Northwest Dive Club

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.

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/

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

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.

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.

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/

olalladiver wrote:http://www.bainbridgereview.com/news/217649081.html

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.

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

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

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.