Captain’s log 24540 … Today we began our first full day at the pier. (I thought I would start like this as I use to make fun of my wife when she blogged) Dressed in our best blue overalls, waterproofs, hard hats and steel capped boots we were split into two groups and learned the ins and outs of a Decompression Chamber and Control Panel.
With the decompression Chamber we went through the safety checks we will need to perform each morning prior to diving. Valves, gauges, seals… that sort of stuff. It sounds easy but there are lots of things to check. Out side the camber are the air bottles (black and grey necks) and the oxygen bottles (white neck) which are interconnected in batches of 16. After checking the pressure and that the valves are OK, we then verified the chamber (which has two parts to it... the main chamber and the .. chamber) . Inlet pipes… outlet pipes… pressure valves… filters… You name it, it has one.
After this both teams switched and we moved onto the diver panel and guess what… Even more valves, outlet pipes, inlet pipes, filters and pressure gauges . There was a lot of info given in a short period of time but because it is hands on we all got stuck in and began to get to grips with the equipment. 
Interestingly enough I saw a communications box that my father also has and remembered a story he told me. The box is made by a company called Amron and basically a woman called Norma Ockwig came up with a revolutionary idea for a underwater communications system. All the companies she presented it to rejected her mainly because she was a woman trying to sell a product in a very male dominated market place. But as smart as she is, she named the product Amron (When in doubt just spell Norma backwards) and hiring a sales team this is one of the best selling underwater communication systems in the world.
After our lunch, the first group (which included me) went into the decompression chamber (which is no bigger than a people carrier) and we were ‘blown down to 45 meters (or approximately 150 feet). This means that the pressure in the chamber was the same to that of a person diving at 45 meters. It took about 10 minutes to blow us down and it was bizarre to say the least. Our ears were popping at least every 10 seconds to cope with the pressure and it got very hot, very fast. All of us were sweaty and smelling. As well as this our voices changed to the ‘Duck-voice’ sound that you have when you breathe helium. It was hilarious. While in the chamber we were given a sheet of paper with hundreds of letters mixed up and we were told to cross off all the ‘G’s. They were basically testing our ability to concentrate under pressure and after a while the gas can make people behave funny. Any sound was hilarious and we were soon cracking jokes. When completed we were blown-up again to atmospheric pressure or (1 bar) and our ears began popping again. The smell in the chamber was nasty… Imaging a body odor smell x 50… I’m not kidding.
Having finished it was the other groups turn. When they were finished, we all headed back to our rooms and took a well deserved shower.
Tomorrow we will be diving in the Lock so this will be our first dive in the outside. I’m looking forward to it and I am a bit nervous. All I can think of here while I type this is my family in America. My wife and beautiful kids and hope they are safe and fine. I love you all and hope the days go as fast as they did today.
With the decompression Chamber we went through the safety checks we will need to perform each morning prior to diving. Valves, gauges, seals… that sort of stuff. It sounds easy but there are lots of things to check. Out side the camber are the air bottles (black and grey necks) and the oxygen bottles (white neck) which are interconnected in batches of 16. After checking the pressure and that the valves are OK, we then verified the chamber (which has two parts to it... the main chamber and the .. chamber) . Inlet pipes… outlet pipes… pressure valves… filters… You name it, it has one.
After this both teams switched and we moved onto the diver panel and guess what… Even more valves, outlet pipes, inlet pipes, filters and pressure gauges . There was a lot of info given in a short period of time but because it is hands on we all got stuck in and began to get to grips with the equipment. Interestingly enough I saw a communications box that my father also has and remembered a story he told me. The box is made by a company called Amron and basically a woman called Norma Ockwig came up with a revolutionary idea for a underwater communications system. All the companies she presented it to rejected her mainly because she was a woman trying to sell a product in a very male dominated market place. But as smart as she is, she named the product Amron (When in doubt just spell Norma backwards) and hiring a sales team this is one of the best selling underwater communication systems in the world.After our lunch, the first group (which included me) went into the decompression chamber (which is no bigger than a people carrier) and we were ‘blown down to 45 meters (or approximately 150 feet). This means that the pressure in the chamber was the same to that of a person diving at 45 meters. It took about 10 minutes to blow us down and it was bizarre to say the least. Our ears were popping at least every 10 seconds to cope with the pressure and it got very hot, very fast. All of us were sweaty and smelling. As well as this our voices changed to the ‘Duck-voice’ sound that you have when you breathe helium. It was hilarious. While in the chamber we were given a sheet of paper with hundreds of letters mixed up and we were told to cross off all the ‘G’s. They were basically testing our ability to concentrate under pressure and after a while the gas can make people behave funny. Any sound was hilarious and we were soon cracking jokes. When completed we were blown-up again to atmospheric pressure or (1 bar) and our ears began popping again. The smell in the chamber was nasty… Imaging a body odor smell x 50… I’m not kidding.
Having finished it was the other groups turn. When they were finished, we all headed back to our rooms and took a well deserved shower.
Tomorrow we will be diving in the Lock so this will be our first dive in the outside. I’m looking forward to it and I am a bit nervous. All I can think of here while I type this is my family in America. My wife and beautiful kids and hope they are safe and fine. I love you all and hope the days go as fast as they did today.
3 comments:
See, you have your own captain's log now!
what's a people carrier?!?
A people carrier is a van than can carry at last 7 people :)
Post a Comment