[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

[Alan via Personal_Submersibles]

Thanks for that superb report Doug.
I really would have been tempted to come over but had my 60th
& was obliged to be there for it.
Love to see some more videos ( saw a bit on facebook) & a report
from Cliff on how he found everything. Bet he had the time of his
life in that clear water. 
Hope Rick behaved himself!
Alan

Sent from my iPad

> On 8/08/2017, at 9:53 AM, Douglas Suhr via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
> 
> Greetings PSUBS group, Douglas Suhr here to share my take on the 4-day
> sub operation we just completed in Islamorada, FL (July 31st, August
> 1-3).
> 
> Wow, what a whirlwind! So July 31st was really an arrival / setup day
> with August 1-3 being true operational days. Though it was unfortunate
> that Alec wasn't able to make it with Shackleton, we had our hands
> full with Cliff's R-300. Without Shackleton, we also had enough time
> to get Snoopy set up and lowered into the canal for some basic diving.
> 
> List of Crew: Dan Lance, Steve McQueen, Cliff Redus, Rick Maxwell,
> River Dolfi, Mike Patterson, Doug, Sarah, Douglas Suhr.
> 
> This was my first time meeting Dan Lance, a (retired) saturation diver
> and commercial welder. What a pleasure to have him join us on this
> operation. Dan is modest, but most willing to share his knowledge and
> extensive experience with a newbie like me. So pleased to have chatted
> with him in the Keys. During the towing of the R-300, Dan manned the
> tow line and helped with comms.
> 
> Steve McQueen and River Dolfi did awesome jobs as our frog men.
> Filming, attaching / detaching davit and tow lines, etc. they were
> both in and out of the water quite a bit (especially Steve). I think
> River took a little jelly sting for the team. What troopers!
> 
> Cliff and his assistant Rick are such a joy be around. Rick is one of
> the friendliest people you'll ever meet (and even brought a gift for
> the group: a watermelon, straight from Texas!). Cliff is always
> willing to share his expertise (and sub, too) with anyone who'd like
> to learn more. I know that between Dan Lance and Cliff, I learned more
> than I can remember last week.
> 
> Mike Patterson, mom, dad and myself were all just providing whatever
> kind of "troop support" we could to Cliff and the R-300.
> 
> River, Steve and Myself got in some dive time on Snoopy in the canal
> (which was great), but I think the biggest accomplishment was getting
> the R-300 out a ways into the ocean.
> 
> Our Boston Whaler (a 25' boat with a single 250hp Yamaha) was able to
> tow the R-300 out about 5 miles into the ocean (at about 4mph). We
> were in radio communication with Cliff most of the time, though we did
> suffer a few intermittent losses in comms. When we got to a spot about
> 100 feet deep, we started to slow down a bit and at that point the tow
> line hook (an admittedly cheap thing) let loose(!) so we decided that
> we had reached our dive location. We switched from marine radio to OTS
> and Cliff started down. Visibility was supurb! As Cliff neared the
> bottom at 100 − 110 feet, he was still quite visible from the Whaler!
> His 18 foot long R-300 looked to be about 3 inches long, but wow did
> it ever stand out from the rest of the sandy bottom. Cliff spent about
> an hour "flying" his sub, surfacing, diving and maneuvering about,
> testing systems and observing the ocean around him. By the time Cliff
> surfaced and we towed back to port Antigua, elapsed time stood at 4.5
> / 5 hours (estimate). Cliff said that he stayed cool by the water
> flowing over the sub's dome hatch while in tow. Upon returning I think
> we were all ready to take a break, but everyone felt great
> accomplishment with the mission.
> 
> A couple of lessons I took away from the tow out: We need better tow
> equipment (better line, hardware and maybe a quick release). Our boat
> REALLY needs a GPS (still don't have one). Towing into waves isn't so
> much a problem, but when towing with the waves, our tow line needs to
> be measured so as to sustain the proper distance between tow vessel
> and sub (otherwise the sub and boat are constantly slacking and then
> jerking, stressing the tow line and making it difficult for boat and
> sub to track straight).
> 
> The devotion of our crew was amazing, even in the heat and the waves
> everyone did their jobs. Managing even a small sub operation like this
> is more work / effort than meets the eye, that's for sure. At dinner,
> one of the main discussions revolved around a support vessel that can
> carry a sub or two on board, eliminating the slow, time consuming tow
> out to an ocean dive site. Dan Lance shared details on his support
> vessel project, which is no doubt going to be a dream in terms of
> logistics. Hopefully when said vessel is ready to sail, Dan will lend
> its services to host a diving event! ~ Douglas S.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles