Yes, it’s Wednesday – not the usual time for a new post from all us scholars. But today was such a strange day that I felt that it needed it’s own post.

As I mentioned Monday, I’m up in Tillamook Bay doing subtidal clam surveys. Today was a good lesson in what to do when things go wrong.

Some questions that were answered today:

What do you do when the divers’ communicators stop working?
What do you do when the dredge doesn’t sink to the bottom due to a high current?
What do you do when your anchors don’t set because the current is strong?
What do you do when the dive boat suddenly won’t turn on?

and finally,

What do you do when your boat starts taking on water?

Let’s tackle that last one first. Fortunately no one was hurt or got wet, but it was quite a scene. I was on the dredge boat, handing bags to the divers so they could begin our next sample when suddenly we got a call on the radio.

“Hey guys… I mean, Sax to Tresus” (Chase boat)
“Hi ladies, what’s up?” (Stacy, the assistant project leader for SEACOR)
“An anchor pulled out our boat plug and we are taking on water. We are going to the marina.” (Chase boat)

… Panic. Everyone on the dredge boat turned around and we saw our chase boat (the one that sets anchors and point buoys all day), the Saxidomus, speeding away toward the marina.  We then learned that even with their bilge on, one person was still rapidly bailing out water.
While on the radio, Stacy ran through a list of options out loud for them. 1) Could they get the boat trailer in time to get the boat out of the water? – no, they were taking on too much too fast 2) Run the boat aground into the boat launch ramp – the bottom will get scraped up, but as long as the motor and prop is lifted the hull should be okay 3) run onto a mudflat – but it’s hightide and there aren’t many easily available. 4) the divers offered to fix the boat plug, something we hadn’t even considered, but by then the Sax was too far away to be helped by us.
Luckily, the ladies on the Sax had the same idea and went straight to the launch ramp. They had considered the other options as well, but were not positive it was a missing boat plug that was causing the flood of water and wanted to get to shallow ground ASAP.
About 5 minutes later we heard back that everything was okay. Whew. It was a missing boat plug afterall and Natalie was able to reach over the back of the boat and stick one in after getting to the safety of shallow ground.

Comparatively, the rest of our problems today were minor, though they seemed important at the time. The divers ended up pulling on a rope line to signal us; we got the dive boat working and didn’t turn the engine off until we were completely done for the day; we added extra hose and line to the dredge, which added enough weight and length for it to sink down to the bottom; and we had to be extremely conscious of how our anchors were set in the current so as to ensure our boat would not drift while the divers were below us.

All in all, an interesting day. Happy Wednesday, and look out for part 2 of my adventures in Tillamook this coming Monday.