Category: intern-blog

Big day today. We started out early with the cavern course on dry land. Terrence and Renee strung a cavern reel line from around and between trees, picnic tables, and other obstacles in the park so that we could simulate following a course underwater.

We began by learning how to use the line as a guide, wrapping thumb and pointer finger around it so that we create a small circular area for the line to pass through. The most crucial part of this, Terrence told us, is to KEEP A FIRM GRIP between your fingers; do not become separated from the line…if you do, you die. You do not necessarily die immediately in real life, but in a zero visibility situation in any overhead environment, you will get yourself into trouble if you can’t find your way back to the line that leads to the exit. We were challenged to get through the whole obstacle course, eyes closed, without “dying.” I don’t think we could count how many times we each died today!! But by the end our naive clasps turned into secure death grips so that we could make it through!

We also learned how to follow markers, navigate obstacles, perform buddy hand signals (when there is no visibility you have to slip your hand signal into your buddy’s hand so they can read it), how to find and untangle a buddy, how to properly cross over a line, and how to reel in a reel without jamming it. By the end of the day we were in the Rollins College pool utilizing the skills we learned on land for our test. Maskless or with our eyes closed, each of us had to complete an underwater course while Terrence and other students tangled the candidate into different messes, or tried to lead him or her off course. Two of the most important things to remember are to keep a firm grip and to move calmly and carefully even when tangled up so that you don’t stir up silt. It sure is tricky to unwrap yourself from a line that’s wrapped around your first stage, behind your back, through your legs and fin strap! I was absolutely amazed by some of the insane predicaments I watched the guys smoothly get out of underwater.

After the pool we finished up the nitrox class, and then Josh and I went to Amy’s house to help her and Terrence prepare vials for bacteria collecting with scientists on Thursday. Whew! It was a big day but really, really fun!!!

Tomorrow will start off with an early departure to the Rollins College pool for the cavern course, but today we got to sleep late! Josh and I spent the day at Amy’s house with her parents and baby Allie, and with Amy’s rescued tortoise! Amy is helping “Stitch” rehabilitate after she and Terrence found it with a cracked shell and punctured lung. I was trying not to laugh when she told me it was time to take it out for a walk. But hey, I guess everybody needs their exercise!

After Amy’s house and the speedy excursion with the tortoise, we all went to Terrence’s house to start the nitrox class. Boy did I learn a lot. Terrence’s teaching style is phenomenal, he is exceedingly through. He teaches above and beyond never failing to keep it real with scenarios he’s encountered in the past, which helps us as students to look at diving from a broader perspective. Ultimately, breathing nitrox IS 150% easier than learning it- thank you Sipperly. After a big night of learning I’m ready for bed! We’re getting up early tomorrow for more cavern class!

Today the interns spent the day taking a CPR class with Amy and Terrence. CPR is a prerequisite for any Cambrian cavern diving trips. We were split up into two teams: Team Typhoid (apparently my mono is as horrible as typhoid): Amy, Tim and I, and the other team who was sadly nameless because they were all in good health- Terrence, Artie, Josh. Renee Power, Director of Publications and Volunteers at the Cambrian Foundation who works at Orlando’s hospital, generously donated her time and expertise, she took the day off to instruct the class. In the middle of our class, James called us out because Paul had “fallen off the roof and was unconscious.” Josh and I stepped up to the scene and started rescue breathing on the victim after analyzing the situation.

The Cambrian Foundation never fails to “give it to you real.” We were nicely surprised with a mouth full of pizza in the victim’s mouth (which is a lot more pleasant than what we could have encountered in reality) showing us that emergencies are rarely textbook-perfect scenarios, you have to be prepared for any kind of situation. We learned more emergency procedures, including how to use a defribulator, deal with spinal injuries, and heart attacks. After the class we went back to the Terrence’s house to start day one of the cavern course. Lee, Tim, and I were the only interns in the course. We learned about the difference between cave and cavern (“cavern is cave diving without all the fun stuff,” or exploration, says Terrence), and that it’s crucially important not to ditch your weights because the only place to go is up, into the cavern ceiling. Before calling it a night, we rigged our BCs so that they were stream-line and “cavern safe” for our pool test on Tuesday.

I was greeted at the airport by Terrence Tysall, president and founder of the Cambrian Foundation and Artie the summer intern coordinator, with a “Kate Cambrian Foundation” sign. That was a surprise!! After drinking a Starbucks coffee with a shot of espresso I was finally awake enough to keep up with Terrence’s and Artie’s quick sarcasm. We drove back to Cambrian headquarters to meet five more college interns, James, Lee, Paul, Tim, and Josh, and Amy Giannotti who is the VP of Science and Research and Educational Director for the Foundation. After the introductions they took me to see my first Florida Spring.

Wekiva Spring water is beautiful and crystal clear. Terrence and Artie showed me three of their test sites there where they take daily water samples. Members of the Cambrian foundation were actually the first and only people to be granted government permission to dive there, on the basis that NASA is interested in their data and sample collection. The water has been tracked to filter through the ground for 27 years before upwelling into the springs, so what we put into the ground today is feared to severely harm the system in the future.

Once we got back to Terrence’s house, we organized and cleaned out the Cambrian Foundation dive locker. After that, Terrence taught us how to O2 clean, fill, and analyze a tank firsthand-not something that I could do in a dive shop, or even in the nitrox class! I used a metal broom-like whip on a shaft attached to a power drill to clean the rust buildup off the inside of the tank. After that, I turned the tank upside down, banged out the rust, and stuck a low pressure hose into the opening to blow out extra particles. The tank is now O2 cleaned! Artie and I screwed the valve on, and we affixed special Cambrian foundation special mix, nitrox stickers, or VIP stickers on. After that we filled the tank using the cascade filling method and with a little bit of air in the tank, we were able to analyze the contents of the tanks.

Amy later invited everyone to her house for a welcome party, where we had delicious brownies and fudge sauce, and watched Shrek. This has got to be the epitome of an awesome diving internship…life just can’t seem to get any better! [but wait, it does…]

This is the first free time that I’ve had in two days to write (or sleep!) so right now I’m in the airport terminal catching up on entries. The past two days have been filled with amazing wreck diving and lots of video editing. My only previous experience with this kind of stuff was with iMovie for a presentation junior year. iMovie is a lot simpler than the Stayer’s professional production equipment! They have Media100 which is used in conjunction with Photoshop7 and Adobe After Effects. I started using the camera gear and editing software the first full day I was here so luckily I got the hang of it before leaving.

Last entry I thought I had spent all day editing….nope, not even close! Wednesday I was up until 3:45 am and then on Thursday was up until 6:15 am finishing it up. Pat almost pulled an all-nighter with me, she was up to 4 am this morning! We were worried that we wouldn’t finish in time, but thankfully Jim got it onto VHS before my trip home; it is roughly 13 minutes and has a lot of footage from the wrecks!!

THE DIVES: We have been in major crunch-mode but the four two five hours we spent diving on both Wednesday and on Thursday were incredible. The water was about 66 degrees on the surface and we all used drysuits again because it gets a lot colder at the bottom. Wednesday we went out with Bill, another charter captain and friend of the Stayers, to dive the Mary Alice B. and the front half of the Regina.

The Mary Alice B. is a 65 foot steel tug-boat sitting perfectly upright in about 92 feet of water. She took on more water than the pumps could handle while being towed from Rockport to Detroit in 1975; the Stayers discovered her in 1992. Diving on this wreck was an amazing experience, I felt like I had gone back in time. Although many of Mary Alice’s surfaces were covered in zebra mussels (a non-native species that invaded the great lakes but, because they filter water, also made the water more clear), she looks perfectly preserved. Not only are the wood and ropes intact from sinking, the wheelhouse is picturesque and complete with the wooden wheel. It’s breathtaking. We swam around the tug and peered in the head, the galley (which had the remains of some plates), and the engine room. I wish I could have stayed down there forever! Our second dive that day was awesome as well.

The Regina is a 250 foot steel freighter lying upside down in 77 feet of water that is thought to have sunk in the “big storm of 1913” on Lake Huron, in which many large ships were consumed by the sea. She was found by a local man in 1986, her hull completely ripped open midship. As we descended onto the Regina, a massive looming shadow came into view. Getting closer I almost choked on my regulator when I saw the size of the prop. Jim had told me earlier to swim behind it for the camera once we got down there because it was “big” but I did not imagine it to be THAT enormous!! I felt a little spooked getting so close to it, the whole wreck had a very eerie feel. I followed Jim around the bottom of the wreck, he showed me the smokestack and one of the masts, and we peered underneath her hull to see the cargo area inside. The sand is littered with countless artifacts, from whistles, to bells, and anchors to glassware and the dozens of portholes just LAYING in the sand. It was shocking. I think I know a few people who wouldn’t be allowed near this wreck! Needless to say, Wednesday was a spectacular day of diving.

Thursday was just as interesting because we got to see the other half of the Regina, the bow. We logged a bottom time of 29 minutes and I reached 78 feet where the cargo dug into the sand. The bow is covered in a row of intact portholes and the bottom, similar to the stern, is filled with artifacts. I shined my light under the hull and saw gigantic pieces of wooden decking and a few ladders. Since the wreck is upside down, Jim took me up to the keel to see the huge rip that caused the freighter. The sheer size of it was intimidating. It had to have taken something really powerful to rip through that hunk of steel. That was our only dive on Thursday, but still a stunning one to end on. Jim let me use his video camera on each of the wrecks so I was able to get footage of them all, documenting my first time freshwater wreck diving.

My trip with the Stayers continued to open my eyes to new worlds of diving, and also of video production! The amount of effort Jim and Pat put into producing their videos or other people’s videos is impressive, and a full-time job in itself. A lot of time is put into making a little segment of video. I got the chance to learn about what goes on “behind-the-scenes” when making an underwater movie, during my stay with Jim and Pat. Not only does one have to be artistic and have a creative eye, he or she must have the skills on multiple levels, from camera control in currents and waves to color-correction and other editing abilities, in order to produce a pleasing finished product.

Wow. Today is the first day on the internship with heavy rain. Nearly every dive has been in fine weather with great water conditions (with exception to yesterday!), how much more lucky can I get? I guess when it rains in Michigan, it pours.

It has been pouring almost nonstop since last night’s thunderstorms. We didn’t get to go out today, which was not totally a bad thing as it was time well spent on the intern video. I am amazed by how long it takes to put a just few frames together, this project is going to take a long time!! Pat and I worked on the project ALL DAY. She had an appointment at 2:30 so we took a break from editing. During this time Jim took me to see the lightship Huron.

A lightship is a floating light house. It is quite practical because it can be used in multiple locations, as Huron was, and can be anchored in the parts of the Lake too deep to build an actual light house. Huron marked the entrance to the Lake Huron cut, and was the last light ship to be used on the Lakes. In the 70’s Huron was beached and later it became a museum. It’s a neat piece of history to explore. After the lightship, Jim bought some “sea foam,” air vacuumed malted candy covered in chocolate, on the way home…it’s delicious and only found on the shores of Lake Huron. Spent the rest of the night editing away!

Today is our first day of diving and my first time in freshwater! We dove from the Stayer’s boat, Wildkat, with Mike and Deb who are close friends of the Stayers. If I hadn’t known we were on the shores of Lake Huron, I would have thought we were looking out onto an ocean. I was excited to see the crystal-clear stern wake we left behind, and that we didn’t have salt spray stains all over our gear…different from San Diego and Massachusetts! When the time for the first dive came, Pat stayed behind with Deb while Jim, Mike, and I descended on the first wreck.

The wreck of the Sport was so cool because, having sunk in fresh water, the wood was intact-another sight you could never see in Massachusetts, or any salt water location! Sport was the first steel hulled tug on Lake Huron, it sank in a wintry gale in 1920, and lies on her starboard side in 49 feet of water. After giving me a tutorial on land, Jim let me try using his video camera underwater and luckily it turned out to be much easier to use than I thought! I had to compensate for its weight by adding air to my BC, but I was able to watch what I was filming on a small LCD inside the housing (which was a GATES housing, by the way!). To make the film pleasing to the eye, Jim told me that I should not use the zoom, move very slowly and steadily through the water, and let the motion in the frame be natural, not just panning.

The Sport had some amazing artifacts lying on and around it. Aside from the anchor, winch, and bell on board, I saw the wheel, many portholes and her enormous brass whistle!! Portholes and especially whistles are rare finds in the ocean and can be taken by divers if the wreck is not part of an underwater preserve. We circled the Sport a couple of times and on our way to the ascent line I saw Jim do a huge double take, the ascent line was gone! All that was left was the chain wrapped around the wreck. Jim and Mike tied a reel line around the wreck and we surfaced together. Luckily the boat was only about 100 yards away but the surf was huge and the current at the surface was substantial. The forecasted 2 foot seas turned out to be 4 to 5 footers; I wasn’t scared out of my drysuit because I had two experienced men on either side of me, but we seemed to be drifting pretty fast. Deb and Pat were able to keep an eye on us the whole time after the line broke and immediately tossed us a life-ring to pull us in. About five minutes later everyone was safely onboard. Needless to say we didn’t make a second dive today.

Back at the house we celebrated Deb’s birthday by relaxing in the heated pool followed by a sausage cook out. It was a good way to end what they called a “shaky” day. No one can predict what will happen on a dive, complications always occur. Today was an excellent learning experience for me. Before heading off to bed Jim and Pat taught me how to edit the footage we took by using Media100 to digitize, color-correct, and edit the film.

For the second portion of the “sleep-away” half of the internship, I will be staying with Jim and Pat Stayer, a couple interested in wreck diving and exploration. They are the founders of Out of the Blue Productions and charter dives on their boat, Wildkat. Jim and Pat have discovered eight shipwrecks in Lake Huron, and I will get the chance to dive on some wrecks in the Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve. I met the Stayers this morning at a coffee shop in Connecticut, and we packed away my luggage and dive gear so that we could start the 12 hour drive to their home in Lexington, Michigan.

A couple of days ago the Stayers had told me that we might have the chance to stop in Canada on the way back, and we did! This is my first time visiting Canada, and we stopped at NIAGARA FALLS. It was so cool, they are magnificent. Getting up close to the ledge, you realize the power of water, seeing the huge rapids and the sheer volume of water passing right by you is amazing. The Stayers are going to teach me how to put together a short video, which will be documenting the summer, so Pat took a few video clips of my first time in Canada. With our break at the Falls, the 12 hour trip actually turned into a 15 hour trip; the traffic jam we sat in trying to cross the American border reminded me of all the traffic I was missing back in Boston during today’s Democratic National Convention.

We reached the Stayers’ home by 10:30 and after unpacking the truck we are all ready to sleep. Before I went to bed, though, I noticed beautiful and intricately drawn pictures of shipwrecks hanging in the hallway; Jim told me that these were some of the ones that we would be visiting and mentioned that Pat had drawn them all. In amazement I went to bed dreaming of what it would be like to dive on one of these vessels…

Steve wasn’t able to make the dives today, but he hired a guide who took us to dive two cool sites in “Wreck Alley” of the San Diego coast. We went out on the panga captained by Doug, Julie’s mate, to the first site the wreck of the Yukon. The Yukon is a 366 foot destroyer that was sunk four years ago to create an artificial reef for the wildlife, and to create a safe, penetrable wreck for divers. The water was pretty choppy and sitting on the bouncing raft with the tight neck seal around my neck didn’t make me feel to great, but I felt a lot better when I actually got into the water.

We descended down the line to the wreck, and once it came into sight (the visibility was about 20 feet), the looming shadow was enormous. The sunken vessel lists to the starboard side on the bottom, and is covered with many large white metridium (anemones). I saw a few fish on the tour that the guide led, but not too many. The Yukon is a fully intact wreck, which makes it a popular site to dive. We didn’t go inside, but explored the many surfaces onboard. It was amazing. We logged a bottom time of 36 minutes and had a maximum depth of 91 feet.

After the Yukon, we ate a little lunch and then rolled into the water around 2:30 to start our dive on the Ruby E., a coast guard boat that sank 12 years ago. The dive was BEAUTIFUL!!! The visibility was a little better on this one (around 25 feet) so we saw a ton of life-it was so cool. The wreck is covered with all sorts of anemones, including the little strawberry anemones we saw on the kelp bed dives. There were fish everywhere, which made it a very lively scene! We explored all around the wreck and dove down to about 77 feet. By far the best part of the dive was finding bunches of teeny little nudibranchs on the decks and other horizontal surfaces.

My favorite part was finding a huge brightly colored navanax, which resembles a nudibranch but is actually a type of sea hare that preys on nudibranchs! I thought it was a nudibranch, but Marty’s book told me otherwise : ). This little guy was black with thin bright yellow stripes covering its body. Two orange tipped ribbon-like protrusions ran along its back, and were spotted with bright blue patches. It was soooo cool. I sat there for a while just looking at it, and actually realized there were a whole bunch of nudibranchs right beneath me too! Our dive only lasted about 40 minutes because our guide was low on air, but it was by far my FAVORITE dive in San Diego!!

Back at the house we told Steve about our dives, and I was totally surprised when he gave me a mounted picture of a nudibranch—just like the one on Destiny! Unfortunately Pat and I didn’t get back to the house until around 10:30 pm because we had to spend the rest of the day waiting in the hospital (ugh!) because my glands were pretty swollen and I had come down with strep throat. Regardless, I still could not stop thinking about that awesome dive on the Ruby E.!