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The issue we've been dealing with most heavily so far is weather. Two days ago several of us spent a blustery day at Sea Ice Training, waiting for a condition one windstorm to blow through and trying to get home. Today we spent in the lab, looking out the windows and trying to find a half-hour gap in which to run down to the ice and jump in the water. The weather in the morning was good enough for Stacy, Jim and Jen to go out and get in a few dives, then we started getting socked in.
| Shoveling out dive holes. |
In conditions like these, our dive holes tend to ice over and fill up quickly. Many past jobs have given me proficiency with a shovel, and it certainly isn't wasted here. Every day seems to involve a few hours of shoveling snow out of holes, then breaking the 2-4 inches of ice that have formed, then dipping the ice out of the hole with nets, all to clear a route for the divers. Without this maintenance, these holes, drilled with a giant augur, will freeze too solidly to be cleared with anything less.
The major accomplishment for the afternoon was Jen, Dan and Jim going to retrieve our semi-portable (it can be towed by a Pisten-Bully) dive hut, the Polar Haven. This little mission, accomplished in a howling blizzard, took quite some time and a few casualties as the Pisten Bully door was blown out of alignment by a particularly powerful gust. Winds here are a relentless force, sculpting snow and tearing apart anything not carefully fitted and tied down. They're steady enough to make some amazing snow sculptures in the lee of obstructions.
| Snow drifts built up on a doorway by many days of heavy winds. |
However, after yesterday's experience, I can definitely say it's all worth it. As the complete neophyte of the group, much of this has all been a new experience for me, a computer programmer and oceanographic modeler. The hardest part of the dive is the preparation and donning of gear. Multiple layers of gear need to be stacked on: several layers of long underwear and a thick fleece suit are worn under the dry-suit. The dry-suit itself is an impressive piece of equipment. Where I'm 6 feet 2 inches tall, my dry-suit is more like 8 feet long when stretched out, all the extra length to accommodate both my bulk and the inches of fleece and polypropylene underneath it.
Over the dry-suit goes somewhat more normal dive gear. Where most temperate and tropical divers wear a weight belt, we have a weight harness with shoulder straps and a belt. If we need to remove the weights, we can rip them off the belt with pull-cords. The tank goes over this harness, with no buoyancy compensation device. With the dry-suits alone we have more than enough buoyancy; in fact each of us carries between 40 and fifty pounds of lead to sink all the air in our suits. At this point we pull the fins on; I use Stacy's old fins with big foot pockets to accommodate the multiple booties and socks I'm wearing.
Finally, when we're fully suited up, the last steps are the hood, gloves and mask, among the most critical of all. I've decided on two hoods: first is what we call a gorilla mask, about 3 millimeters of neoprene with two slits over the ears, a mouth hole big enough to fit a regulator and an eye hole big enough for a mask. Over this goes a simple latex hood that I'd found to be sufficient for the 50 degree waters off California. Many of us put another hood over this, but I've found this to be warm enough and not too constricting. At this stage of the gear-donning, a claustrophobic sensation sets in as your face is almost covered and your jaw rubber-banded shut by all the latex and neoprene wrapped around your head.
At this point your dive tenders take over. Once the mask is washed with special anti-fogging compound (spit), it is placed carefully onto our face inside all the hoods, sealed tightly against the skin. A leaky mask is a serious issue here, where the water can freeze to the inside of the mask. After this the dive tenders help us pull on dry gloves, first a fleece liner-glove, then a special rubber glove that forms a tight seal to the rings on the wrists of our dive suit.
Why do we do all of this? Well, because it's spectacularly beautiful down there. Once we've made sure we have a working regulator, pick up all our sampling equipment, we splash into the dive hole. The feeling of claustrophobia disappears almost instantly, and soon we're sinking through our 15' ice tunnel filled with crystals and dropping out into the blue and black underside of the ice.
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| (Above) Dan waiting at his safety stop,
feet firmly planted on the ice. (Left )Ambient light under the ice. |
The other divers may already be below, their lights ranging across the bottom, instantly visible. A series of flashing strobes clearly mark the line we will ascend at the end of the dive, and all the claustrophobic weight is born easily by the water. Not to say we can do gymnastics, but generally we have enough freedom of motion to move about, carry equipment and take pictures as needed. On the bottom is wonderland of strange creatures, all new to my experience, from the flaccid masses of nemertean worms to the elegantly fringed and fluted white nudibranchs. So far I have yet to really notice the cold!
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| (Above) Sea anemone, nemertean worms,
sea star, nudibranch, sponge, tunicate, and
fish waiting on the bottom. (Right) A nudibranch. |
Post-dive, the divers are chauffeured back to the lab by the dive tenders, the gear rinsed, and the samples hauled back to the lab where an eager group waits to sort, preserve and analyze the various samples, as well as prep the equipment for the next dive. With three dive groups going out each day, the lab stays busy!
| Stacy looking forward to sample sorting. Isn't she cheerful? |