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Lost comms on a 90 foot dive off Pensacola last spring
My umbilical got snagged on some wreckage and I couldn't hear a thing for about 4 solid minutes. I had to rely on hand signals and the backup line pull system to tell the tender I was stuck, and it took way longer than it should have to get untangled. Has anyone else practiced the pull code signals enough to actually use them under pressure?
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reed.elliot14d ago
My buddy Mark had his comms go out on a 110 footer off Jacksonville two summers ago. He was the one who always made us run through the pull code drills on every single dive, even when the water was flat and we had perfect conditions. When his intercom died right at the bottom, he had to tap out the stuck signal on the line and wait for the tender to figure it out. It took three full cycles of pulls before the tender even checked the backup comms bag, and Mark was just sitting there on the wreck, blind and deaf, hoping the guy would remember the code. By the time they got him up, he was pretty rattled but he swore those drills saved his ass. Most people don't bother with the pull codes until something breaks, and then it's too late to learn them under pressure.
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