Lumba Lumba – Pulau Weh – Serious Safety Concerns – and a dangerous incident

[DandyDon]

...if you do, this guy will be proven wrong.

And the other guy with extreme problems too?

So who are you, since this is your first post? This member has a long standing here. Do you know about the fire?

 

[bubba105]

CO testers have nothing to do with this thread, Don. I respect your position on the matter however it has no place in this thread.

I would have to disagree with this statement. I'm a fire lieutenant, we carry CO meters & sometimes, just for sh*ts & giggles (and to test the meter), I'll get one of the guys to blow cigarette smoke into the machine. It reads anywhere from 35 to 90 ppm. If someone is smoking a butt while filling your tank &, let's say for argument's sake, you get the low side, 35 ppm, then take your tank to 100 fsw, that's 105 ppm. Suck on that for 45 minutes, not to mention getting the high end. Repete that for a few days & we're looking at a "YIKES" situation

I bought an Analox tester to carry on trips because, frankly, I like being alive more than I like having $300 in my bank account & because Dandy Don said I should & he made sense. I've only had 2 trips to use it, once in Cozumel (0 ppm, Del Mar Aquatics) & Sea Escape liveaboard to Socorro (0-1 ppm, flashing between 0 & 1 ppm on 1 test, every other test was 0 ppm). I'm going to continue to test the bride's & my tanks before every dive. My job is all about safety so I feel the need to carry that over to diving. YMMV

 

[DandyDon]

I would have to disagree with this statement. I'm a fire lieutenant, we carry CO meters & sometimes, just for sh*ts & giggles (and to test the meter), I'll get one of the guys to blow cigarette smoke into the machine. It reads anywhere from 35 to 90 ppm. If someone is smoking a butt while filling your tank &, let's say for argument's sake, you get the low side, 35 ppm, then take your tank to 100 fsw, that's 105 ppm. Suck on that for 45 minutes, not to mention getting the high end. Repete that for a few days & we're looking at a "YIKES" situation

You might not survive 35 ppm to 100 ft. Now 35 @ 1 ata = 140 @ 100 ft actually, but the really bad part is that the CO binds to your blood so as you ascend and decrease partial pressure of oxygen, the CO is still stuck from the deep part of the dive.

Now your reasoning is right even tho I think you were 1 ata off and not considering the ascent complication. Maybe the smokers were not contributing enough smoke to the compressor to yield 35 ppm, but still a risk! Additionally, the compressor intake being in the same room as the compressor is worrisome, and then there is the hard working machine in the tropics getting hot and producing its own CO by partial combustion of its lubricating oil. It all adds up and from the description of the Op, I'd expect the worst.

I'd be happy if I always says 0-1 ppm but maybe wondering if I had been wrong to worry somewhere, but that's not been the case. My first analyzer did not read out until 5 ppm but I've seen that a few times, 17 ppm once - and we turned that boat. 10 is the max allowed in the US, but some countries have dropped to 5. Both of my current analyzers now start at 1 ppm.

 

[bubba105]

You're right Don, 140, I don't know what I was thinking. You're also right about the hard working compressor, seems like a no brainer to me having a CO meter. BTW, Del Mar is using the big guy on Cozumel (don't remember the name), to fill their tanks. You prodded them to get the in-line tester & now I'm testing straight ZEROS, nice job. I'll keep testing, everyone I dive with knows what I'm about. If they want to use the tester, they're welcome to do so. If not, their choice. I test all my nitrox, why not make sure there's no CO???

 

[Trincomalee]

To Dandy Don. I am a diver that was based in Aceh to support Tsunami recovery. I was extremely lucky to have an escape from the toils of distress by heading to Pulau Weh. I worked in Aceh for 4 years and had the lucky experience of able to visit wonderful dive sites and relieve the stress. I can safely say that come Friday night, arriving on this beautiful islaend via Lumba Lumba and able to do a night dive just chilled me out completely. I was alerted to this post by a fellow follower, and felt compelled to respond, because this is a first class diving centre that has been wrongly portrayed. That pisses me off. I have dived and continue to dive all over Indonesia

 

[tyesai]

LOL, I'm not sure how you wrongly portray a story that involves a boat fire and person getting caught in a propellor.

 

[Cruiser24]

To Dandy Don. I am a diver that was based in Aceh to support Tsunami recovery. I was extremely lucky to have an escape from the toils of distress by heading to Pulau Weh. I worked in Aceh for 4 years and had the lucky experience of able to visit wonderful dive sites and relieve the stress. I can safely say that come Friday night, arriving on this beautiful islaend via Lumba Lumba and able to do a night dive just chilled me out completely. I was alerted to this post by a fellow follower, and felt compelled to respond, because this is a first class diving centre that has been wrongly portrayed. That pisses me off. I have dived and continue to dive all over Indonesia

Trincomalee, when were u last in lumba lumba? 2004? a dive centre is only as good as the people running it. are the people that you dived with back then still working at lumba lumba? it could possibly be a totally different set of crew now...

 

[Albion]

because this is a first class diving centre that has been wrongly portrayed. That pisses me off. I have dived and continue to dive all over Indonesia

Sorry but im stating the facts as they happened. I dive all over indonesia myself, and so do my friends, i would really like this not to be true, because the diving there was great, and i would like to go back.

I have posted this on a few dive forums, and its rather strange how people with no posts are suddenly signing up to post rebuttals about this issue. I believe the owners are contacting people and asking them to post.

 

[Centrals]

I have posted this on a few dive forums, and its rather strange how people with no posts are suddenly signing up to post rebuttals about this issue. I believe the owners are contacting people and asking them to post.

The owner is probably still on holiday.
It would be better if he/she comes out and face the music, wouldn't it?
Trincomalee probably did it without persuasion(benefit of the doubt).

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Pulau Weh is Indonesia, not Philippines...

Oops. Wrong archipelago.