The tug that will be used for recovery of the ADCP
Rich, Lee, Kyle, Tim, Terrence, Mark
The gas mixing
Project Participants and Sponsors
National Ocean Service
Sartek Industries
Ocean Management Systems
Maxtec, Inc.
Harvey’s Dive Suits
Travel To The End Of The Earth (or at least the continental United States)
Monday, June 11, 2001
Earlier this year, we were contacted by the National Ocean Service, a division of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and asked to assist them in the recovery of one of their acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). The unit was installed in approximately 260 fsw in the Bay of Fundy near Eastport, Maine. The unit is designed to be recovered remotely via an acoustic release system. However, this particular unit failed to come back to the surface. Having demonstrated our ability on the Monitor Project over the last few years, we were recommended by the Sanctuary division as a potential source of help.
The Bay of Fundy is an interesting place. It has the largest tidal range on the planet – they are as high as 60 feet up in Canada! Where we are diving, the tides are about 20 feet. Because of this, we have chosen to dive during a neap tide period. The depth should be about 260 fsw at low tide with minimal current. If we miss our dive window and as the tides rise, the depths increase and the currents can pick up to greater than 4 knots. This area is also the location of the largest whirlpool in the northern hemisphere.
Our Team:
- Tim Gallagher – Project Director/Diving Medical Technician
- Terrence Tysall – Project Diving Safety Officer
- Lee Livingston
- Mark Corkery
- Kyle Creamer
- Rich Bourgerie – NOAA oceanographer/Scientific Supervisor
- Jim Lewis – NOAA Atlantic Tides Field Team Leader
Our hope is with this small team, we will be able to accomplish or mission in one dive; but, we have three days scheduled for possible diving. We will send two divers (Terrence and Tim) to the bottom and will deploy two divers (Lee and Mark) as support divers. Kyle will be the acting Dive Supervisor and deck support.
The team rendezvoused in New York at Sartek Industries on Saturday, 9 June 2001. Sartek allowed us to use their mixing facilities as well as loaned us several cylinders. We needed to have all our cylinders ready – since there are no diving facilities on site. We had enough cylinders for two days of diving and mixed 4 sets of doubles with 10/50 trimix for the bottom divers and 8 single stage cylinders with EAN36 and 8 more were filled with oxygen. The support diver’s doubles were also filled with air. We then made the long drive to Eastport, Maine on Sunday.
Monday was used for reconnaissance and rigging. We took out a sciff with a drop camera (loaned to us by Sartek Industries) and a sonic locator to confirm the location and hopefully video the unit on the bottom to verify it’s condition. We were able to locate the unit; however, we were not successful with the video.
Send questions or comments to the trilobite.