Читать книгу Deeper into the Darkness онлайн

120 страница из 184

Once all 12 divers were on the trapeze and we had disconnected and begun to drift, the procedure would be that a single 6-foot-tall red delayed surface marker buoy (DSMB) would be sent up. If for any reason there was a separation event, and divers failed to return to the downline, the team would wait 20 minutes to give the lost divers a chance of finding their way back to the downline. If the divers had not arrived at the deco station by that time, the trapeze would be disconnected from the downline. With the tide picking up after slack water, it would be impossible for all the divers to carry out two hours of decompression stops with the trapeze still connected to the downline. It would be swept horizontal and possibly up to the surface. Once the trapeze was unclipped and was drifting with the current, the divers would feel that they were in comfortable stationary water – even though the whole mass of water they were suspended in was racing across the seabed at 1–2 knots.

If we had to disconnect with divers still on the wreck or doing a free ascent away from the downline, then we would send up a yellow DSMB. That would be the signal to the skipper topside that there had been a separation event and that he should keep his eyes peeled for DSMBs from free-drifting divers. With such a group of seasoned deep divers, each had lots of experience of carrying out free ascents under their own DSMB. It wouldn’t be an alarming situation; we just wanted a way of telling the skipper topside that divers were separated and that he should look out for their DSMBs, as well as following the trapeze.