[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

Wed Aug 9 09:03:07 EDT 2017

Footage from my sub on the trip is limited due to condensation on
viewport.  I used Dove soap on the viewport interior prior to taking off
but because of the humidity , temperature and duration of the dive, this
treatment did not last and I did not have more soap on board.  The other
issue is I only had two hand towels on board and these became soaked with
sweat.  As such, they were not good for cleaning the condensation off after
the two hour tow to the dive site.  Action items:  Have small bottle of
Dove soap on board and more towels for future long duration dives.

Yes, I have been reading up on peltier coolers.  I have quite a bit of
battery capacity so this could work.  Unfortunately, mounting on hull won't
work for me as I have syntactic foam under the FRP shell over the hull so I
don't have a cool surface to mount on.  I do have a pair of plugged off
ports on the bottom of the boat that would give me access to cooling water
source if I installed a small pump on this circuit.  Pushing this water
through a small fin-fan cooler like you would see on water cooled
motorcycle would help with the temperature some what but not humidity.   At
Islamorada, the average water temperature at the time of the dive was about
87F so this would not have helped all that much.  A small DC AC system that
controlled both temperature and humidity would be better.

On the thruster pneumatic pressure compensation, I was very happy with how
this worked.  I have all four of my thrusters connected to 1/4" SS tubing
that is manifold into a single pressure reducing/relieving regulator
(thanks Hugh)  under the cover just aft of the pilot. I was not sure if a
single regulator would work or if I would need one for each thruster but it
looks like one was adequate.  I have had two deep dives with the
arrangement, one to 155 ft and one to 100 ft and have had no issues with
water in the thrusters.

Best Regards

Cliff

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 10:50 PM, Alan via Personal_Submersibles <
personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

> Thanks Cliff,
> I presume you shot some footage from your sub & this is the entrée!
> Nice & clear, you must have been pretty happy down there!
> After you mentioned air conditioning, I looked into peltier elements &
> air conditioning units. The peltier conditioners have only 25% the
> efficiency
> of a normal compression cycle system, but are really small & by reversing
> the polarity can act as heaters. A few of those peltier elements stuck to
> the hull
> with air channelled past them might be the way to go! Not sure what
> batteries you
> are using, but the new battery technologies on the way will make energy
> expenditure less of an issue!
> Do you have all 4 motors exhausting through one regulator? Couldn't see
> any
> air coming out of the motor seals so the pressure isn't building up too
> much
> when exhausting.
> Cheers Alan
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 9/08/2017, at 8:25 AM, Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
> Added two quick and dirty Youtube videos from 2017 Psubs Regatta.  The
> first is the 100 ft dive 5.3 miles offshore on Aug 3
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHqL49V0lMw and the second is a night
> dive in front of Doug's house  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDBw1ZOdKaI.
> Alec is working on a more comprehensive video of the Regatta.
>
> Regards
>
> Cliff
>
> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 4:53 PM, Douglas Suhr via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
>> Greetings PSUBS group, Douglas Suhr here to share my take on the 4-day
>> sub operation we just completed in Islamorada, FL (July 31st, August
>> 1-3).
>>
>> Wow, what a whirlwind! So July 31st was really an arrival / setup day
>> with August 1-3 being true operational days. Though it was unfortunate
>> that Alec wasn't able to make it with Shackleton, we had our hands
>> full with Cliff's R-300. Without Shackleton, we also had enough time
>> to get Snoopy set up and lowered into the canal for some basic diving.
>>
>> List of Crew: Dan Lance, Steve McQueen, Cliff Redus, Rick Maxwell,
>> River Dolfi, Mike Patterson, Doug, Sarah, Douglas Suhr.
>>
>> This was my first time meeting Dan Lance, a (retired) saturation diver
>> and commercial welder. What a pleasure to have him join us on this
>> operation. Dan is modest, but most willing to share his knowledge and
>> extensive experience with a newbie like me. So pleased to have chatted
>> with him in the Keys. During the towing of the R-300, Dan manned the
>> tow line and helped with comms.
>>
>> Steve McQueen and River Dolfi did awesome jobs as our frog men.
>> Filming, attaching / detaching davit and tow lines, etc. they were
>> both in and out of the water quite a bit (especially Steve). I think
>> River took a little jelly sting for the team. What troopers!
>>
>> Cliff and his assistant Rick are such a joy be around. Rick is one of
>> the friendliest people you'll ever meet (and even brought a gift for
>> the group: a watermelon, straight from Texas!). Cliff is always
>> willing to share his expertise (and sub, too) with anyone who'd like
>> to learn more. I know that between Dan Lance and Cliff, I learned more
>> than I can remember last week.
>>
>> Mike Patterson, mom, dad and myself were all just providing whatever
>> kind of "troop support" we could to Cliff and the R-300.
>>
>> River, Steve and Myself got in some dive time on Snoopy in the canal
>> (which was great), but I think the biggest accomplishment was getting
>> the R-300 out a ways into the ocean.
>>
>> Our Boston Whaler (a 25' boat with a single 250hp Yamaha) was able to
>> tow the R-300 out about 5 miles into the ocean (at about 4mph). We
>> were in radio communication with Cliff most of the time, though we did
>> suffer a few intermittent losses in comms. When we got to a spot about
>> 100 feet deep, we started to slow down a bit and at that point the tow
>> line hook (an admittedly cheap thing) let loose(!) so we decided that
>> we had reached our dive location. We switched from marine radio to OTS
>> and Cliff started down. Visibility was supurb! As Cliff neared the
>> bottom at 100 − 110 feet, he was still quite visible from the Whaler!
>> His 18 foot long R-300 looked to be about 3 inches long, but wow did
>> it ever stand out from the rest of the sandy bottom. Cliff spent about
>> an hour "flying" his sub, surfacing, diving and maneuvering about,
>> testing systems and observing the ocean around him. By the time Cliff
>> surfaced and we towed back to port Antigua, elapsed time stood at 4.5
>> / 5 hours (estimate). Cliff said that he stayed cool by the water
>> flowing over the sub's dome hatch while in tow. Upon returning I think
>> we were all ready to take a break, but everyone felt great
>> accomplishment with the mission.
>>
>> A couple of lessons I took away from the tow out: We need better tow
>> equipment (better line, hardware and maybe a quick release). Our boat
>> REALLY needs a GPS (still don't have one). Towing into waves isn't so
>> much a problem, but when towing with the waves, our tow line needs to
>> be measured so as to sustain the proper distance between tow vessel
>> and sub (otherwise the sub and boat are constantly slacking and then
>> jerking, stressing the tow line and making it difficult for boat and
>> sub to track straight).
>>
>> The devotion of our crew was amazing, even in the heat and the waves
>> everyone did their jobs. Managing even a small sub operation like this
>> is more work / effort than meets the eye, that's for sure. At dinner,
>> one of the main discussions revolved around a support vessel that can
>> carry a sub or two on board, eliminating the slow, time consuming tow
>> out to an ocean dive site. Dan Lance shared details on his support
>> vessel project, which is no doubt going to be a dream in terms of
>> logistics. Hopefully when said vessel is ready to sail, Dan will lend
>> its services to host a diving event! ~ Douglas S.
>>
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