Bad day at the office

[Helen F H]

A bad day at the office.

“Rapid” comes the shout from the wheelhouse and I drop the knife I had been washing into the sink. Running out onto deck I see a lone diver surrounded by bubbles, no signal to the boat. We line up for the pick up, the ladder arriving only 5m from the diver, but she is unable to swim, so I grab the throw line from where it is mounted on the side of the wheelhouse.
“Line” I shout, and the bag lands within inches of her head, she has now been joined by her buddy who grasps the rope and her and I haul them to the ladder where Hazel reaches down to help her climb the short distance to the deck.

“Help” comes a shout, and I look up to be faced with two more divers 100 yards away, one laying flat in the water, suit ballooned up, the other giving the distress signal to the boat. Our diver is still struggling on the ladder, so another boat diving the same wreck goes to their aid. Signal distress and any boat will pick you up. I go to the wheelhouse and get the oxygen kit ready for use.

The diver collapsed onto the deck, retching and vomiting water onto the grey anti-slip. Buckles are unclipped, and she falls onto her side but is dragged upright and her hood and gloves are removed. The neckseal cuts so deeply into her neck it is obvious what the problem is, the seal having rolled on itself created a garrotte at 25m. The zip is undone, she releases her head and it stops the vomiting immediately.

The crew from the other dive boat signals ok, an update over the radio telling us that our divers are fine, just shaken from a short rapid ascent and have been put on oxygen as a precaution.

Sitting here typing I can see why all of this happened - poor kit, inexperience and possibly overconfidence. Its obvious, but this is not the place to discuss it. Hindsight has 20-20 vision.

I had to ask Hazel “did I do everything right?” to which the answer was yes.

Tomorrow is another day.


It happens to all of us…

We loiter around gutter sound waiting for the divers lunches to lie comfortably on their stomachs, the café at Lyness having done a sterling job as usual. Another dive boat is already on the wreck, and as we make a turn to sit in the lee of Fara the radio crackles into life.
“Shetland coastguard, this is XXXXXX, I have an interesting one for you”

A diver had simply disappeared overboard, over 100 yards from the buoys on the F2 and barge, vanishing into the gloom before the skipper had realised he was gone. Diving on an inspiration, the diver was untraceable from the surface, and the skipper had to make the call, did he jump or did he fall? Not only that, but he was now in the middle of gutter sound, an area of the flow which has two ferries run through it, the Thorsvoe and the Hoy Head.

Shetland coastguard launch both the Longhope and Stromness lifeboats, a doctor is picked up from one of the other dive boats by the Stromness crew and we station all our divers on deck looking for anything. A Pan Pan is broadcast for the area, almost wrongly I feel a pang of pride in the fact we are mentioned in helping with the search.

I take up the position at the stern, and we wait….

30 minutes later something catches my eye, a blob miles from anything.
” Blob” I holler and run up the side deck to where Hazel can see me, pointing to the mark so she can steer a course, as well as notifying the coastguard and the other boat of the development. The other dive boat has divers in the water, so cant stray far from the buoys, but we can investigate.

Markings on the sausage tell us that it belongs to the missing diver, but already on the horizon the shape of one of the lifeboats rides high among the waves. The other boat comes alongside the buoy and drops his ladder, hammering on it with a lump of metal, hoping the diver can hear. No signs of ascent so we drop in a diver of our own, they were beginning to kitup so it was no real hassle to drop someone in.

Ten minutes later a diver surfaces, bemused at the fuss. Much blame is apportioned (the diver maintaining his innocence throughout, everyone within a 10 mile radius bar the diver himself being responsible for his early departure from the dive deck), but no thanks is offered to us or either of the lifeboats by him, one of which even comes alongside to find out the full story and offer a few words of advice for him.

We come alongside the other dive boat and the diver is passed over, little aware of the problems he has caused.

I’m sure there are some lessons to be learned here.