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Published: August 12th 2008
Monday afternoon I asked Allen, who is the villa rental boss and runs the Friendship Rose, if there was anything I could do to work my way toward passage to Mustique on their Wednesday day sail. Were there any decks to be scrubbed or hull that needed to be repainted or any maitanence for the ship that no-one else wanted to do? He thought for a minute and asked, "what can you do"? I told him I could do about anything if I set my mind to it and had a spot of training. He asked if I was a diver. I told him I had been certified Advanced Open Water diver over 25 years ago. That I had more than 100 dives logged in the Caribbean. He said they needed to replace the mooring line that the ship used when It was at rest in the harbour. I told him I was ready when he was.
So he dropped everything and and off we went to rent some diving gear. On the way to the dock he asked if I could drive a dingy and I told him I never had, but I sure I could. With a couple of minutes explanation, I set off with Allen in the dingy to the dive shop. We rented some gear and Allen sent me back alone to the "Rose" to make a dive to inspect the line and what we would need to replace it.
At the "Rose" I geared up and was over the side of the dingy in no time. following the mooring line down I reached the bottom at 35 feet. The line was shackeled to a long anchor chain that lead across the sea floor about twenty yards to a twisted mass of chain, cable, and rope that were all encrusted with small coral and sponges. The shackel had a huge bolt going through the center of it and a nut on both ends and another small bolt running through like a cotter pin. I surfaced and dingy-ed back to the harbor office to report to Allen.
Tuesday morning I meet Allen, the Captain, and Job at the dock. I am to take a temp line down and shackel it to the chain to allow the old rope to be unshackeled and replaced. The old rope line is a three inch diameter rope that's totally covered with small sponges and sea creatures, so I make a quick trip to the hardware store for a pair of work gloves (less than $3.00us). I tell Allen and the crew to go ahead in the dingy and I'll swim out to the ship.
Back underwater, attaching the temp line goes easily, but disconnecting the old line proves to be more difficult. The small "cotter" bolt is hard to loosen with the big bulky tools underwater. Before going down Allen reminds me to not hold my breath when straining to loosen the bolts. (a good reminder)
After hitting it with a hammer a few times, the cotter bolt comes free and the big bolt holding the shackel on comes off easily.
Back on the surface, we tow the old line to the shore to measure it. Back onboard the ship, Job cuts the new rope to length and begins the hour and a half long process of weaving the end into a massive loop that will go on the ships deck to hold it secure to the mooring line. He seperates teh huge rope into 8 single strands, each about 1" diameter. and weaves the the single ends back into the main rope-four on one side and four on the other. Each single strand has to be tied at the end to prevent it from fraying while he does the weaving.
With the rope weaving complete, Its my turn to re-attach it and loose the temp rope. I check my tank and I have only 700lbs of air left. I will have to work fast. The new line attaches easily, but the temp line still has too much pressure on it to loosen the shackel I had just put on a couple of hours earlier. I bang on it with the hammer, but the pressure of the line has locked the screw that goes through the shackel in place. My air gage is reading less than 100 lbs. At only 35 feet an emergency accent wouldn't be that difficult, but I don't want to risk it, so I slowly resurface.
After a trip to the dive shop for a fresh tank of air, I'm back on the bottom, and in a couple of minutes more the temp line is free and the job is done. All that remains is the cleanup. I reattach the tools to the tool line and resurface. The Captian and Job haul up the tools and the temp line while I watch from just under the surface. I make one pass around the bottom of the hull to see if I see anything unusual, but all is fine and I'm back in the dingy safe and sound.
On the way back to return the dive gear Allen says I'm welcome to join them tomorrow on the sail to Mustique, but I tell him I had hardly done enough to earn that and it was more fun than work for me.
So I'll see, Allen and all his staff have been so accomidating to me during my stay, that what i did today was my pleasure to return the favor.
If you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know I'm in Mustique.
Yah mon, Bequia,
David
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terry
non-member comment
diving
How cool is that?!!!!! Your diving experience has now paid off. Careful...they may want to put you on full time. If you go out with them tomorrow....enjoy and have a great time!!!!! Sounds like you had a wonderful day today. Be Safe. We all miss you!