[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

Wed Aug 9 16:53:57 EDT 2017

Cliff, How did the lights perform ?

Pete
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 8/9/17, irox via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...
 To: "Personal Submersibles General Discussion" <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>, "Personal Submersibles General Discussion" <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
 Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2017, 2:10 PM

 I'm sure you're
 thinking of this as well, but dry ice, if not complete
 separated from the thing it's cooling, can sometimes
 infuse the object being cooled with CO2, which gets released
 when the object heats up/melts again.  Possibly this is
 going to very minor and handled by the scrubber, but
 avoiding the unnecessary introduction of CO2 into the hull
 may be better (e.g. ensuring there is no CO2 transferred to
 the cooling material).

 -----Original Message-----

 From: Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles

 Sent: Aug 9, 2017 11:16 AM

 To: Personal Submersibles General
 Discussion 

 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada
 Trip Report...

 Thanks
 James.  I know on the first Psub convention in Islamorada
 four years ago, Snoopy was towed out with bags of ice for
 cooling.  I like the idea of using the dry ice to super
 cool the water.  I will have to give this some
 thought.
 Regards
 Cliff
 On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at
 10:46 AM, james cottrell via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
 wrote:
 Hi
 Cliff,
 Congrats
 on your dives. Sub really looks great in those
 videos.
 With
 regards to an AC solution, one low tech method would be to
 blow air across ice in a small cooler. Water ice can be
 super cooled with Dry Ice the night before. Dry ice is about
 - 100 F and water ice cooled to this temperature should stay
 cold for quite some time.
 Greg C    
   From: Cliff Redus via
 Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.
 org>
  To: Personal
 Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.
 org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, August
 9, 2017 9:05 AM
  Subject: Re:
 [PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

 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 reversingthe
 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 youare
 using, but the new battery technologies on the way will make
 energyexpenditure
 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 muchwhen
 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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