.......was the hook was just left there in the wreckage.......big mistake. There is always that risk when diving, of being sent adrift on a sea not so full of bliss, but it is the diving that draws us back. We can do our best to prepare for the worst, but we must also do our best to not have to use all of that stuff we carry for that Oh S*** situation. When I go out on charters, and see divers with just a BC and Regs, no lights, no knives, no signals, I am frustrated and concerned. I hope that all divers who venture offshore will make an emergency signal kit, and carry it on every offshore dive. The kits are small and can fit into a pocket. Just because it is a day dive, you should still carry lights for emergencies and those unforseen oh S**** situations.
Hope this helps someone to realize they need to be safer, because I thought I was ready for anything......until June 4, 2004.
Tom
