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The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

atlasobscura.com

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Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#31

Post by Xylakant »

yason wrote: post #21
Xylakant wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying this is politically correct. The contentious issue is the question of why this is so. Is it because society shapes us in such a way that men are more inclined to take risks for money and recognition. This would imply things can change and women can be excellent saturation divers. Or is it because our genes shape us in this way, making it impossible for women to excel at diving.

Or maybe money and recognition aren't that valuable intrinsically and the industry is basically (ab)using men craving for those both. Maybe women are simply much smarter to not choose that line of job in the first place, or it would take a lot more of something else than money and recognition to convince them to take those risks.

That might be true but brings you back to the question why this is so. Are women intrinsically more intelligent due to their gender or does society place different expectations on the upbringing of boys, leading to a different selection of skills that develop. Or is it a mixture of both?

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#32

Post by salvar »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #2

been there. done that :) not as dangerous as the article says. at least not the diving part. most of the injuries are people mishandling high-pressure systems (valves, plumbing), electrical hazards (water+electricity), gas leaks, burns ... basically anything that can go wrong on construction sites, but only you're out at sea exposed to the elements. those few times that accidents do happen with divers in a saturation…

> basically anything that can go wrong on construction sites, but only you're out at sea exposed to the elements

Sounds... dangerous.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#33

Post by technofiend »

gaius wrote: post #24

I know so many guys who planned to do this for 2-3 years to make some money and 20+ years later they’re still doing it, they (or their wives) spend the money faster than they make it, and their bones are getting brittle from the nitrogen... (Former professional diver but I never did North Sea etc)

The unfortunate truth for some people is unless they are very careful, spending money behaves like a gas and expands to take all available volume.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#34

Post by cagenut »

As much as I appreciate this type of content/story, its really starting to get old to read multi-paragraph descriptions with the very occasional drawing trying to tell me what the chamber looks like, when in 30 seconds of text-on-video with cuts and arrows they could have given me twice the info and left me with a much clearer understanding.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#35

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

eggy wrote: post #25

I worked as a technical diver, not a saturation diver, with full-face comms and Nitrox and spare air, servicing underwater hydraulics/electrical systems for over 450 dives. No need for extended stays underwater or lengthy decompression. Most injuries were related to the physical labor around heavy moving machinery and tool usage. Glad to say there were few injuries and these were all minor injuries of those involved.…

Sorry if this is a stupid question but how far down could you dive?

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#36

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

kk58 wrote: post #29
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #2

been there. done that :) not as dangerous as the article says. at least not the diving part. most of the injuries are people mishandling high-pressure systems (valves, plumbing), electrical hazards (water+electricity), gas leaks, burns ... basically anything that can go wrong on construction sites, but only you're out at sea exposed to the elements. those few times that accidents do happen with divers in a saturation…

What were you doing offshore? Commissioning for topsides is it? How did you pivot from field to coding job?

I was a Commercial Diver moving into Life Support Technician/ Superviser work. Then got a lot of free time (the mentioned boredom) so started getting into Linux, Scripting, C, ... then wrote a program that would implement the Oceaneering Manual in code (how much gas do you need for a 30 day job with 6 divers in a chamber, how much soda for the CO2 scrubbers, if they work on 500 ft and live at 470 ft and you do X number of bell-runs) then spent more time and had more fun implementing this than doing the actual LST work. I also worked a lot together with the ROV operators (who aren't just operating them but the good ones are building them from scratch), and these guys were a real inspiration. I could have chosen ROV's but it what I wanted to get away from was my future life at sea. nuff said I ended up finding a job back on land as a software engineer and now had time to take evening courses and get deeper into CompSci

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#37

Post by 5DFractalTetris »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #35
eggy wrote: post #25

I worked as a technical diver, not a saturation diver, with full-face comms and Nitrox and spare air, servicing underwater hydraulics/electrical systems for over 450 dives. No need for extended stays underwater or lengthy decompression. Most injuries were related to the physical labor around heavy moving machinery and tool usage. Glad to say there were few injuries and these were all minor injuries of those involved.…

Sorry if this is a stupid question but how far down could you dive?

It depends on the tables and physiology, because you need to safely oxygenate all the body's tissues with regular breathing at depth. He could probably dive [edit: said Nitrox, I'd learned non-air Nitrox increases maximum depth but it increases time-at-depth] Trimix until about 100m, deeper might need a different mix.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#38

Post by joeguilmette »

5DFractalTetris wrote: post #37
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but how far down could you dive?

It depends on the tables and physiology, because you need to safely oxygenate all the body's tissues with regular breathing at depth. He could probably dive [edit: said Nitrox, I'd learned non-air Nitrox increases maximum depth but it increases time-at-depth] Trimix until about 100m, deeper might need a different mix.

Nitrox’s maximum operating depth is ~32m at 32%. Oxygen toxicity is a quick death. To go deeper you need to add helium and actually reduce the amount of oxygen in the gas.

Re: The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

#39

Post by GordonS »

yardie wrote: post #28
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #2

been there. done that :) not as dangerous as the article says. at least not the diving part. most of the injuries are people mishandling high-pressure systems (valves, plumbing), electrical hazards (water+electricity), gas leaks, burns ... basically anything that can go wrong on construction sites, but only you're out at sea exposed to the elements. those few times that accidents do happen with divers in a saturation…

I have a friend who works in the North Sea and I envy his life. We met and sailed the Mediterranean together. I took 2 years off to go sailing full time while he managed to work it into his schedule. He is 3 on, 2 off or 2 on, 3 off the rig. While I’m back in the office he can continue to sail indefinitely. You can accomplish so much with a job that gives you plenty of time off every month.

It's not so romantic if you have a family - and from the other side, as a kid, it wasn't nice for us having my dad away for weeks at a time.
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