Underwater Magazine - July/August 2014 - (Page 36)

navy Seabee Divers Comple Deep Water Mooring Inspections By COnStruCtIOn eLeCtrICIAn CHIeF (SCW/ MDV) terenCe JuerGenS APRA HARBoR, GUAM DAILy rainsqualls, howling winds, intense heat and crystal clear water. These were some of the conditions encountered by Underwater Construction Team TWO's, Construction Diving Detachment CHARLIE (CDD/C) during the second stop of a 6-month deployment in the PACOM AOR. Arriving via C-130 cargo transport 10 members of CDD/C hit the ground running. With no time to spare and half of their required gear still awaiting transport in Diego Garcia they made the long journey from Andersen Air Force Base to Apra Harbor. Their task: complete inspections and routine maintenance of 20 fleet mooring buoys, conduct Rapid Penetration Tests at (4) new mooring sites and perform (4) bathymetric surveys. For the first two weeks UCT TWO Seabee divers utilized Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) gear to conduct Level I inspections of (12) fleet mooring buoys and (2) Med-Moor buoys inside the inner harbor. A typical Level I inspection consists of routine "swim by" to identify any obvious damage or defects. This is followed by collecting detailed measurements of all components and attaching hardware. Using calipers and specialized measuring devices called Go-no-Go gauges divers were able to collect vital data to ensure that all moorings are within standards to support 36 UnderWater july/august 2014 fleet operations for the region. Once all inspections were complete, divers started the arduous task of replacing over 800 sacrificial zinc anodes. Zinc anodes protect the steel components of the mooring chain and attaching hardware by providing a sacrificial zinc that corrodes at a faster rate than the underlying steel components. After two-weeks of diving and working with less than half of the equipment they deployed with, the second plane from Diego Garcia finally arrived. With all diving assets and personnel in Guam UCT divers transitioned from using SCUBA to their Surface Supplied Diving System (SSDS). Using a vessel of opportunity large enough to support SSDS divers outfitted the craft to support diving at depths up to 170 feet of sea water (fsw). This was no easy task. This required coordination between multiple tenant commands to load over 15,000 lbs of diving and support equipment in order to conduct deep dives that required extensive decompression. In order to limit the amount of in-water decompression divers utilized a Transportable Recompression Chamber System (TRCS) to conduct Surface-Decompression dives (SUR-D). Instead of decompressing in the water on 100% oxygen divers surfaced after completing all in-water stops at 40 fsw and deeper to spend time at 50 and 40 fsw in the recompression chamber. This mode of decompression gives the diving supervisor

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underwater Magazine - July/August 2014

Board of Directors
President’s Message
Executive Director’s Message
Commercial Diving in the Inland Sector
Life or Death in the ‘Golden Hour’
Mark V Monument Scholarship
Philippine and US Navy Seabee Divers Conduct Joint Training During Exercise
Joint Underwater Concrete Placement - FOAL Eagle 2014
Seabee Divers Complete Deep Water Mooring Inspections
Artemis Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Searches for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
New Gear
New ADCI Members
Delta Subsea and Foundocean Ink New Deal in Trinidad, Tobago, and Venezuela
Underwater Metal Detectors for Law Enforcement and Commercial Diving
ADCI Advisory Notice Archives
Index to Advertisers

Underwater Magazine - July/August 2014