Lost comms at 60 feet in the Cooper River and had to trust my tender 100%

Was doing a pipeline inspection in the Cooper River near Charleston last Tuesday and about 25 minutes into the dive my comms just died. Total silence. I was at 60 feet, murky as hell, maybe 8 inches of vis, working off touch alone. My tender Mikey is 24 years old and green as grass, been on the boat six weeks. The old me would've panicked and shot straight to the surface. Instead I stopped, held position on the pipe, and did the line signal thing we drilled on his first day. Two tugs, pause, two tugs. Felt like forever, but maybe 40 seconds later I got two tugs back. He read it right. Guided me back to the stage with line pulls the whole way up. I bought him a case of Modelo after we tied off. Point is I used to think the tender was just the guy holding my umbilical. Now I know he's the only thing between me and a bad day. What's your go-to signal setup when comms crap out on you?

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sean_foster9916d ago

Back in 2019 I was doing a harbor job in San Diego and my comms cut out at about 45 feet. My tender was this kid named Danny, maybe three months on the boat. We had a deal where one tug meant stop and two meant come to me, not the other way around. Sounds backwards but it worked for us. When my comms died I gave him two tugs and waited. Took him a bit but he pulled me in steady, nice and slow the whole way. That one tug rule saved me from jerking the line when I got snagged on some junk down there. Whatever setup you drill is the one that works, just gotta make sure both people know it cold before anything goes wrong.

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