Sea Stories

Ah Jamaica!:mad:
Back in the early 90's, I was sent to Kingston, Jamaica to service some breathing air compressors. This company did commercial conch and lobster harvesting. At the time they were working 40 miles off their coast because they had pretty much wiped out the resources closer in. Now the boats they were operating had compressors on board. I started servicing them. I was given a helper. I drained the oil from one of the compressors and told my helper to dispose of the oil properly. He takes the pan, walks over to the rail and dumps the oil into Kingston Harbor. To say the least, I was totally shocked. I told the captain of this boat and he just shrugged his shoulders.

These boats had a Jamaican captain, engineer and cook. The divers were all Dominican. They were doing multiple dives per day to 80' or more on air. I asked the captain how they dealt with the decompression issue. He told me they just gave them ganja to deal with the pain. The expected longevity of these divers was about 2 years.

I had to rebuild one of the compressor blocks. They set me up near where they did the processing of the lobster catch. I'll get to that later. I needed some mineral spirits to clean parts. They had no clue what that was and sent someone around Kingston to find it. While waiting for them to find some, a huge commotion started outside the gate. The police were at the gate demanding to be let in. All were brandishing their side arms. Once the gate was opened they all went running down the docks. I found out later that a man had stolen one of their whistles. They were going to kill the thief if they caught him! Good thing he wasn't found.

Getting back to the compressor block rebuild, in Jamaica Mineral spirits is known as white spirits, so I got what I needed. While working on the rebuild, they started cooking the lobster catch, which was bound for Japan. They took every lobster they could get their hands on! I watched in shock as the put what would be undersized in the US and Bahamas in the pot, including females with eggs. They had no lobster season! At that time they thought there was a never ending source.

Worst part, I was only there for 1 day. Didn't have a change of clothes. The way I looked at the airport, I was pulled aside and searched.

This all sound dreadful. I hope things have changed since then. There is certainly more global awareness of conservation.
 
I can relate to your compressors and oil filters being engineering background. And cleaning with spirits. Chemicals can drive you mad. When I started work as a sheet metal worker, we had a bath for cleaning the oil off metal. They used trichlorethylene sp? The operator was crazy by end of day. No masks etc.
Whistle huh? Imagine if he stole a gun.?

Russ
 
Cancun Lagoon!
Marina Aqua Rey grew quite fast, moving to a larger facility and requiring some more plumbing running from the new compressor room to several positions on the new dock they built for their dive boats. We had to get in the water of the lagoon to install the main line of 1/2" ss tubing. The lagoon was home to crocodiles, so my buddy and I were very vigilant.

Now these guys had installed an above ground diesel tank to service their boats. The local government told them the tank needed to be buried. So while we were there they "buried" the tank. This consisted of building a CBS block enclosure around the above ground tank and using indigenous workers to form a bucket brigade to dump sand into the enclosure, thus burying the tank underground.
 
Cancun Lagoon!
Marina Aqua Rey grew quite fast, moving to a larger facility and requiring some more plumbing running from the new compressor room to several positions on the new dock they built for their dive boats. We had to get in the water of the lagoon to install the main line of 1/2" ss tubing. The lagoon was home to crocodiles, so my buddy and I were very vigilant.

Now these guys had installed an above ground diesel tank to service their boats. The local government told them the tank needed to be buried. So while we were there they "buried" the tank. This consisted of building a CBS block enclosure around the above ground tank and using indigenous workers to form a bucket brigade to dump sand into the enclosure, thus burying the tank underground.
CraigC,
Do you have any pictures you would be willing to post of your dives or work sites?
 
Whaaaaat? I'll start off by saying that alcohol was very much involved. :whistling: Don't remember what the occasion was. but we "stole" the dive boat for a booze cruise. We ended up at "Tugboat Annie's" waterfront restaurant and bar on Dania Cut, off the intracostal waterway. The dock was pretty crowded, but there was just enough room to squeeze the 40' diveboat in. The C-ditz (course director) Tim was handling the bow line. I just touched the bow to the fender lining on the dock and glanced back to see how the stern line was was being handled. I mean it was only a split second. When I looked back to the bow, Tim was gone and not on the dock! WTFO (what the fark over)! Several folks had gathered on the dock and were starring down to the water at the bow. A few more seconds and a lot of help later and Tim was standing on the dock, soaking wet. While attempting to step off the bow to the dock, he stepped between them! He probably would have gotten hurt if he wasn't extremely drunk. Later on, while sitting at a patio table, Tim still dripping water and attracting all the feral cats that hung out on the patio, begging for handouts, we all had a good laugh.
 
Playing dive master one day, the boat headed for the Tenneco Towers for the first dive. The towers are 3 pieces of cut up oil rig set in 110' to 130' off of Hallandale Beach, FL. We would drop the hook onto the first towers top which was at 80', 110' to the bottom. We had a trail line with a large orange ball at the end. The spool held about 300' of line, but we usually let out 100'. We would put a tag line from the trail line to the anchor line so divers can pull themselves from the stern to the anchor line, using the anchor line to decend. There is usually a strong north current (although wind is called for the direction it is coming from, current is called for the direction it is going), which can be just a surface or can be top to bottom. After getting all divers in the water and on to the anchor line, there was this one guy who had a Nikonos UW camera in one hand and a speargun in the other. Of course he couldn't pull himself along the tag line with both hands full, niether could he access his BCD inflator to let the air out. so he ends up drifting behind the boat unable to grab the trail line. I went in to help him as the captain let the other200' of trail line out. I kept telling him to let go of something so he could grab the trail line. He refused. We were closely approaching the end of the trail line so I told him to give me the gun and camera. As soon as he handed me something, I immediately dropped it. Got him onto the line and we pulled ourselves back to the boat. He never even noticed I wasn't holding anything in my hand. By the time we reached the stern of the boat he was exhausted. The captain had to pull his gear up as I striped it off of him. All of the other divers were back on the boat. He finally realized I didn't have his camera or speargun. Not even considering that his life was in danger because of his stupidity, he starts yelling at me and threatening me. I guess some of the other divers were pissed at him because he realized that he was in no position to do anything. I still had to go down and remove the hook from the tower. I have to admit I was pretty tired from pulling myself back to the boat, so than anchor pull was taxing. I still get a smile when I think that some diver got a pretty nice camera rig, if it was ever found. About a thousand bucks worth at that time. The speargun was a JBL and not really any good.
 
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Playing dive master one day, the boat headed for the Tenneco Towers for the first dive. The towers are 3 pieces of cut up oil rig set in 110' to 130' off of Hallandale Beach, FL. We would drop the hook onto the first towers top which was at 80', 110' to the bottom. We had a trail line with a large orange ball at the end. The spool held about 300' of line, but we usually let out 100'. We would put a tag line from the trail line to the anchor line so divers can pull themselves from the stern to the anchor line, using the anchor line to decend. There is usually a strong north current (although wind is called for the direction it is coming from, current is called for the direction it is going), which can be just a surface or can be top to bottom. After getting all divers in the water and on to the anchor line, there was this one guy who had a Nikonos UW camera in one hand and a speargun in the other. Of course he couldn't pull himself along the tag line with both hands full, niether could he access his BCD inflator to let the air out. so he ends up drifting behind the boat unable to grab the trail line. I went in to help him as the captain let the other200' of trail line out. I kept telling him to let go of something so he could grab the trail line. He refused. We were closely approaching the end of the trail line so I told him to give me the gun and camera. As soon as he handed me something, I immediately dropped it. Got him onto the line and we pulled ourselves back to the boat. He never even noticed I wasn't holding anything in my hand. By the time we reached the stern of the boat he was exhausted. The captain had to pull his gear up as I striped it off of him. All of the other divers were back on the boat. He finally realized I didn't have his camera or speargun. Not even considering that his life was in danger because of his stupidity, he starts yelling at me and threatening me. I guess some of the other divers were pissed at him because he realized that he was in no position to do anything. I still had to go down and remove the hook fro the tower. I have to admit I was pretty tired from pulling myself back to the boat, so than anchor pull was taxing. I still get a smile when I think that some diver got a pretty nice camera rig, if it was ever found. About a thousand bucks worth at that time. The speargun was a JBL and not really any good.
Too many toys, too few brain cells. Pretty sure I wouldn't dive in the company of a retard with a speargun. Good call.
 
One of the joy of living here is the Croatians view their natural resource's as "gold". Hence we have some of the cleanest and fertile sea in the med. We live in Znjan beach a very upscale tourist area. ( we are moving Monday after two years) the new 5 star hotel was not allowed to open last year because the intake and outlet pipes for the heating and air conditioning were not far enough out to sea. There are strict litter and dog fouling laws which are enforced. The problem is not the locals it's the tourists, you are encourage to take a pic of the offender and send it to a special police number. The fines are heavy. At the end of the season the Dive Club and volunteers clear all of the rubbish from the sea. They do not get paid to do this, so residents club together and throw a big party for them. Our front balcony overlooks the straight between Znjan beach Brac and Solta island. Dolphin are commons but this beauty stayed for two days.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ai7dqRYLA
 
Most morning's we take a five minute stroll down to the beach for coffee, yesterday the water was still to cold for me. So I drank coffee whilst she swims. Normally the beach would be busy but Convid has massacred this season.
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I can't imagine wanting to move if I had a view like the photo you posted in another thread. Its my dream to live in a place with a sea view. Sadly, its a dream which is very unlikely to transpire. Where are you moving to?
Mate we are moving down the coast to Podstrana. We have a better view. We wanted something with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a bigger kitchen. Property values are shot at because of Convid, so we stole this place. The other apartment is not worth advertising so we will mothball it till next season. The guy next door normally moves his family to their parent house in the season and rent to tourists. Last year he averaged 1000 Euro a week for six people. A lot of Croats have heavy debt's based on the tourist bubble never bursting. They have no income stream. I got 45% of his asking price, all the equipment, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher and oven are all 1 years old Bosch. I offered him 500 Euro cash he accepted. Get over here you are welcome to stay, all it will cost you is your cooking abilities.
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