Search and Recovery Course Practical

Mid Autumn Festival - 18 Sep 2005

Typhoon 1 was lowered shortly before we got to ABC, but it was still very windy. The conditions were conspiring to make our first Search and Recovery dive as tricky as possible. Actually it was only the first Search and Recovery dive for myself and Vicki. Tai, Alex and Joe Cho had done theirs the previous week. So it was now our turn to work out how to rig and deploy 2 shotlines, and then use them to conduct a jackstay search using a swimline between the 2 shots. We started in a very organised and prompt manner when we arrived at ABC 45 minutes early. This wasn't due to any excess enthusiasm or keenness on our part, but can be blamed entirely on Alex thinking it was a 9 am start, not 09:30 – a fact that Vicki and I complained about repeatedly all day.

First of all Brian briefed us on our exercise, and reminded us all of the danger of working with lines and the serious risk of entanglement. He pointed out that no-one was going in the water unless they had a knife and knew exactly where it was in an emergency. At this point Vicki mentioned that she had a knife, and she knew exactly where it was - it was on the kitchen table at home.

Once on board Brian asked us to set up the shotlines, and very kindly provided us with more than enough rope to hang ourselves. Depth was to be around 12 metres, so we rigged a 15 metre fixed shot, and a 15 metre top-tensioned shot. Taking on board Brian's advice not to rush anything, we kept everyone waiting and the boat driving round in circles at Chung Hom Kok Bay while we tied what we hoped would be secure knots. Brian took a quick look at them (a wise move since most of the weights we were proposing to throw overboard were his). And then we got ready at the back of the boat. At the signal that we were on the 12 metre contour we deployed the 2 shots about 25 metres apart. It was all going remarkably smoothly.

Too smoothly for Tai. His and Alex's exercise was to simulate a search for something that had got blown overboard, by promptly deploying a very simple shot and performing a circular search. The shot consisted of a buoy and a spool attached to a weight, which would be thrown in near where the imaginary object had sunk. It was all looking very slick and professional until Tai deployed the shot. Then the buoy and spool went one way, and the weight went another. Amid much general hilarity, Brian pointed out that they now had something real to search and recover, since it was his weight, and not only that, it was a “good weight”. Although how he can distinguish a good, plain lead weight from a bad, plain lead weight is beyond me. Personally I'd have thought that a good weight was one that was still on the boat and not buried in an unmarked grave on the seabed, but what do I know? I have to say at this point that I was casting nervous glances at our 2 shots to see if the buoys were drifting off on their own, or whether they still seemed to be attached to the seabed. Losing a single weight could be regarded as unfortunate, losing a 20lb shot, 2x15lb weight belts and a grab anchor would be very careless. Anyway in a brave attempt to redeem himself, Tai repeated the shot line deployment with one of his own weights. And in an inspiring example of consistency which will make him a frontrunner for the “beyond belief” category for this year's Ad Hoc Trophy, he did exactly the same thing! So it was 3rd time lucky when Alex and Tai sucessfully deployed their “simple” shot.

Vicki and I came up with a plan for the dive. It was going to be her first dive for some time and she was a little apprehensive. So I thought it best to take her mind off it by giving her all the most difficult jobs. So the plan was for Vicki to clip the line from her reel on to the fixed shotline and let the line sink under the weight of the clip. We would then swim on the surface to the second shot, letting out line from the reel, and descend before clipping the reel to the second shot. This would create a swimline on the bottom between the 2 shots. This was complicated by the need to remain attached to the shot line during our descent, and in Vicki's case the need to keep reeling in the swimline to keep it taut. Still Brian had leant us aeach tether clip each, which goes over the wrist and clips to a line, so even if you let go with your hand, you're still attached to the line. This is very important in a current or in low vis.

At this point, I should perhaps mention the vis. Or perhaps I shouldn't, because there wasn't any. As we descended the only perceptible difference was that it got darker the deeper we went. At the bottom I could barely read my computer or contents guage. To give you an idea of how bad the vis was, Vicki was supposed to swim along the swimline to take up the slack and check for obstacles, and I was to follow her. I thought she had set off, and was swimming after her when my leg hit something. There are 2 possible reactions to being bumped into when you can't see what it is. The first is to assume it's your buddy. If you're more paranoid, the second is to assume that it's something large and very unpleasant. (Of course with some buddies these 2 reactions might be one and the same). After our unnecessary early morning departure, I was obviously too tired to be paranoid, so I assumed that somehow Vicki had ended up behind me instead of in front, so I went back to get her, and bumped into Brian, which was a bit unexpected. He and Joe had dropped down our shotline to start their exercise. So that meant Vicki had actually been in front of me all along. Eventually we did manage to perform a jackstay search. Clipping my reel onto the swimline allowed us to swim parallel to the swimline, and letting the line out slightly after each circuit meant we could gradually expand the search area. However we couldn't let it out much because of the difficulties of seeing where were going. We did manage to swim up and down the swimline 6 times so got a feel for the exercise. In practice the only thing I found was an empty crab shell. Oh and we found the bottom – head first in my case.

Back on the boat, we discovered that our rather pathetic attempt at a search had exceeded expectations, although Tai and Alex didn't give us much competition. From what I can gather they'd dropped down their shotline and sat on the bottom for 10 minutes. But as you'll see, that went better than their second attempt! Joe Cho and Brian successfully managed to simulate a shot line recovery, so that part of things went quite well.

On the second dive the vis was even worse. If it was zero vis on the first dive, then the second must be my first negative vis dive. The plan was the same, but we swapped roles. I set the swimline, and Vicki attached her reel to the swimline so we could do the search. Unfortunately my torch got entangled with the swimline, so I gave a rope signal to tell Vicki to stop. She headed back and with her torch I was able to see well enough to untangle mine without needing to cut any lines. At that point we concluded we'd got as much out of this exercise as we were likely to and ascended.

This time Alex and Tai had attempted to do a circular search around their simple shotline. It all seemed to be going well until they completed the search and headed back to the shot, which they discovered was now floating well off the bottom. It sounds as though instead of swimming around it in a very well defined search pattern, they were gradually dragging it out into deeper water. As in our case, the conditions meant that it was impossible to tell what was happening.

Back on the boat we focused on the recovery part of the course. Our recovery was helped by over-indulging in mooncakes and beer – and another great day's diving drew to a close.

So did we achieve objectives? As far as setting up the equipment, understanding and demonstrating the principles of the search, I would say we did. But did we conduct an effective search? Well the whole point of a search is to either find the object you are looking for, or guarantee that it is not in the area you have searched. I have to admit that because of the conditions our search was not very effective. But I can guarantee that in the 25 metre stretch between our 2 shotlines, if someone had accidentally dropped a small car or something larger, we would have found it. And while it wasn't one of our initial objectives, I think it gave us all a lot of confidence that we could perform complex tasks underwater in extremely challenging conditions. And it also showed that we were capable of working effectively as a team, which is very important in many situations, not just a search and recovery situation.

So what do I think of the search and recovery course so far? I think it's an excellent course and would thoroughly recommend it. If there is enough interest, we will try to run another one in the not too distant future.