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Lost inside a deep wreck : I had been told about a stack of stone Rum jars and I wanted to take a look. They were in an open room very close to the edge of a torpedo hole at a depth of 62m. When I got to the torpedo hole I staged my scooter by the entrance and moved forward about 2m to where I was told I would see some Jars and glasses sticking out of the soft silt.

The area was quite badly silted out because earlier several other divers had taken a look so I moved slowly through the silt cloud the few meters or so from the torpedo hole.

My hand fell upon a jar but in the silt out I couldn’t see it so I decided to turn around 180 degrees and head straight back out. I had found the jar less than 2 m away from where I had staged my scooter – perhaps two fin kicks. The room the jars were in has along with three other deck levels one whole end exposed and open to the sea through the large torpedo hole making the room more like an exposed terrace. The openness of the room and the fact I was only a few meters away from the edge of the opening had made the use of a reel seemingly unnecessary. I would go in, turn 180 degrees and come out. Simple.

The visibility where the jars were was zero and with no current to clear the silt clouds away they hung around filling the room and billowing thick yet motionless white clouds out into the sea.

When I turned to head back the short distance to my staged scooter I was surprised when after a few fin kicks I was still in zero visibility clouds. I covered my HID light and scanned around but could see no daylight. The silt cloud was obscuring it. I had only moved a meter or so from where I had been looking so I kicked back my hands falling back onto the large stone jar, and then went out the same distance in another direction. I hit a steel wall kicking up some more silt so headed back and tried again. At this point it crossed my mind to tie a line and do a search but I reasoned that I was not more than a few meters away from the edge of the ship it was overkill I was after all only seconds and a few fin kicks away from the edge of the opening. I swam blindly into steel again,….. and again,….. and again each time probably adding more to the silt out. Ever few moments my hands would fall on the jar so I knew I was going around in circles literally a few meters away from the torpedo hole.

I covered my light and looked again to see if I could see any daylight. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t believe silt could obscure daylight when I knew I was only a few meters away from clean water (it later became apparent that a storm had blown in and the dark clouds and rain had reduced daylight significantly, not helping.)

Again I crawled out scrabbling blindly to find the edge of the ship. I found myself in a corner and realized the ceiling to floor (silt) was narrow- less than a meter. Even with utmost effort in this situation my movements were kicking up more silt. I jolt of fear shot through me as I recognized the potential for me to go deeper into the wreck in the zero vis and get really lost/trapped. Suddenly what had been a little momentary snag had the potential of turning into a nightmare. I crawled out of the corner and turned 180 degrees. Upon finding a wall I reasoned that the wall would run across the ship so If I follow the wall it with take me in, or out of the wreck. I choose a direction and started blindly following the wall with my hands. The wall ended shortly after so unsure if this was he way I turned and headed the other way. It crossed my mind that I had not come across that jar for a while now suggesting I may have stumbled blindly into a different area. I then swam into something that hit my head and I realized it was too tight to continue. Why was it tight? I started on an open terrace like area, now I seam to be getting myself into small confined locked in areas??? This didn’t bode well. Head height was down to 1 to 1.5m the floor filled with thick bed of soft silt that billowed with the slightest of water movements it was impossible to move through without silting out, I was completely blind feeling my way with my hands. I had long since lost all sense of direction. I knew I had been going around in circles for about 5 minutes because I kept feeling that jar but for the last few minutes I had sensed with escalating concern the increasing confinement. Was I moving deeper into the wreck?? I stumbled blindly around the labyrinth feeling with my hands trying desperately to work out which way I should move. After what felt like hours of searching my hands stumbled across an opening. I hoped that it might be an opening I had seen before next to the area leading out of the wreck

As soon as I passed through it I knew I had screwed up. Instead of leading me out of the ship and into clearer water the opening led to a small room. The room was clean, suddenly there were no swirling silt clouds, and this could only mean it was a room I hadn’t been through before and therefore a room deeper inside the wreck. With sickening horror I realized I had indeed been going the wrong way and putting more maze like obstructions masked in zero visibility between me and the outside.

The room was very small only around 10 feet square and the soft silt that lined its floor had filled up all but a meter and a half of height that I now occupied. As I entered the room I knew at once it would silt out quickly so my eyes feverishly scanned its perimeter for any exit with daylight as I quickly pirouetted around 180 degrees whist keeping my trim as horizontal as possible and looked to see where I had entered with the mind set to quickly exit and head out in that direction. Amazingly I could see no entrance! I swam forward with the billowing silt cloud behind me beginning to engulf the room. It was impossible to not silt up when working in such small confined spaces and only 1.5m of ceiling to silt bed clearance, I soon found myself in this small room once again cocooned in zero viz searching the walls with my hands groping blindly though surprisingly calmly for an exit. I was just getting myself deeper and deeper into trouble. I found a few small crumbling and ragged edged holes, one of which when I first looked through I could see more clean rooms and a corridor further through the wreck with crystal clear visibility they looked so tempting but I knew they headed deeper into the wreck and therefore not to my salvation. After a few fruitless moments searching and with my hands stinging and sore from the cuts and abrasions created by the rough corroded steel walls I stopped to collect my thoughts.

Ok, what was my situation? How is my rebreather? HUD says all is OK, how much scrubber time do I have? A couple of hours, how am I feeling? Very calm actually- surprisingly. Anxious certainly, worried for sure but my breathing was slow deep and steady my actions methodical and thought out (I knew if I got stressed and panicked it would reduce my chances of making it out but I did surprise myself on how much I managed to have control over my emotions). OK that’s the good news what about the bad news? I am in a small room with zero visibility. I am unable so far to locate the way out of this room although I’m sure I will do so shortly. But even if I find the way out of this room I am obviously some way inside the wreck – I have no idea how far or which direction and im operating in zero visibility. Outside the room the maze like corroded corridors rooms bulkheads and equipment all waiting to trap or misdirect me is obscured in zero visibility. If I get out the odds of my stumbling upon the way out through this labyrinth is slim and the chances are I would end up repeating my earlier fruitless efforts that took me deeper into the wreck or send me around in circles again.

My scrubber is good for another few hours, if I can retain my calm composure will the silt settle enough by then for me to see my way out? I decided to sit still and test the theory. I had often speculated that a rebreather diver in a silt out might be best to sit motionless and wait for the silt to settle to see his way out. I sat motionless in the little room and looked at the swirling silt in front if the mask illumined by my HID light. I closed my eyes and relaxed. After what seamed like hours, but in fact was probably only a five or ten minutes I opened them and saw no difference in the silt. I couldn’t see the silt settling at all. I recalled on dives past where some parts of wrecks remained silted out for several hours. Could I really sit here and wait that long without going stark raving mad??

I began feeling that I was trapped in this little room inside a maze. Even if I did get out if the room it would be a miracle to blindly stumble upon a way out through the labyrinth of corridors, rooms, bulkheads and partitions that lay in front of me shrouded and masked in zero visibility.. I could be just a few feet away form he outside and never know it. I could be in some corner right next to the exit and never realize.

With surprising calmness and acceptance I realized I was likely going to die in this wreck.
I felt foolish.
I felt embarrassed.
I felt guilty.
Usually people say that the fact rebreathers can support life for hours underwater is a good thing, and certainly had I been on open circuit with the additional stress of limited gas supply increased breathing rate would likely have neat that I would have long since run out of gas and drowned, part of what was keeping me calm was the fact I new I wasn’t going to run out of gas for hours, but here faced with the horror of knowing I likely would never find my way out I imagined with growing repulsion the thought of desperately scrabbling around the wreck blind in the zero visibility for hours just waiting to die. My thoughts then turned to a quick escape. I pondered fleetingly about taking my own life, I wondered to myself momentarily if it would be better to drown than to spend fruitless maddening hours blindly stumbling around the silty labyrinth in vain. If I were to drown myself how would I do it? I decided I would come off the rebreather and just take one big mouthful of water. Would it hurt? Would I lose consciousness immediately? Drowning myself I reasoned might be better than the slow maddening torture of waiting to die here.

So this is what it feels like to know your going to die. No panic, quiet acceptance of the likelihood that death is coming and only thoughts of family and regret.

I recall reading stories about people facing their last moments on how they thought about their children I always read that with some skepticism thinking it romantic nonsense so I was really quite surprised to realize that’s who my first thought was about –my amazing 1 year old son Riane and how I was going to miss him growing up. I imagined him being told by my ex wife how his father died and imagined him hating me for dieing over something so silly. I thought about my ex wife and considered very momentarily to write a goodbye note to her (and Riane) on my wetnotes but then I recalled Tom Mount saying that often faced with death some people give up (and write notes to loved ones) where as if they spent that time and effort searching for an escape they might better survive. This helped to jolt me out of my momentary self pity and spurned me to take action. I realized now that it would be purely an act of luck that would mean the difference between life and death for me now. I knew there was no logic, no process or protocol that I could rely on to expedite my escape. No, if I find my way out now it will be only pure luck that I blindly stumble on the right route out of this maze. Hey I had nothing to loose by trying – things couldn’t get worse – I had already resigned myself to the likelihood of dieing here.

Blindly, methodically, calmly I ran my hands around the room walls once more, searching high and low around the room not even caring to keep a fins up position – there was no point the room couldn't get any siltier it was like being buried in mud. I felt two openings edged with crumbling metal. Both were too small to have been the way I came in. My hands eventually found another slightly bigger hole. This one was possibly just big enough to get through at a squeeze – but as I didn’t recall any squeeze to get in I kept looking. In one corner of the room I my hands finally found what felt like a bigger hole. I reached my arm up through the hideous swirling silt that engulfed me and filled every corner of my vision and flailed it around to see how big the hole was. It was big enough to be the way id entered; I decided to chance my luck. I was conscious of the fact that I could be just going deeper into the wreck and reducing my chances of ever finding my way out even further but I had put my faith in luck and had little choice. Also it was bad enough being lost and blind in the maze but that little room felt far too much like a coffin to me, if Im going to die id rather not do it in that little room. As I moved out of the room thorough my newfound hole I was reassured to see that the vis was still zero outside it. I reasoned that this meant I was in an area I had been in before on my way into the wreck. Counter intuitively I reasoned that the silt that so far was doing its best to get me killed could now actually save me for as long as I kept swimming into silted out areas then I would be heading out of the wreck into areas that I had silted by my movements upon the way in, and not clean siltless areas further into the wreck. I kicked forward blindly, the back of my unit scraped a few times against the ceiling, at times I was squeezing between the gap of ceiling to silt of less than a meter. I kept moving straight with increasing confidence as I was passing through still billowing silt clouds. I swam straight into a bulkhead cutting my head on the ceiling, or was it a room divider or corner of a room. I had a wall of some kind to my left. In this visibility I could be within feet of the outside but not be aware – I tried not to think about that. Swimming cautiously forward one hand extended my hands felt a bulkhead infront of me and found an opening, little more than a two feet wide, I couldn’t have come that way. Next to the opening I could feel another wider one with a kind of frame between them. This jogged my memory I vaguely recalled seeing an opening like this earlier leading to the torpedo hole so I squeezed through into more zero visibility and moved in what I hoped was a forward direction. I sensed that I was moving into a less constricted area; certainly the headroom was higher. Just as I had been doing all along but so far to no avail I covered my HID light to see if I could see natural light and suddenly joyously I could see a faint but glorious line of dark blue off to my left. I kicked forward and literally screamed into my mouthpiece as the silt slowly cleared and the dark blue line took shape and crystallized as the large opening of the wreck. I was out!!! YYEEEESSSS!!!!!!!

I will never forget the feeling of knowing I was going to make it. I was ecstatic and very very relieved. . I deliberately hadn’t attempted to look at my VR3 from the moment I got lost, as I knew the time stress wouldn’t help, although in all likeliness I wouldn’t have been able to read the display in the silty soup even if id wanted to. I was quite surprised to see that I had only been lost in the wreck for 32 mins all that time spent at 62m in absolute zero visibility.

I considered just how quickly ones thoughts can turn to those of death and how quickly actions and reactions come into play to possibly end ones life.

I swam up to the top of the wreck at 54m but then remembered that I had left my scooter at the opening. I dropped back down to the opening at 62m and realized I had to swim back into the still as thick as ever silt cloud to recover it. This time taking no chances I used a line to locate it. It sickened me to reenter that zero visibility again but the scoter was where I had left it, around 2m from the edge of the wreck and just a couple of meters from where I was looking for the jars. I clipped it on and headed on up.

The lessons learnt are obvious…..still I cant help but wonder if I would have made it out alive had I been on OC?

Dr Mike

Lost inside a deep wreck

Stuck inside a wreck

Running out of Oxygen (low ppo2) : I like to talk about my screw ups. I think there's good lessons to learn from peoples screw ups so don't mind sharing them. If people want to think Im an ass it doesn't bother me. I hope the following is useful.

This is my first ever real screw up on the Ouroboros. As is often the case this screw up was not just one mistake but a combination of mistakes and situations that came together.

The mistakes that led to this incident actually started a week ago after my last trip. I noticed my neck seal on my dedicated off board O2 tank was leaking a bit so when I got home I replaced the seal. Not wanting to fill the tank back with 'expensive' O2 only to find it still leaking I decided to test the seal using air. I put some air into the tank checked for leaks and found none.

Fast forward a week to the morning I left for the trip. I got together all my offboard and onboard tanks and took them to my workshop for filling. I filled the on-board O2 to 120 bar and the off-board O2 to the same from the same source. This is where the first mistake came in. As I have dedicated offboard O2 tank that only ever has O2 in it over the years Ive got into the very bad habit of not analysing it. I analyse my on-board O2 so I can calibrate my unit by as that tank is filled from the same source as my off-board O2 tank (which only ever has O2 in it, *normally, see above) I have got into the bad habit of thinking there is no need to analyse both tanks. As you have probably guessed by now my 1st mistake was I didnt bleed the air out of the offboard O2 tank.

Ok two days ago we found this really great new wreck. A big cargo ship with intact superstructure sat almost upright in 60m of water. I had a great time inside the cavernous superstructure. The engine room was particularly nice as it was not silty and the visibility was really the best Ive seen in South China Seas in a long time. As is my habit I dived with my off-board O2 plugged in and turned on. This is because I only get 120bar fills so the little onboard 2L is not enough. During the dive I was not surprised when the unit alerted me to low HP O2 but wasnt concerned as I knew it would be drawing O2 from the larger offboard tank as well so I had plenty of O2 for the dive.

The dive over I began my ascent. The currents were totally screaming now and the upline was bouncing up and down several meters. I was being thrown around like a rag doll. It took quite some time for me to get my Jon line out and secure it, my arms burning with the effort. Finally with the Jon line clipped to me I could relax a little more but still the swell was throwing me all over the place.

I think it was towards the end of my 9m stop that I saw my ppo2 was dropping (green light on hud not working so noticed on my secondary) I pressed the manual O2 injector and realised immediately that no gas was going through it. I scrolled to the SUM screen and saw the on-board O2 was zero bar. I was a little surprised at this (and a bit concerned) seeing as my offboard was plumbed in and turned on, it should be drawing gas from both. I checked the swagelock was fully in, it was. I checked the offboard O2 tank valve was open, it was. But it was not fully open. These valves have to be right open they stick a bit and sometimes can catch you out when you think its open but its not. This was the second mistake - the valve was not open enough. It hadnt been feeding off board O2 and basically the solenoid had sucked the onboard tank dry without taking anything from the off-board.

No problem I thought as I opened the valve fully and flushed some O2 in.
Then I saw the ppo2 drop even faster! Now I was confused. I flushed some more of the offboard O2 in and still the ppo2 was dropping.
I unclipped my offboard tanks and verified I had them the right way around. I even flushed in some of the bottom bail gas to make sure I had the tanks the right way around and to verify the cells were reading correct. I moved up to my 6m stop and did a full flush. It showed I had 40% in my offboard O2 tank. Ok no problem I figured. Ill just do longer deco. I set the unit setpoint to 0.5 then changed my VR3 setpoint to the same. I saw the TTS jump to 86 mins! Oh well.

I wondered if I had enough off board 40% to do 86 mins of deco? Soon find out I guess.

With my scooter tailing behind me in the strong current I tucked my head down and rode it out. The line bucked and flapped me around like a rag doll. It was not fun.

Finally it was time to ascend. I knew I would face problems on the surface with the setpoint controller seeing as the lowest setpoint the unit will run is 0.4 which is what I had in my offboard. I figured it would just keep injecting - which I figured was Ok as I would be on the surface anyway and based on how much the line was bucking I knew it would be a rough ride and checking handsets (green light on hud not working) can be impossible at times with bad surface conditions. Anyway I reached the surface and couldnt believe what I saw. Every divers worse nightmare. We were in the middle of a tropical storm.

Waves at least 6 feet in height raging currents screaming wind and visibility down to a few meters with the driving rain and sea spray. The dive boat was crashing up and down with the huge swells. With the CL filling up with 40% I made a grab for the trail line and hung on. The crew pulled the line in closer to the boat but it was too dangerous for me to get to close for fear of it coming down on me in the swells. My scooter was dead drag behind me. Hanging on with one arm I dragged it forward and somehow managed to pass it up to a crew member at a moment when the rear of the boat was within reach. As is my habit when in this kind of condition and especially when hanging on with the left arm and unclipping gear with the right on the surface I manually inject O2 rather than worry about checking the displays so whenever I could I did the same thing here.

I was taking a real pounding. The waves and swell were dragging me up and down. At one stage they took me under the dive boat as it raised on a swell and it almost took me out as it crashed back down again. It was quite an ordeal. I was puffing, I was exhausted, my arms were killing me from hanging on. I unclipped my bottom bail gas and managed to pass that up during the slightest pause in the swell. Then a few moments later I managed to pass up the off board O2. As I did so I lost my grip as the swell yanked the trail line out of my hand. I managed to grab it again with my now cut and bleeding hand but had drifted some ways back. I pulled and pulled struggling along the line back to the boat. Puffing and panting arms and legs burning from the effort I had to wait for the right moment to get the center ladder that was the Christmas tree design that you could climb wearing fins. There was no way I was going to be able to take my fins off in the water.

Still hanging on for dear life and now needing both hands to hold on I checked to see the blue light came on ever few moments (the blue and white lights are the only ones that are working). That reassured me the unit was firing in 40% and the loop would be breathable. I would have fired the adv to flush with breathable gas but my dil was 10/50 so that wasnt an option.
I got to the ladder but the swell pulled me off it. I tried again and again. I was growing exhausted. Finally I saw my chance at a pause in the swell and made a rush for it. I pulled myself up the ladder exhausted and fighting to get enough air in my lungs. As soon as I was out of the water and there was no risk of me falling back in, I ripped out my mouthpiece and gulped back lung fulls of sweet fresh air.

I walked across to the bench and sat down. Before I even took my facemask off I glanced down at my secondary display to see, for curiosities sake just what my loop ppo2 was. I knew it wouldnt be high but figured it would be around 0.2-0.3

It was 0.09

Yes 9%.

I was stunned. Then of course I realised my third mistake.
Normally when I pass up my off board O2 tank there is still O2 in my on board for the solenoid to fire into the loop. In this case I had emptied my onboard O2 (due to the fact the offboard tank had been closed) so from the moment I passed up my offboard O2 tank to the moment I got onto the boat I had just been breathing down the loop. Even though I could see the blue hud light come on no fresh gas was being added because the onboard was empty and the offboard passed up. That might not have been so bad had I been starting with a loop ppo2 of 1.0, but because of mistake no.1 my starting loop ppo2 was 0.4

There were a lot of lessons learnt on this dive.

In future I will certainly analyse both my O2 tanks and not just one and assume the other is the same just because its a dedicated O2 tank that normally never has anything but O2 out in it.

I will open my off-board O2 tank valve fully all the way.

If for some reason I end up with an empty onboard o2 tank in the future I will not pass up the offboard o2 tank but will carry it up the ladder instead

I will get that hud fixed.

I was surprised that I didnt pass out breathing only 9%. If I had done whilst climbing the ladder with those sea conditions I hate to think what would have happened.

My booster arrives next week so no more low pressure O2 fills

Running out of Oxygen (low ppo2)

Lost in a cave : A heavy rainstorm had washed masses of red clay and soil into the small head pool turning the visibility to zero. I was laying on a submerged tree trunk at 5m depth and had just begun my last and longest stop. 2 hours to go on a dive that had taken me almost 200m deep in a cave. I was bored. I had magazines to read but I couldn’t see them clearly in the bad visibility even with my scout light. My HID light only having a 4 hour burn time had long since run flat.

I looked at my VR3. What felt like an hour later I looked at my VR3 and only a few minutes had passed. I was bored.

I decided I would make my way over to the habitat to grab some water and food – it was something to do and would help the time pass. The habitat was at 6m and the dead tree it was tied to was about 10 feet away, although I couldn’t see it in the bad visibility. I reasoned that I knew very well where it was in relation to the tree I was laying on so I left the tree and swam blindly, hands out stretched, the short distance to the habitat.

I never found it.

Conscious of the fact I still had 1hour and 45mins of deco to do I was careful to maintain my depth. I quickly realised my rookie mistake. I was lost somewhere between the habitat and the tree I had been decoing out on. I decided the best thing to do would be to swim sideways and make contact with the bank of the head pool then I could choose to feel my way along the bank and find the trees or just stay there and finish the deco. I reached the bank maintaining my deco depth and found it to be made up of a thick covering of soft clay over loose rock and tree roots. I made myself comfortable and continued my deco.

I was bored.

I decided to try to find the main tree as it was more comfortable laying on the tree so I began moving to the right keeping my hands on the bank as I moved blindly through the red clay coloured soup. I was in the vertical position due to tiredness and poorly trimmed gear. Previously I had been carrying four bail tanks I had placed a lot of lead at the top of my unit to trim it out so I was quite heavy. Suddenly one of the three holes in my Jet-fin caught on a submerged tree branch below me masked in the silt-out and held my fin fast. I pulled and pulled but it was on really tight. The only way to free it seemed to me to be to remove it from my foot then swim down and pull it off the branch.

Previously when I reached 6m and the habitat I had removed all my deep bailout tanks and I only had O2 left on my unit (dil was isolated). I inverted myself and began tugging on the fin, which came free suddenly. I fumbled and it dropped out of my hands sinking quickly down into the murky headpool. I immediately dived after it as the HUD alarm started vibrating and lights started flashing I realized that with pure O2 in the loop I was in danger of spiking the ppo2 very high if I went after it without stopping turning on the dil. Damn, hesitation, too late. In an instant it was lost.

With one fin now I continued my deco gripping the roots and rocks on the bank of the head pool.

The water visibility combined with the fact it had become nighttime meant I couldnt really read my displays well at all.

After a while I decided to try to find the tree again so I began moving along the bank once more keeping a good grip as I went. I was a bit negative, as I had vented my wing to try to free my fin, which was not a problem as I was literately hanging on to the roots, but as a bunch of roots broke free I realized I had run out of inflation gas as I tried unsuccessfully to get myself neutral. I sank a little then kicking strongly with one fin and in the vertical position I managed to get back to, and find a grip on, the bank.

Taking stock now, I had only one fin, no inflation gas, still with an hour of deco left to do.

I relaxed and continued my deco.

The rest of the deco went by quite quickly and finally it was time to ascend to the surface.
I was happy. I congratulated myself on having completed and survived a challenging sub 160m cave dive with such visibility.

The only thing left was to see if upon surfacing I would get some DCS but at least I had completed the dive alive. My heart filled with joy and anticipation as I prepared for my slow ascent to the surface.

I usually ascend very very slowly from 6m up on O2 then stay on the surface breathing O2 for a while before de-gearing in the water. The idea is to have no physical stress.

The first problem I realized was I was sinking. I only had one fin and no inflation gas so my plan for a slow controlled stress free ascend didn’t look likely. I began to one legged fin my way upwards, conscious of the fact I was working my leg hard which was not a good idea. The head pool being quiet small it didn’t really matter where I ascended from. I could feel the increased rate of pressure change in the water by my ears I knew I was getting close to the surface. My low pressure O2 alarm had been going off for quiet a while so I knew I was practically out of O2. I amused myself with the thought that I would be showing the guys all zero contents gauges on all my tanks after the dive. It crossed my mind that I only just had enough supplies, including scrubber life, to finish this dive when I did and not a minute longer. I was close to the surface now but as it was nighttime and the water visibility bad I still couldn’t see anything at all. Any minute I knew I would break through the silent solitude of the water and see the night stars twinkling down on me.

I hit my head on something hard.

I figured it was a shallow tree branch or something so I reached up to push myself away from it but what my hands felt sent a jolt of unadulterated fear screaming down my spine. Rock.

Above my head my hands feverously felt across to the left to the right all around. Above me was something that just couldn’t possible be there and the last thing I expected to encounter during my ascent from 6m in this small head pool.

I was inside a cave.

How can that possibly be??

I checked my depth. I was at 3m.

This is not good I said to myself as I suppressed the rising fear and panicked thoughts. I knew from experiences in the past that I had to and that I could stay calm if I wanted to live.

I assessed the situation.

-No wing inflation.
-Almost no dilutant
-No O2 (it was maybe 10 bar left in a 2L)!
-No bailout (I had staged it as I was decoing on O2)
-Only one fin
-Lost inside a cave with no line and no idea which direction to take
-8 hours on scrubber so no idea if its going to run out any moment
-zero visibility

This was not good.

My happy anticipation of surfacing had so suddenly and violently turned into shear horror as I realized the potential of the situation to end my life.

I realized that there must be a shallow opening in the head pool that we had not seen before and that I had stumbled into it in the zero vis whilst I was feeling my way around the edges of the head pool. In never crossed my mind to use a line as I was feeling around the bank of the head pool because It never crossed my mind there would be an opening.

I had no idea how far into the cave I had gone, or what direction. The visibility at all times being just a few inches my little scout light was practically useless in these conditions.

I took a moment to calm myself then began to feel around. The roof was smooth and flat with nowhere to tie of a search line. I couldn’t descend to find a tie off point as I had no inflation gas - I needed to preserve what was in my wing if I could. Even though I was calm I had to be quick as I knew I only had 10 bar or so of O2 left and I had long since been pushing my luck with the exhausted scrubber.

I needed to get a feel for the shape of the cave. I felt around and realized there was a parallel wall. I decided there and then Id have one chance at this. I would choose a direction, left or right. If I chose incorrectly I knew I probably wouldn’t make it. Exerting as I had to, negative with only one fin, I knew Id burn through the O2 and that my luck with the exhausted scrubber would quickly end.

I turned left and kicking with one fin in the vertical position I clawed my way blindly along the cave wall feeling with my hand

Suddenly I was entangled in what felt like fishing net. It as all over me, thick and grabbing. Keeping calm untangling myself I pulled myself back out of it as I considered what I had done to anger the gods so. It felt like a curtain hanging down across the cave. I figured it could be some netting the locals had dropped into the head pool or maybe tree roots. I tried to get through it again but it was very difficult. I dropped a bit deeper and pulled myself under the curtain hoping that they were tree roots and that this would signify the end of the cave.

I swam forward a little way and reached again for the cave wall but didn’t find it. Blind, no sense of direction, vertical in the water kicking hard with one fin to maintain my depth, I have never felt so hopeless and small. I kicked forward some more then decided to try to find the cave wall or ceiling again. I went to my right but after a few moments nothing. I couldn’t see anything. I decided to try for luck and ascent again hoping beyond hope that my up stretched hand would not find unforgiving rock again. I kicked and kicked then so suddenly and joyously my hands broke through to fresh air! A cry went up from the bank, lights danced across me. Luckily I was near an overhanging tree that I grabbed as I began sinking back down. I ripped off my face mask and through pants of trying to get my breath back orally inflated my wing. So much for a stress free ascent. Pains shot through my knee as I cried out in agony. I was alive and I was on the surface – but I was in pain. Fuck fuck fuck I cried as the support divers came running.

In between my shouts of relief were cries of pain. I was not able to swim my knee was too painful. I dragged myself over to the shallow bank and pushed myself along the bank sat on my backside to the exit point where the guys de-geared me and put me on O2.

Within twenty minutes the knee pain went away and I was actually feeling quite OK.

Lessons learnt?

1) A dive is NOT over until you are on the surface!! I should have kept some other bailout/inflation gas
2) I should have stayed still and not left the safety of the tree without using a line
3) Even a small head pool is not a safe place to go wandering around with no line

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