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A silt-out in the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge made me switch up my comms gear
We were doing a hull survey and the current kicked up a wall of silt so thick I couldn't see my own gauges. My old voice comms were useless with everyone talking over each other trying to figure out positions. The dive supervisor, Mike, had us switch to a numbered line-pull system he learned on a North Sea job. Now I always carry a small reel with pre-agreed signals, like three pulls for 'stop work'. Has anyone else had to change their main way of talking down there after a bad viz day?
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michaeljones2d ago
Smart move going to line pulls. We had a similar mess in a murky harbor and ended up using a simple slate for numbers. Sometimes the low tech stuff is the only thing that cuts through.
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Yeah, that's the real stuff right there. My team got stuck in zero viz inside a wreck once, and hand signals or voice just turn into noise. We drilled on touch signals after that, like a tap on the shoulder means follow me. You can't beat having a physical thing to feel when you can't see a damn thing.
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