Living on an island with small time stores is always an adventure. You almost have to be your own parts store, as most of the business close at 5:00 each evening.
We need to get the compressor back up to full air capacity. Not being able to dive beyond 30 feet just does not put enough worms in the bags.
For some reason the big half inch air line elbows are breaking off inside the compressor.
Mike and I race to town for all the parts we think we need, then back to the boat to start disassembling the compressor. We have to unbolt it off the back of the boat, then remove the compressor from the system.
We try to extract the broken elbow but find it is heated in and not budging. We do not dare ruin the threads inside as we need to get another elbow installed and run the airlines.
Back to the hardware store. Back to the boat. To my house for drills. To the boat. Back to the hardware store.
Daylight is now pulling darkness out of its pockets where it stored it this morning, and spreading it quickly over the mountains and ocean. Darkness creeps into the harbor quickly devouring every last bit of daylight. Adding to the fading light we are working in pouring rain requiring full rain gear and watching everything getting soaked. Lovely!
We have to drill out the elbow then back to the hardware store for one last die for cutting new threads, we walk into the store as they are locking the door, talk our way inside and get our final purchase!
The die works perfectly, making a good thread to install our new elbow. We use a copper line elbow system I have as a back up and, working by head lamps, finish putting the compressor back together.
We fire up the compressor and run it as darkness snuffs out this long, long day.
Mike and I "high-five" as we head up the dock claiming our fix bomb proof!
"Meet you at the truck at 6:00 a.am.," I tell Mike as we say our good nights. "Good work on the repairs," I thank him as we part.
Six in the morning comes way to soon.
I stagger down the stairs to the truck to find my soaked woollies did not dry properly in the dryer. to my back up pair.
Mike and I launch the boat in the dark and make the idle through the harbors by braille.
We have to idle much farther today as the daylight is loosing to the winter hours so quickly.
"Have to rig up the Sodium lights for next week," I comment to Mike as I throttle up. "Keep your eyes peeled for logs and kelp." This is definitely two person driving for a while.
We make about half of our run just hoping we will see things in the water before it grows light enough to really see.
"Wow, this is nerve wracking," Mike comments as we relax with a cup of hot coffee.
Back at our dive spot. We fire up the machines and I quickly get into my dive gear.
"Running good?" I ask mike.
"You betcha!" he smiles back.
The little 9.9 hp kicker motor seems to be failing to go into reverse gear. Not good. Mike grabs a pair of needle nosed pliers to make adjustments. We get it to go into gear after much fiddling. Not good as that is such an important part of the dive operation. Mike has to keep the boat near my bubbles and be able to get the corks to bring the bags to the surface.
"It looks like It will work. I'll keep an eye on it," Mike tells me as I sit on the back of the boat clearing my mask for the dive.
'Two minutes till dive time," Mike says.
"Three, two, one, you're good to go," Mike counts me into the water.
I clear my sinus' as I watch my computer count me down to the bottom. At thirty feet I start seeing some cucumbers. I pick as quickly as I can.
About a dozen cucumbers into my first bag my air shuts off completely. I suck hard on my regulator. Nothing.
I head for the surface and crack my pony bottle drawing a gulp of air. I shut it off to conserve the little bottle.
I crank the valve shut on my dry suit to keep the air in as I break surface to keep myself floating with the heavy weight belt still around my waist.
Mike hauls me to the boat hand over handing the air line.
"It broke again!" Mike shouts.
He shuts off the compressor as I climb onto the boat.
"Yup, it is the same elbow fitting! It is broken clean off." he says, leaning over the back of the machine.
"The kicker cable seems to be broken as well," he further informs me.
"You've got to be kidding," I agonize out loud to him.
Sure enough, the elbow fitting has sheered off the big half inch copper fitting and the threads are left up inside the compressor motor.
Kicker cable is not working at all. We are done.
"We might be able to jury rig around all of this but it will take us a couple hours of our four hour dive time," I tell Mike. "Or, we can just bag it, get back to town and fix everything properly."
Mike and I decide to scrap the day's dive and just get back to town for a proper fix of all the machines.
So much for our hoped better day!
We clean the twelve cucumbers and Mike takes the meat home to try. We have not really eaten the very cucumbers we harvest so many times. Mike says he is going to smoke some of them to see if they will taste like smoked clam. (that is what we keep hearing).
We head back to town with our tails between our legs. Not a good first dive opening at all. Each year the diving is getting tougher to find the product as the sea otters compete with us for the cucumbers. I feel we have just squandered our very best opening on one of our best dive areas. Oh well, at least I am alive and well. Next week will have to be the make up dive, even though the tide will be at its most un-divable stage that week.
Mike and I work on the boat and compressor the full rest of the day. We learn that we have been tightening the line between the elbows too much putting pressure on the elbows. The great heat from the compressor motor causes the elbow failure. We cut longer lines between the elbows and wedge them in. It looks good, but only a few days run time will tell the real tale.
Mike and I head home in the dark, tired and a tad bit discouraged.
This is the life of a diver.
Mike at the compressor pulling in a dive hose
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