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It takes a special kind of person to look into Antarctica's
McMurdo Sound, all sub-30, frigid degrees of it, and think, “I
should get in this water.” It's not just cold, either. Before the
13,000-ton Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star came storming in to make a
channel between Ross Island and the Antarctic mainland, there was a
solid 5-to-10 foot layer of ice acting as an effective deterrent to
any swimming-related activities. That layer is partially gone now,
but the leftovers bobbing in the cutter's wake range in size from
soccer ball to mid-size sedan.
But as luck, or rather proper
planning, would have it, there are seven specially trained members
traveling with the Polar Star during Operation Deep Freeze 2016.
These are Coast Guard and U.S. Navy divers. And entering freezing,
ice-strewn water is exactly what they signed up to do.
Operation Deep Freeze is the U.S. military's annual logistical
support of the National Science Foundation's U.S. Antarctic Program.
The Polar Star crew plays the role of channel-maker, this year
breaking a 13-mile channel through the ice allowing two supply
vessels to reach the NSF's McMurdo Station: a haven for scientific
research on the Southern Continent.
The mission takes the
icebreaker over 10,000 miles from its homeport, and nearly that far
from the nearest person qualified to dive on the ship's hull to
inspect for damage. If a rudder or propeller becomes jammed with
ice, or encounters some other unforeseeable mishap, the wait time
for a trained diver could be crippling to the time-sensitive
mission.
A trained shipboard diver isn't just an enthusiast
with a certificate earned over a couple weekends, either. Coast
Guard divers have to know vessels, not just how to dive. And working
in a place as remote and cold as Antarctica only adds to the
necessary training to complete the mission.
“We're required
to go to the Coast Guard cold-water ice course, the military's only
ice diving course,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Harris, a
diver with Coast Guard Regional Dive Locker West, or RDLW. “It's
different than regular diving because if something goes wrong you
can't just go to the surface. There is no surface; it's hard ice.”
When the cutter first came to a halt in the fast ice of McMurdo
Sound, the dive team was ready to put their training to use. While
most of the crew scrambled out onto the ice for games of football
and photos with penguins, the seven divers were focused on the
opening just off the ship's stern. They wanted to be under the ice,
not on top of it.
With the help of the cutter's deck
department, two divers were lowered in a crane-operated dive stage
into the slush below. Months of preparation came to fruition as the
team familiarized themselves with the underside of the Polar Star
and the surrounding ice edge. Their excitement showed as they went
about doing what they do best. You can't very well wake up and go to
work in full view of an active volcano, a majestic mountain range,
and a smattering of Antarctic wildlife and not realize that it's an
awesome day.
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The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star deck department lowers two
Coast Guard divers from the cutter into McMurdo Sound at the
National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Jan. 19,
2016. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Grant DeVuyst)
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“So far my experience diving in Antarctica is definitely
a lot different than any other dive operation I've done,”
said Petty Officer 2nd Class Dylan Smith, a diver with RDLW.
“Not many people in the world get to visit Antarctica, let
alone dive in the ice. We've seen orcas, we've seen
penguins; the first dive we completed we got to dive with
Minke whales. It's a different world under there.”
Equally as apparent as the enthusiasm as the divers took
turns kicking around in McMurdo Sound and driving their
remotely operated submersible, were the layers of safety
built into the operation. After conducting a thorough brief,
outlining the day's plan, the dive team maintains line
tenders for each diver, through-water communications, a dive
supervisor, an emergency standby diver, and a dive medical
technician on immediate standby. The only emergency stopgap
they didn't have on-scene was ready at nearby McMurdo
Station: a recompression chamber, the only way to avoid
decompression sickness after a fast ascent.
“You have to have other things on the backburner in the event
that something goes south,” said Chief Petty Officer Chuck Ashmore,
the maintenance chief at RDLW, and the dive team leader for
Operation Deep Freeze 2016. “That was one of our first hurdles,
making contact with McMurdo and ensuring that all the key personnel
for emergencies were available.”
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Coast Guard and Navy divers perform an equipment check before a dive
from the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star at the National Science
Foundation's McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Jan. 19, 2016. The dive
team exercises a series of equipment checks to mitigate risk in the
remote austere Antarctic environment. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Grant DeVuyst)
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Thanks to their preparation, the dive, and a later dive
at McMurdo Station's ice pier, went off without any
problems. Things were going as planned, and it looked like
the divers wouldn't have to do anything other than
familiarization and training dives. Right up until the Polar
Star's last few days in Antarctica.
A predecessor to
the McMurdo Station ice pier, the man-made means of mooring
for vessels visiting the science station, had broken free
from some nearby fast ice and was positioned dangerously
close to the pier approach created by the Polar Star. One
supply vessel had already come and gone, but the second, the
fuel tanker Maersk Peary, was still offloading its content
at McMurdo Station. With two days until its scheduled
departure, the steel and cable-reinforced pier raised
concern as it drifted astern of the tanker, potentially
exposing the vessel's propellers and rudder to loose cables,
protruding rebar, and dense ice.
With the end of their Antarctic mission in sight, the Polar Star
crew developed a plan prior to escorting the Maersk Peary from its
mooring. This involved deploying their divers, who were itching for
a chance to do something other than a practice dive.
“We were
lucky enough to be called on to use our specialty to do something
for the mission,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Keith Closson, a
diver with Coast Guard Regional Dive Locker East. “They wanted to
make sure that nothing would be in the way of the vessel.”
One of the cutter's landing craft launched with the entire dive team
embarked. The first step was to see if the boat could simply push
the wayward ice pier up onto shore, where it would be safely out of
the way. With a few careful nudges the ice pier moved closer to
shore, and McMurdo Station personnel stepped in to tie it off to
land securely. There was still a concern that anchor cables might be
lurking beneath the surface, so it was time to send in the divers.
Both Harris and Closson suited up to enter the slushy, though
pristine, water.
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Coast Guard divers check equipment on Petty Officer 2nd Class
Dylan Smith, a Coast Guard Regional West diver, on one of the Coast
Guard Cutter Polar Star's landing craft in McMurdo Sound,
Antarctica, Feb. 6, 2016. As the standby diver, Smith was prepared
to enter the water in an emergency situation. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Grant DeVuyst)
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They tipped off the landing craft into McMurdo Sound with
a splash, and with a thumbs-up to the tending crew, their
inspection began. The water was crystal clear.
“We
saw the wire ropes that had previously been connected to
anchors. It kind of looked like tentacles of a big jellyfish
draped down into the water,” said Closson. “Even though it
looked hazardous from above, anything that could do damage
was either directly under the ice or back towards land. We
were able to give the Captain a good feeling that there
would be no interruptions to the mission.”
There's no
usual or routine for Operation Deep Freeze. At the bottom of
the world, no matter your job, every day can bring a new
problem to solve. Now the divers will be able to go home and
pass off what they learned to next year's dive team, who
will take on the same mission and a new set of challenges.
“There's a huge difference between normal dive
operations in San Diego; everything, almost from square one,
has to be done differently,” said Smith. “We're trained to
meet these obstacles head on and overcome them.”
By U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Grant DeVuyst
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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