Diving in Lake Mead,
I met Steve Schafer
of Lake Mead Technical Divers during a Meg CCR course that I assisted with,
Steve invited me out to his home in
The logistical
challenge of hauling my Meg, cylinders, Drysuit and other technical dive gear,
along with all my work equipment was the most difficult part of the whole trip,
I ended up shipping most of the dive gear to Steve via UPS and carried the work
stuff with me, then shipped the work stuff back home in the box the dive gear
showed up in. The work part of the trip
went off without a hitch and I headed back to Vegas for a weekend of goofing
off, a couple shows and dinner with a friend who flew out for the weekend from
California and then on Monday I showed up at Steve’s place for a week of
diving.
We got busy with gas
blending, setting up bailout cylinders and pre-diving
the Megs. The next day we headed out to
the
The next day we
headed out to the PBY Catalina with Todd, Steve’s business partner and
experienced technical OC diver. The PBY
is a sunk amphibious aircraft that
attempted a practice touch and go landing on the lake surface back in 1949,
alas the landing gear had not been raised and the airplane flipped the instant
the gear hit the lake, destroying the plane and killing several crew
members. Two of the crewmembers have
never been recovered and its suggested they may still
be on the wreck. The visibility was
better on this dive, at around 20 feet, but the bottom is very light sand and
silt and it stirs up easily. I did 40
minutes of bottom time at 175ffw and another 45 minutes of deco. The water temp was a nice 55+ degrees F and I
was quite cozy in my Drysuit. I was
first down on the wreck as I wanted to get some pics and Steve and Todd were
headed down the line as I was headed up it for my deco. A very nice dive and no gear rinsing needed
after!
A few pics of the
PBY…
Following the chain down
to a mooring block, there are a couple of guidelines heading off into the
darkness marked by cave arrows, I went after the fuselage, the other line
headed to the tail section, separated during the original wreck. The airplane is lying upside down, with one
solitary pontoon sticking up being the first thing you encounter appearing out
of the darkness and gloom. The second
thing you notice is that this is not a small airplane and that it really took a
beating when it landed here over 50 years ago.
The bottom is super fine silt and even with very careful fin work, the
bottom begins to stir up and become suspended like a light fog over water. I needed to work quickly to get pictures
before I ran out of bottom time, as well as visibility. I found that even after 40 minutes on the
bottom, I still wanted to stay longer.
Having not had my SLR camera in the water in 6 months, I was a bit rusty
with my exposure and strobe settings, so I wasn’t getting the quality of pics
that I wanted. The wreck itself was in
an amazing state of preservation after all these years in the lake and I
marveled at how intact some of the parts were.
An engine, bent prop
and broken out cockpit window greet the diver.
A battery sits in the center of a pile of sand and silt, hoping for a
jump start that will never come. The
interior wing structure shows signs of a very slow corrosion process that
continues unchecked. With available
light, it was not possible to get an image of the entire airplane, the strobes
would only reach out about 6 feet before being quenched by the depth, I highly
suggest taking a trip and seeing this amazing wreck with your own eyes, words
just cannot describe the tragedy of it all.
Steve Schafer and
Steve Fanell make up www.lakemeadtechnicaldivers.com,
they created the website, set up gas blending stations, put together a small
dive boat and eat a lot of sushi.
Hanging with these guys is a whole boat load of fun. They have secret moorings, hidden dive sites
and a joke for every occasion, the only thing I didn’t notice is a secret
handshake, but maybe they will show it to me after a few more trips out to
We descended to 130 ffw and followed yet another cave line over to the various
features of this dive site. There were
not a lot of things to see and although this was my least favorite of the
Cory
emerging from the vertical shaft for a photo op, the shaft descending into the
lake bottom, and the bridge over the dump site.
By far the most interesting
picture was the one of the mooring, that I shot while
waiting for Cory to gear up on the boat, why was that an interesting shot? Because it would be the last time we would
see the mooring line actually attached
to the mooring. Yes, we came up to do
deco and the mooring shackle had cut loose and the boat was gone.
Mooring chain, float, shackle and line
leading to the boat, a welcome sight when returning after a dive, but a
distinct displeasure to come back to find it missing! Especially with 20 minutes of deco to do and
the sun going down.
I had sent Cory up
the line early to start his deco, and I hung out on the bottom and took a
few more pictures. When I reached the 30
foot stop he pointed at the mooring and then up at where the boat was supposed
to be and being a relatively smart guy myself, I understood exactly what he was
trying to say. “Where’s the boat!”
At this point I
started feeling a bit of time pressure, the sun was going down and it gets dark
fast in the desert, the boat was probably on the beach getting bounced around
by the 1-2 foot wind chop. This is not a good thing for outdrives
and the longer it stayed there the more damage would be done. There were not
many boats out on the lake today and with the sun going down they would be
heading in soon. I made the decision to
blow off the last 10 minutes of my deco at the time that Cory had finished his,
I knew that I was on the conservative side with my meg holding a 1.3 and the
VR3 set on 1.2, plus I would stay on pure O2 at the surface while attempting to
flag down any traffic. I blew a lift bag
to give us something to stay on site, and clipped my camera and strobes off to
the line. We surfaced and Cory asked me
about the omitted deco, I told him that I promised to do it tomorrow. : ) I
had Cory blow a second lift bag and we waved the bags at two small boats that
were in the distance, along with our dive lights. We continued this for about
30 minutes before a sailboat came close enough to shout to. I took Cory’s stage cylinders, along with
mine and sent him over to the sailboat, intending him to get back to our boat
and come back and get me. The sail
boaters were amateurs and it took them a while to get the sails down and find a
way to get Cory and his doubles aboard, in the mean time, a small outboard
powered skiff came by and having seen Cory’s boat on the beach, with a dive
flag up, figured out what had happened and headed into the wind from the beach
and found us. I handed up the 4 stages,
stripped off my Meg and climbed aboard, pulling the Meg after me, then we
motored back and pulled up the lift bag and my camera. A short ride back to the
our brought us back to the boat.
The skiff operator had a tow line and we pulled the 19foot Bayliner off the shore, thankfully no damage to it and we
all motored into the marina to get out of the chop and transfer all the gear to
our boat. All’s well that ends well and
we had a good laugh over dinner. I’m
happy we didn’t have to swim the mile and a half to the beach to find the boat,
but it would have been do-able if necessary.
On Sunday we had made
plans to dive on the B-29 bomber that crashed into and sank in
Steve, Steve Fannel, Todd and I made the pilgrimage out to the B-29
site, its about a 35 mile run, but the “Little Wahoo” runs about 35mph, so it
was only an hour ride and the weather was perfect. We tied off to the mooring and started
prepping gear, it was only going to be Steve Fannel,
who is one of the licensed guides, and I on the wreck, Steve Schafer and Todd
stayed on the boat. (which is a good thing considering
earlier experience leaving boats on moorings) I pulled my camera from the cabin
and found the battery was dead.
Curses! So all
week playing with my gear getting my camera skills back for this one dive and t’was all for naught. Apparently when I put the back on the
housing, one of the buttons was being held down and the battery drained. In four years of diving with this setup, this
is the first time my system had let me down.
So, unfortunately, I have no original pictures of this dive. Check out www.divetheb29.com
for photos and history of the B-29.
Following the mooring
line down to 130 feet, we followed a guide line to another block and then to a
copper stake that was just a few feet from the tail section, it comes out of
the gloom like a good mystery novel and towers over us. There is massive damage to the tail section
from the crash and the engines being torn off and hitting the tail. The aircraft numbers are still visible on the
vertical stabilizer under a layer of silt.
Following up along the top of the fuselage, there is a hatchway open as
well as broken radio antenna wires laying over the
side. The aluminum appears very fragile, like it is getting thinner with age. Looking into the empty engine nacelles, it
almost looks like one could bolt a new engine up and get it running. Wiring looms, fuel and hydraulic lines are
pulled apart like a much enjoyed dogs toy, although showing considerable
damage, they continue the illusion that a good mechanic could have her in the
air again. Looking at the front of the
cockpit, you can see directly into the nose of the aircraft through a large
tear, more wiring, instruments, throttle quadrants and an airspeed indicator
that is stuck on 160 knots. The pilot and copilot seats, rolled up parachute
and fire extinguisher look like they might still be in working order, with
maybe a little bit of TLC. You can
almost feel the history in this airplane, the limited light can make the dive a
bit spooky. Steve Fennel pointed out the
manufacturers tag on the one remaining engine to me as well as several other
vantage points to look inside the wreck, curse my dead camera battery! Entry to the fuselage is prohibited,
otherwise I might have shucked the CCR and slid into a hatch with my stage
cylinder. The rest of the dive and deco was uneventful and I was quite happy to
see the boat still on the mooring when we ascended.
It was a gorgeous day
to be out on the water, even though it was a bit chilly, the wind was calm and
the sun was out.
Fennel and I gearing
up for the B-29 dive. ITS DEAD
JIM! Steve F, myself, and Steve S,
posing with the Little Wahoo.
The National Park
service is adamant about keeping this wreck as pristine as possible and they
have limited the number of dives that can be done on this site, any damage or
theft of pieces will cause the NPS to re-evaluate how many divers are allowed
per year. All dives must be accompanied
by a certified guide and a USCG licensed boat captain must be aboard the
charter vessel taking divers out to it.
This is a very
excellent dive and if you ever start to think you have been to every kind of
dive site there is, think of
Thanks
to Steve Schafer (and Shorty too), Steve Fennel,
Sara, Todd and Cory for the hospitality and sushi. I
had a great time hanging out and diving in
Links and more
information
www.lakemeadtechnicaldivers.com Steve and Steve’s web pages.
www.divetheb29.com Info on the bomber and how
to get there.
http://www.nps.gov/lame/parknews/33-04.htm
NPS press release on opening the bomber dive site.
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/maritime/expeditions/b29.html
NOAA’s expedition to the bomber.
http://www.videoray.com/Press_Room/lake_mead.htm
My friends at VideoRay who’s ROV studied the wreck.
http://www.indepthconsulting.com/B29/B29Lost.htm
The original team that found the B-29.
Ron Micjan
30 December 2007
Ron(at)tmishop.com
503.632.5553