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That week in the Gulf with 2 foot vis and a stuck grinder
Last April we were working a pipeline job off Galveston. Day three the current picked up and the silt went crazy. I was on the grinder cutting bolts on a riser clamp and couldnt see my own hands. Kept working blind, felt the wheel grab and then the whole grinder locked up. Had to surface with it still stuck on the bolt. Took me an hour of fighting with a wrench on deck to get it off. That same week we had a hydraulic leak on the dive basket and a guy got his umbilical nicked by a drift line. Nobody hurt but it was one of those jobs where every simple task turned into a battle. Ive done this for 9 years and that week made me realize how much of this trade is just staying calm when everything goes sideways. Anyone else had a stretch like that where the weather or current just ruined every dive?
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michael8033d agoMost Upvoted
Gonna disagree a bit. That week sounds rough, but honestly, in 9 years you know the current and silt were likely in the forecast. The stuck grinder thing, that's just Tuesday. I've had worse days where the vis was zero and the job was a full valve replacement, not just cutting bolts. The calm part is key, but I think the real skill is knowing when to call it and surface before it turns into a hydraulic leak and a nicked line. Sometimes pushing through is what makes it sideways, not the weather.
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sanchez.julia3d ago
Ha, @michael803 is right about calling it, but man, sometimes the call gets made for you. I had a stretch off Louisiana where we were swapping out an anodes cage and the current just flipped on us mid shift. Vis went from ten feet to nothing in about two minutes, and my hammer got stuck in the guide wires. Not even a bolt, a whole hammer. Had to leave it down there and come back the next day with a cutting torch. Weather said it was gonna blow, we all knew it, but the client wanted the cage done. When I finally surfaced, my hand was cramped so bad I couldnt sign the dive log. That whole week was just one long, salty sigh.
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