Conditions Are Not Always What They Seem
The official web site for the Monitor Expedition is http://monitor.nos.noaa.gov/.
August 24, 1999 – The team assignments for today were:
- Captain, R/V Cape Fear – Dan Aspenleiter
- Principle Investigator – Dr. John Broadwater
- NOAA Historian – Jeff Johnston
- Diving Safety Officer – Dave Dinsmore
- Dive Supervisor – Cindy Creamer
- Diving Medical Officer (DMO)/On deck Standby Diver – Michael Ott
- Chase Boat Operator – Mike Smith
- Dive Medical Technician (DMT)/Chase Boat Support Diver – Tim Gallagher
- Chamber Operator/In-water Support Diver (shallow) – Glenn Taylor
- In-water Support Diver (deep) – Terrence Tysall
- Research Diver – Kyle Creamer
- Research Diver – John Chluski
- Research Diver – Doug Kesling
- Research Diver – Shawn Douthat
- Research Diver – Jay Styron
- Research Diver – Chris Cote
This was our next to last day, and the teams were given tasks to start the clean-up and get some final bits of data. After our boat ride out to the site in 2 – 3 foot seas, it appeared from the float ball that there was little to no current. Kyle Creamer and John Chluski were to obtain overall video of the wreck for a site plan, Doug Kesling and Shawn Douthat were to take additional readings with the stab meter and to take still photographs of several areas and Jay Styron and Chris Cote were to clean up some of the lines on the stern left by the Navy and to send up our downline. However, when the divers deployed of the stern of the R/V Cape Fear, it was evident that there was a current present. All divers but one missed the line and attempted to swim down to the bottom and over to the wreck. After 10 minutes of run time and the wreck was not in sight, the divers aborted their dive and deployed a lift bag for ascent and a controlled drifting decompression. We did not attempt a repetitive dive despite the short bottom time.
We are hoping for continued good weather conditions for tomorrow (our final day of this expedition) and better luck for the divers.