Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

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Dusty2
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Dusty2 »

You did good. Thanks for the report at least now we have a few of the facts from a reliable source. I would assume since this guy was on CCR that he was not an inexperienced diver.
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Joshua Smith
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Joshua Smith »

Dusty2 wrote:You did good. Thanks for the report at least now we have a few of the facts from a reliable source. I would assume since this guy was on CCR that he was not an inexperienced diver.
Not a safe assumption. Anyone with an OW cert and money can dive one.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Joshua Smith »

stphnmartin wrote:I can add a bit of post accident information as my buddy and I found the body yesterday afternoon off Blakely Rock.

Originally we planned two dives on KVI tower, but after we drove down to redondo to launch the boat, we discovered the parking lot completely full with no place to park the truck and trailer. We decided to drive back up and launch from Alki and motor down to KVI. So, we did one dive on KVI and as we got back into the boat the Aluminator arrived with a six pack and we decided we'd do a second dive on Blakely Rock on the way back to Alki boat launch. So we handed the mooring buoy over to the Aluminator and motored north.

Since there's no longer a buoy at Blakely rock we anchored on the eastern side to dive what my buddy and I call the east reef. I think it's also called Shangri-la. I had read on Saturday a diver was lost on the Rock somewhere. I mentioned to my buddy that in the unlikely event we come across the missing diver, that we wouldn't try to retrieve it, just mark it with an SMB for retrieval by the authorities.

We jumped in and dived the main wall that flows eastward from the rock. The wolf eels were plentiful and I videoed 4 of them as my buddy pointed them out along the route. We had also decided to turn around a bit early to leave time to find the anchor to get back to our boat. So at the appointed air pressure my buddy signaled me it was time to turn around and we began retracing our path from a max dept of around 80-90 feet. (I'll have to check my computer to confirm).

When we drop down the wall we like to be at the base or side of it to look for marine life. As we ascend we pop up onto the top to look for things we may not have seen on the way down. My buddy was above me and signaled me with his light around 70 feet. I prepared to lift my video camera thinking it was wolf eel number 5.

My mind took a minute to process what I was seeing. I made out a figure in scuba gear and thought, oh, there's other divers on the reef. Then I thought, hmmm, ours was the only boat on the surface. Then I noticed the diver was on his back, mask off, regulator out of his mouth and my heart stopped beating. I could see he was using rebreather equipment. His dive computer was illuminated and functioning on his wrist, but I didn't get close enough to fully read the display.

I regained control of my mind, reached into my thigh pocket, retrieve my finger spool and SMB and handed them to my buddy. He handed the spool back to me and prepared to inflate the marker. I was a bit confused at first because I've never just handled a spool when launching an SMB and it seemed weird to have just one part of it. Nonetheless, he inflated the marker just enough and sent it on it's way from 70 feet. Of course I lost the spool but he had it fine--although he popped up about 10 feet. He dropped back down looking for a place to attach it to the diver. I lifted up the end of the diver's hip belt and my buddy attached the line to the D ring.

We gave each other an okay and moved up slope to get back to the boat. We were in a bit of shock and swimming hard and fast to get back to the boat. Both of us were also confused about what depth we left the anchor and began our search at 30 feet. With air getting low, I signaled to just continue up slope to surface, and then we found the anchor right where we left it in 20 feet of water. Our jostled memories were off by 10 feet.

Back on the boat I dialed 911 and spoke to several different people about our location. I got several calls back from Bainbridge authorities as well as Seattle. Seattle Fire Department also hailed us on the radio and told us someone was on the way.

Meanwhile the Salish Explorer approached us and we apprised them of the situation. We all just sat there for about an hour before a Bainbridge police officer arrived on a small rescue boat. I noticed the 3 occupants of the boat were not in dive gear. The police officer boarded our boat and interviewed us. We gave him all the information and he said retrieval personnel were on the way and we could leave.

I've learned subsequently, in this article, they weren't able to retrieve the diver until today:
http://www.insidebainbridge.com/2013/07 ... sland-man/
Like Dusty said: you did good. Thanks for posting.
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spatman
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by spatman »

stphnmartin wrote:I can add a bit of post accident information as my buddy and I found the body yesterday afternoon off Blakely Rock.
Thanks for taking the time to tell your story. You guys did it right, and I hope you never have to again.
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lamont
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by lamont »

Grateful Diver wrote: Speaking strictly for me, I can't imagine a situation on a recreational dive site that would prevent me from assisting a diver to the surface. Abandoning him on the bottom is a death sentence, and speaking strictly for me, I'd go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that didn't happen. At this particular site, worst case, I'm dragging him upslope till I can place him on the rocks. I can't imagine a circumstance that would prevent that.
What I've heard (thirdhand, probably, so grain of salt and all that) is that on at least one of the attempts by recovery divers that his canister and loop were completely flooded and he was probably negative 40# and they failed to get him up.

That might have been after he was out there for a day though and the can gradually flooded, still that's an example of a complication that you could have in a recovery that could reasonably lead to abandoning a body at depth.

And stphnmartin -- good work doing that and being safe and just tagging the body and letting the recovery divers do their job.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Grateful Diver »

lamont wrote:
Grateful Diver wrote: Speaking strictly for me, I can't imagine a situation on a recreational dive site that would prevent me from assisting a diver to the surface. Abandoning him on the bottom is a death sentence, and speaking strictly for me, I'd go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that didn't happen. At this particular site, worst case, I'm dragging him upslope till I can place him on the rocks. I can't imagine a circumstance that would prevent that.
What I've heard (thirdhand, probably, so grain of salt and all that) is that on at least one of the attempts by recovery divers that his canister and loop were completely flooded and he was probably negative 40# and they failed to get him up.

That might have been after he was out there for a day though and the can gradually flooded, still that's an example of a complication that you could have in a recovery that could reasonably lead to abandoning a body at depth.

And stphnmartin -- good work doing that and being safe and just tagging the body and letting the recovery divers do their job.
Dump weights? Drop the rig?

Given the circumstances, a flooded loop is likely.

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fishb0y
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by fishb0y »

You guys did exactly what you should have. Since this is a recovery and not a rescue, you would want to keep as much of his gear intact to help determine what happened.
This one hits kind of close to home for me...
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by AdrianSmith »

Agreed, fishb0y. And now that he's been recovered lets hope that speculation is set aside and we can get some solid information as to what happened. I suspect the result will be "death by drowning", as it usually is, but we can always hope for more information.

My condolences to the family.

-Adrian
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Sea Goat
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Sea Goat »

Good job. Good thinking. That must have been very traumatic.
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Matt S.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Matt S. »

The Inside Bainbridge article says, "Yesterday, one of two divers who were exploring off the edges of Blakely Rock noticed his diving partner was no longer following him. He retraced his path and found his buddy unresponsive."

When I was a brand new diver, that was my nightmare scenario. I got over that anxiety very quickly as I learned to trust my gear, my skills, and my buddy's skills. But if I was in what seems to be this buddy's situation... if we got separated for just a few minutes, and in that brief time the buddy needed help... That would be hard to deal with. Poor guy.

Not that I'm blaming the buddy by any means, I obviously don't know how their dive went or what may have caused them to get separated or how long they were apart. I am just sure it feels rotten for him.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by JasonDiver »

I know that this statement by the media is not accurate for a couple of reasons: "Yesterday, one of two divers who were exploring off the edges of Blakely Rock noticed his diving partner was no longer following him. He retraced his path and found his buddy unresponsive."
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by ohopdiver »

I was on my boat at Blakely Rock tied to the China Wall buoy with 2 divers in the water when I heard the missing diver call on VHF. We left about an hour later with several police and or coastguard boats there and thinking the victim had been found and at least in the process of being recovered. I was surprised to learn that evening that the search was called off. My imagination is trying to fill in the unknown details and make sense of the lost-found-lost-found and finally recovered sequence over three days but I know I'll have to wait for an official report to understand what really happened.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by LowDrag »

Good job guys...I am sorry you had to deal with this situation. I know it is hard thing to deal with.
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dewmercer
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by dewmercer »

You made an outstanding choice in not attempting a recovery. Good work with the spool and bag.

well done

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stphnmartin wrote:I can add a bit of post accident information as my buddy and I found the body yesterday afternoon off Blakely Rock.

Originally we planned two dives on KVI tower, but after we drove down to redondo to launch the boat, we discovered the parking lot completely full with no place to park the truck and trailer. We decided to drive back up and launch from Alki and motor down to KVI. So, we did one dive on KVI and as we got back into the boat the Aluminator arrived with a six pack and we decided we'd do a second dive on Blakely Rock on the way back to Alki boat launch. So we handed the mooring buoy over to the Aluminator and motored north.

Since there's no longer a buoy at Blakely rock we anchored on the eastern side to dive what my buddy and I call the east reef. I think it's also called Shangri-la. I had read on Saturday a diver was lost on the Rock somewhere. I mentioned to my buddy that in the unlikely event we come across the missing diver, that we wouldn't try to retrieve it, just mark it with an SMB for retrieval by the authorities.

We jumped in and dived the main wall that flows eastward from the rock. The wolf eels were plentiful and I videoed 4 of them as my buddy pointed them out along the route. We had also decided to turn around a bit early to leave time to find the anchor to get back to our boat. So at the appointed air pressure my buddy signaled me it was time to turn around and we began retracing our path from a max dept of around 80-90 feet. (I'll have to check my computer to confirm).

When we drop down the wall we like to be at the base or side of it to look for marine life. As we ascend we pop up onto the top to look for things we may not have seen on the way down. My buddy was above me and signaled me with his light around 70 feet. I prepared to lift my video camera thinking it was wolf eel number 5.

My mind took a minute to process what I was seeing. I made out a figure in scuba gear and thought, oh, there's other divers on the reef. Then I thought, hmmm, ours was the only boat on the surface. Then I noticed the diver was on his back, mask off, regulator out of his mouth and my heart stopped beating. I could see he was using rebreather equipment. His dive computer was illuminated and functioning on his wrist, but I didn't get close enough to fully read the display.

I regained control of my mind, reached into my thigh pocket, retrieve my finger spool and SMB and handed them to my buddy. He handed the spool back to me and prepared to inflate the marker. I was a bit confused at first because I've never just handled a spool when launching an SMB and it seemed weird to have just one part of it. Nonetheless, he inflated the marker just enough and sent it on it's way from 70 feet. Of course I lost the spool but he had it fine--although he popped up about 10 feet. He dropped back down looking for a place to attach it to the diver. I lifted up the end of the diver's hip belt and my buddy attached the line to the D ring.

We gave each other an okay and moved up slope to get back to the boat. We were in a bit of shock and swimming hard and fast to get back to the boat. Both of us were also confused about what depth we left the anchor and began our search at 30 feet. With air getting low, I signaled to just continue up slope to surface, and then we found the anchor right where we left it in 20 feet of water. Our jostled memories were off by 10 feet.

Back on the boat I dialed 911 and spoke to several different people about our location. I got several calls back from Bainbridge authorities as well as Seattle. Seattle Fire Department also hailed us on the radio and told us someone was on the way.

Meanwhile the Salish Explorer approached us and we apprised them of the situation. We all just sat there for about an hour before a Bainbridge police officer arrived on a small rescue boat. I noticed the 3 occupants of the boat were not in dive gear. The police officer boarded our boat and interviewed us. We gave him all the information and he said retrieval personnel were on the way and we could leave.

I've learned subsequently, in this article, they weren't able to retrieve the diver until today:
http://www.insidebainbridge.com/2013/07 ... sland-man/
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by olalladiver »

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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by CaptnJack »

Sad face, sad day.

Maybe I missed it, was this a private boat dive or a charter?
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by JasonDiver »

He was diving from the Salish Explorer dive boat.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by dlh »

Wow, very sad indeed. I knew Gene and dove with him on a number of dive trips over the last several years. He was a great guy, and an awesome videographer. He will be missed by many.

Cheers to those who helped to find him. I can only imagine how shocking and disturbing that must have been. I am glad it was done carefully and without incident.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by McGlencoe »

Coroner ID's diver found in Blakely Harbor

July 30, 2013 · 1:45 PM

The Kitsap County coroner has identified the diver who died in Blakely Harbor Saturday as Gene Priestman, 65, of Bainbridge Island.

Priestman was the diver recovered from Blakely Harbor on Monday, July 29.

The body was taken to the Kitsap County Coroner's office in Port Orchard after it was recovered near Blakely Rock Monday afternoon.

An autopsy has been performed and the coroner is awaiting its results.

Condolences to the family and friends.
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Joshua Smith
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by Joshua Smith »

JasonDiver wrote:He was diving from the Salish Explorer dive boat.

Hmm. I thought they weren't taking divers out any more?

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21024
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by JasonDiver »

Joshua Smith wrote:
JasonDiver wrote:He was diving from the Salish Explorer dive boat.

Hmm. I thought they weren't taking divers out any more?

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21024
Salish Explorer took on a new owner who agreed to give it try for a short time again to see if it was profitable to take divers.
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Re: Missing diver off Blakely Rocks

Post by defied »

JasonDiver wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:
JasonDiver wrote:He was diving from the Salish Explorer dive boat.

Hmm. I thought they weren't taking divers out any more?

http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21024
Salish Explorer took on a new owner who agreed to give it try for a short time again to see if it was profitable to take divers.
Maybe not-so-much.

D
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