Week 6, Day 28

Today we started off in the classroom going through three different PowerPoint presentations from the Surface Supplied (Top-up) Course. The first presentation was on D.P. Vessels (or Dynamically Controlled Vessels). These are ships that can keep their position on the sea without having to put an anchor down, no matter what the weather conditions. They do this via Anemometers (wind sensors), Gyro Compasses, Vertical Reference Systems, Position Reference Systems (such as Artemis and Taut Wires) and Hydro-Acoustic Systems. It is amazing how on board computers can manage this.
Secondly we looked at Wet Bell Diving and how to manage the panel on the bell. It is different from what we have done up till now as the divers umbilicals are attached and controlled at the Wet Bell rather than the surface. There is quite a lot to take in and the checks before a dive are quite extensive and repetitive but always... safety comes first.
Finally we looked at Hot Water Suits and how they work. Underneath the suit, instead of wearing a woolly bear (or all in one warm suit) you wear a thin neoprene suit which looks and feels like Spandex. I can imagine seeing a bunch of guys wearing this is not the best sight in the world but if it works then so be it. On top of this you put on the Hot water suit which is like a wet suit but with tubes than run up and down the body, arms and legs pushing hot water throughout. It like wearing a warm sprinkler system.
As we left the classroom and headed towards the barge we each got our ' Spandex suits' and were shown the Hot Wet Suits.
Our first dive involved going down in the Wet Bell and as one diver left the bell the other tendered him (this means de-coil and coil his umbilical). We did a quick loss of comms where the surface switches the bell lights on/off and the tender blows the wet bell pneumo twice to signal the surface. Following this one pull followed by four consecutive pulls is given to the diver outside the bell and as he returns the tender coils his umbilical. We only did 20 meters worth but it was very tiring.