[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

Douglas Suhr via Personal_Submersibles personal_submersibles at psubs.org
Wed Aug 9 17:45:49 EDT 2017


I'll see if I can attach a couple of photos of the initial light test...

On 8/9/17, Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles
<personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
> Lights performed great!  These 5K lumen lights are very bright.  I have
> four on the boat two pointing forward and two to the side.  The lights
> would illuminate the water around the boat very nicely.  Also can run the
> lights indefinitely out of the water.  After the night dive when the boat
> was on the dock, we used the sub lights to light up all around the sub so
> we could secure it for the night.  I need to look at my data to see what
> the measured current was for all four lights but I? know it was low .
> Flood orientation worked great.  At the base, I had better vis at night on
> the bottom with lights than in day without.  Also fish are attracted to
> light.
>
> Best Regard
>
> Cliff
>
> On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 3:53 PM, Pete Niedermayr via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
>> 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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