SS Bunker Hill, or "Lessons Born in Flood"

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:26 pm

"Lessons Born in Flood are not easily forgotten" These were the words echoing through my head as I stared at the "Time To Surface" display on my computer..........

No. Scratch that.

"WTF am I DOING?" Were the words echoing through my head as I drove through the howling snow shower near Everett at 6 AM this morning. After a frantic St Patrick's day spent prepping and loading my gear, followed by lots of cooking and eating- I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and headed North for a dive that I was about half sure would be cancelled at the last second. But, we got a confirmation call during our breakfast meeting on the road- weather wasn't bad in Anacortes, and we were a go to dive the Bunker Hill:

http://www.dcsfilms.com/Site_4/SS_Bunker_Hill.html

And so, I met up with my usual crew of deeply flawed misfits at the skyline marina- Dan Warter, Benjamin Nussbaum, Rob Wilson, Paul Hangarter, Dave Hancock, and Chris Newley. BJ had elected to act as Safety diver, because work hasn't allowed him enough time to prep for deeper dives lately. Ron Akeson, of Adventures Down Under, put the trip together, and was on the boat, but sat out the dive due to a hand injury. The Boat was Lu Jack's Quest, Captained by the excellent Phillip Jensen, of Diver's Dream Charters.

After setting our grapple into the wreck, we geared up and splashed in 2 teams of 3. My team consisted of Rob, Chris, and myself, and we followed Dave, Dan, and Paul into the water. I should note at this point that I have almost never had a completely dry dive. I seem to chase leaks around my drysuit in circles- it's frustrating, but I have learned to deal with it. So, when I felt a bit of water inside my drygloves at the beginning of the dive, I didn't pay much attention to it- we dropped down and down and down the line, as the water turned from green to black around us. The familiar routine of "clear ears, add gas to loop, check p02, check depth, clear ears..." took over, and I hardly noticed as a little more of Puget sound entered my drysuit through the neckseal.....

At around 240 fsw, the wreck came into view- a vertical wall of rusty steel and plumose anemones. I Grabbed a chunk of steel to stabilize myself as I attached my strobe to the line, and marveled at the sturdiness of it- I was holding onto the edge of a piece of plate steel at least 1/2" thick- and as I shined my light around, I saw that the explosion that sank this ship had torn through this burly steel like a can opener- it made me shake my head in wonder. Viz wasn't great- maybe 15'. But that actually made the dive kind of fun- it was spooky to shine my light around and suddenly see twisted pieces of steel emerge from the gloaming around us! It really struck me how much damage had happened- those of you who have read the history of her know that she was literally torn in half, and the 2 halves landed very far apart from each other. We were diving the Bow section today. The damage is so extensive that it's very hard to get a sense of where you are on the wreck, and we were debating this today after the dive- but the consensus was that we were near the break point where it split up. Viz and depth didn't allow us to explore very far from the downline, but I enjoyed every minute on the wreck- we turned the dive at a depth of 270', near the bottom, which is around 280'.

As we started our ascent, I noticed with some alarm that there was.....more....water in my suit than I expected. What followed was one of the coldest decompressions I have ever done. Total run time was just under 90 minutes, and the last 30 were an exercise in willpower for me- I really thought hard about cutting my deco short to get back on the boat, but I managed to stay down and complete all of it. Once back on the boat, I spent a little extra time on 02 before peeling off my Drysuit and my soaked undergarment (did I ever mention how much I LOVE my Weezle?) I promptly stowed my drysuit and gloves, handed them to Ron, and asked him to see if he could figure out what caused the leak. I give up. I tried. And I failed. Many times. After some hot soup and coffee, I felt almost human again- and I still have a big grin on my face- it was a very satisfying dive for me- I really enjoyed it, despite my "Lessons Born In Flood!"

Big thanks to all my friends- you're all jerks, but you're MY kind of jerks!

BDub · Post by **BDub** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:59 pm

Ouch. I had a wet deco on the Warren Car today, but nowhere near the deco time you had!

Glad to hear you got on the wreck, and nice report!

Thanks for the report!

spatman · Post by **spatman** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:08 pm

Awesome use of "gloaming', dude!

Oh, and sounds like a neat dive, too.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:16 pm

spatman wrote:Awesome use of "gloaming', dude!

Oh, and sounds like a neat dive, too.

I'm all about the gloaming, my friend.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:19 pm

BDub wrote:Ouch. I had a wet deco on the Warren Car today, but nowhere near the deco time you had!

Glad to hear you got on the wreck, and nice report!

Thanks for the report!

Well, wet deco on the Warren car is no party, either....

Zen Diver · Post by **Zen Diver** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:53 pm

This time of year wet for any length of time is miserable. Lasting 90 minutes, dry, is stoic. Lasting 90 minutes wet is nothing less than heroic. Glad you made it out ok.

loanwolf · Post by **loanwolf** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:05 pm

Glad to here you are okay, wet deco's suck. Sounds like the dive itself was great.

Don't forget if you ever need to push it you have the GF99 on your Shearwater. We would have defiantly lost a diver in CA if he would not have come up on it. He was totally lethargic from Hypothermia when we got him out of the water. Cut his suit while deep in one of the destroyers. He and buddy both omitted 90 min off of 4.5hrs of deco and both were back in the water the next day with no problems. Granted the next day they spent some extra time on deco.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:13 pm

loanwolf wrote:Glad to here you are okay, wet deco's suck. Sounds like the dive itself was great.

Don't forget if you ever need to push it you have the GF99 on your Shearwater. We would have defiantly lost a diver in CA if he would not have come up on it. He was totally lethargic from Hypothermia when we got him out of the water. Cut his suit while deep in one of the destroyers. He and buddy both omitted 90 min off of 4.5hrs of deco and both were back in the water the next day with no problems. Granted the next day they spent some extra time on deco.

4.5 hour deco?

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:18 pm

Oh, so glad you hear you are okay. The risk of hypothermia is one of the things that will keep me from ever considering a dive that would rack up more than 20 or so minutes of deco in the Sound. Deco, wet, in 75 degrees is very different from deco, wet in 45.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:31 pm

LCF wrote:Oh, so glad you hear you are okay. The risk of hypothermia is one of the things that will keep me from ever considering a dive that would rack up more than 20 or so minutes of deco in the Sound. Deco, wet, in 75 degrees is very different from deco, wet in 45.

Thanks, Lynne. Yeah, I agree, hypothermia is a very serious consideration. I have, well....a lot of natural, built in insulation....as well as a long track record doing dives like this "semi-dry" without incident. Not encouraging anyone to do what I do, by any means.....you have to work up to this level of stupidity slowly. And I'm hoping to start diving ACTUALLY dry very soon.

loanwolf · Post by **loanwolf** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:48 pm

Joshua Smith wrote:
loanwolf wrote:Glad to here you are okay, wet deco's suck. Sounds like the dive itself was great.

Don't forget if you ever need to push it you have the GF99 on your Shearwater. We would have defiantly lost a diver in CA if he would not have come up on it. He was totally lethargic from Hypothermia when we got him out of the water. Cut his suit while deep in one of the destroyers. He and buddy both omitted 90 min off of 4.5hrs of deco and both were back in the water the next day with no problems. Granted the next day they spent some extra time on deco.
4.5 hour deco?

That was the first time I had seen someone use the GF99 feature on the Shearwater. I had thought about it since they had added it but that was the first practical use of it. It is a good tool to have if you have a problem.

Yea the destroyers and most of the other wrecks down there are usually a 5-6+ hr dive if you penetrate them. 50-60 min of bottom time at 300' is what many are running on them. You need to come down for one of these trips great group. You buy no means have to run that long of bottom time what ever your team feels like doing. After that scare the boat was set up with a hot seawater system so if you flood you can run hot water into your flooded suit. Keep in mind the water their is colder than it is here.

rjw · Post by **rjw** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 11:43 pm

Nice write up Josh!

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:06 am

Outstanding report, Boyo! It's great to hear that the team is back together again and creating new adventures!

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:35 am

loanwolf wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:
loanwolf wrote:Glad to here you are okay, wet deco's suck. Sounds like the dive itself was great.

Don't forget if you ever need to push it you have the GF99 on your Shearwater. We would have defiantly lost a diver in CA if he would not have come up on it. He was totally lethargic from Hypothermia when we got him out of the water. Cut his suit while deep in one of the destroyers. He and buddy both omitted 90 min off of 4.5hrs of deco and both were back in the water the next day with no problems. Granted the next day they spent some extra time on deco.
4.5 hour deco?
That was the first time I had seen someone use the GF99 feature on the Shearwater. I had thought about it since they had added it but that was the first practical use of it. It is a good tool to have if you have a problem.

Yea the destroyers and most of the other wrecks down there are usually a 5-6+ hr dive if you penetrate them. 50-60 min of bottom time at 300' is what many are running on them. You need to come down for one of these trips great group. You buy no means have to run that long of bottom time what ever your team feels like doing. After that scare the boat was set up with a hot seawater system so if you flood you can run hot water into your flooded suit. Keep in mind the water their is colder than it is here.

I'd be interested in seeing a bailout plan for 60 minutes at 300'. Must be an AL80 clipped off to the downline every 2 feet?

Penopolypants · Post by **Penopolypants** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:47 am

"Lessons Born in Flood".

I'm with Lynne - the idea of freezing my ass off is a pretty major deterrent for doing long deco dives. Even without flooding my suit I'd be miserable. It's impressive that you made it!

loanwolf · Post by **loanwolf** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:52 am

Joshua Smith wrote:
loanwolf wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:
loanwolf wrote:Glad to here you are okay, wet deco's suck. Sounds like the dive itself was great.

Don't forget if you ever need to push it you have the GF99 on your Shearwater. We would have defiantly lost a diver in CA if he would not have come up on it. He was totally lethargic from Hypothermia when we got him out of the water. Cut his suit while deep in one of the destroyers. He and buddy both omitted 90 min off of 4.5hrs of deco and both were back in the water the next day with no problems. Granted the next day they spent some extra time on deco.
4.5 hour deco?
That was the first time I had seen someone use the GF99 feature on the Shearwater. I had thought about it since they had added it but that was the first practical use of it. It is a good tool to have if you have a problem.

Yea the destroyers and most of the other wrecks down there are usually a 5-6+ hr dive if you penetrate them. 50-60 min of bottom time at 300' is what many are running on them. You need to come down for one of these trips great group. You buy no means have to run that long of bottom time what ever your team feels like doing. After that scare the boat was set up with a hot seawater system so if you flood you can run hot water into your flooded suit. Keep in mind the water their is colder than it is here.
I'd be interested in seeing a bailout plan for 60 minutes at 300'. Must be an AL80 clipped off to the downline every 2 feet?

It is a lot of gas that is for sure. You are going to chew through just under 500 cu ft of deco gas. We typically have 20+ CCR and a few OC divers in 3 man teams put in the water every 15min. Each team is carrying around 600 cu ft of bailout. Extra 80's clipped off at 70' and 30'. With all the teams decoing on the line their is so much gas in the water it is not funny. Plus T-bottles of mix and O2 on deck, a nitrox bank and compressor, the boats 8 bottle bank, and 2 very large air compressors that supply them if they are needed. Gas is never in short supply. So far any BO's have always been right at the beginning of the dive. Diver notices a problem right after getting to the wrecks.

You need to go down for one of the San Clemente trips. I had to pass on next weeks trip my lungs are still all F'ed up from N1H1.

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:54 am

Great report, Josh! Really enjoyed the read...

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:16 am

Penopolypants wrote:"Lessons Born in Flood".

I'm with Lynne - the idea of freezing my ass off is a pretty major deterrent for doing long deco dives. Even without flooding my suit I'd be miserable. It's impressive that you made it!

When I add up all the time, effort, money, and punishment I'm willing to go through for 15 minutes on a good wreck, it really makes me question my sanity. But I'd do it all over again today. For me, its totally worth it!

airsix · Post by **airsix** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:21 am

Josh, thanks for posting this report!

loanwolf · Post by **loanwolf** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:26 am

Are you guys slated to go out and do the stern yet?

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 12:23 pm

loanwolf wrote:Are you guys slated to go out and do the stern yet?

Nope. We've been talking about it, though. The Stern is turtled upside down, so there isn't as much to see, but some of us want to get a look at the screws- that would be worth a dive, I think.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 12:50 pm

Joshua Smith wrote: When I add up all the time, effort, money, and punishment I'm willing to go through for 15 minutes on a good wreck, it really makes me question my sanity. But I'd do it all over again today. For me, its totally worth it!

That is all that makes you question your sanity?

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 12:53 pm

Blitz wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote: When I add up all the time, effort, money, and punishment I'm willing to go through for 15 minutes on a good wreck, it really makes me question my sanity. But I'd do it all over again today. For me, its totally worth it!

That is all that makes you question your sanity?

That- and the company I keep.

loanwolf · Post by **loanwolf** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:17 pm

Joshua Smith wrote:
loanwolf wrote:Are you guys slated to go out and do the stern yet?
Nope. We've been talking about it, though. The Stern is turtled upside down, so there isn't as much to see, but some of us want to get a look at the screws- that would be worth a dive, I think.

Depending on how the sand is piled up around the base (aka top of the engine room) you can get inside the engine room through several of the vent hatches and swim up to the engine. Think of the Brenton and how you drop into the engine room on it and flip it upside down. Except everything is still their it is not a big empty space. It all depends on how much sand is piled up around things. you can also enter through several of the main deck hatch as well they are wide open. It is not flat upside down it is tilted a bit due to the upper deck structure. Unless it has been moving around, and that is possible with the current out their.

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:58 pm

loanwolf wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:
loanwolf wrote:Are you guys slated to go out and do the stern yet?
Nope. We've been talking about it, though. The Stern is turtled upside down, so there isn't as much to see, but some of us want to get a look at the screws- that would be worth a dive, I think.
Depending on how the sand is piled up around the base (aka top of the engine room) you can get inside the engine room through several of the vent hatches and swim up to the engine. Think of the Brenton and how you drop into the engine room on it and flip it upside down. Except everything is still their it is not a big empty space. It all depends on how much sand is piled up around things. you can also enter through several of the main deck hatch as well they are wide open. It is not flat upside down it is tilted a bit due to the upper deck structure. Unless it has been moving around, and that is possible with the current out their.

Sounds pretty cool. When did you dive it? I almost never hear about anyone diving the Bunker. Everyone talks about the Governor, but I think the Bunker is really under rated.

Northwest Dive Club