Holy. Fucking. Ouch. Batman. Bit of a rough morning this morning... The currant out here rips in some spots (it can gust up to close to 11 knots) and some of the areas we are working are completely flat sugar sand beds. So, since the conditions are so dangerous in some of these locations, i always make the dives on them, such as i did this morning; we were working a high currant area in a navigable channel that see a lot of boat traffic. I took the time to write out the full story, it's in the spoiler...
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
::enters deep sea diver story telling mode::
i had been in locating and surveying the target utility for nearly 2 hours, working to stay low and move fast across the bottom in order to stay out of the currants. things went very well for the first couple hundred feet, the currant was rough, but i was well rested and had hard materials on bottom to grapple around. I had just moved the boat into position to complete our final 100' run when i noticed that bottom was changing, getting softer and not showing any rocks. I was using a 2" water pump (firemen use them in places that there are no hydrants) to move the sand out of the way to be able to track the utility and i had to turn it into a bottom pick. Picking it up and slamming it into the bottom to move myself through the rip tide. i was just getting into position to set a survey marker when the currant started gusting, the water was moving so fast it was picking up small rocks and shells and throwing them like sand. I did my best to stay low and keep my head down, but i guess i didn't try hard enough. I lifted my head to move my body position and wham! the currant lifted me up off bottom, nearly 12 feet and threw me, flipping me through the water. I don't how far i was thrown, but i landed on the back of my head, crumpling my neck, and bounced several more feet, end over end flailing like a rag doll and yelling at my crew to come up on my dive tether. They, after what seemed liked forever, finally snapped my rig tight and started dragging me back towards the boat. In my tumble i slammed up my left side real good, popped my shoulder out of place and bruised a few ribs, on top of knocking the wind out of myself so they literally had to drag me back to the boat and lift me on board.
the short version is, i was in a fucked up place and got fucked up trying to get shit done. I am sitting top side now, licking my wounds and getting my head right for my jump tonight, i just hope that one ends a little better lol
Other than that, i am very much sick of being out of town, though it's looking like my situation could persist for weeks now, into November, possibly longer, so aside from the kick ass amount of hours i am getting, i feel that i will be quite homesick soon enough. I am very much hoping to get approved to use the rest of my vacation pay in December, around the holidays, to try and recover from this stretch of work i am heading into, but i doubt i will get approved.
I really wish i had more to talk about than work, but as one who reads more than one of my blogs will find, i don't lol especially this time of year when we really get slammed. I will be lucky to see home two days a week from now until February at the pace i am on now, bu that is, of course, not all bad; it will be nice to be able to afford Christmas this year.
have a good day everybody...
and if you live near water, think of me the next time you do anything in your house, i am getting my ass kicked so you can have running water, flush your toilet, turn on a light and most importantly, use the interwebz. (i figure soldiers get to be thought of for risking their lives for some abstract, i can get thought of for something physical lol)
