The Rubicon Foundation: B25

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09-10-2005
The plan for Saturday morning was to meet at the dock at 07:00. There we met several of the folks from D&J Rigging who would be handling the barge and doing most of the rigging work both at the topside and once the plane was on the surface. Plans for that day included moving the barge into position while Barney, Heather and Joe made a quick dive on the wreck to shoot some video. The remainder of the divers (Billy, Brian, Gene, Glen, and Rob) were going to head over to the local dive shop to get the necessary fills for the day and would meet the rest of the team at the dock at noon. That was the plan.

What actually happened was that the five of us who didn't make the morning run wound up waiting for directions at the dock. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. By about 16:30 in the afternoon, Brian and Gene decided that if we were going to just sit around, they would rather do so in the air conditioned comfort of our hotel and so we adjourned. We later learned that it had taken all day to maneuver the barge into position and that Barney, Heather and Joe had spent the majority of their day making dives to 150 ffw to set the anchors that held her. The video dive had provided empirical proof that visibility on the wreck was about 18 inches. Brian and Gene finally got the call to dive at around 19:30 that evening and we were dropping in at around 21:30 with our first assignment. Trace the cable for the number four anchor, ensure that is was not fouled in any trees, and the be sure that the marker for the anchor had a direct path to the surface so that the oil boom could be deployed the following day. As it turned out the dive was relatively short. We dropped along the cable, freeing it from a few branches until we determined that the marker buoy was fouled in the cable and the tree at around 100 ffw. A few minutes of work rectified that situation and we were on our way back to the surface. We made a quick stop at Steak & Shake on the way home. Thus ended day one.

Image credits: Chris Elmore.

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