Nigel Thompson - Pheia

“I don’t understand. What’s the difference from the loop they have in the cable now?”

“I need to draw you a picture really but the problem is that Morrison has clamped the cable so that the cable makes a sharp turn as it comes out of the clamp. We want to create a loop so that the cable goes smoothly into the loop and then out of it with the two clamps on two sections of cable parallel to each other.”

“And to do that, you need the Pheia floating?” Williams asked.

Babin nodded to Leclerc.

“We have another option.” Leclerc said. “We cut the cable from the winch above the damaged area and clamp it back together with the cable that is attached to the top of the Pheia.”

“Can they do that?” Williams asked.

Babin answered. “Yes, they have a cutter but not enough clamps. So we want Morrison to remove one clamp from the loop they have now and use that to join the cables after they have cut it. Then we take up the slack until the loop is free. Then they take off the other clamp and use it to back up the first one.”

Williams looked hard at Babin and Leclerc. They were engineers. They had probably argued this out over a whiteboard and a calculator. “And this is safe?” he asked.

“Not really,” Babin responded. “But we see no other choice. We want to ask Morrison about it since he has seen the situation down there and may have other insight. We also need to discuss the method we think they can use to stabilize the position of the crew cylinder.”

Williams agreed. “Let’s go and ask him then.”

When Williams’ voice came over the speaker in the console, Kate was laughing at Washington for his awful knowledge of rock music. She had found his answers to some of the questions hilarious. Washington was definitely more of a country fan.

Morrison got up off the floor and pushed the talk button. “Morison here. Over.”

Williams explained that Babin wanted to talk to him about the winch cable.

“OK. Put her on. Over.”

Babin explained the plan to Morrison. The others stopped their game and listened.

When Babin had finished, there was silence.

Morrison pushed the mike button. “You have got to be out of your mind. Over.”

The sound of Babin laughing came over the speaker. “Sorry.” She said. “Leclerc just won a bet we had. We do have another idea but I doubt you’ll like it any better. Over.”

“Let’s hear it. Over.”

The others had stood up and were with Morrison at the console.

“They are crazy if they think one of those clamps will hold this thing up.” Stephens said.

Babin came back over the speaker. “We think we might be able to slide another set of clamps and some cable down the wire to you. You could use that to clamp the uphaul to the Pheia before you cut the damaged part out. Over.”

“That’s more like it” Stephens said.

“We like that better. Over.” Morrison said.

“Is that going to work?” Kate asked. “Will it actually slide all the way down here?”

“I don’t know,” Morrison answered. “But it’s real easy to find out.”

He pressed the talk button again. “Can you send down another lift bag too? Over.”

There was a delay. Morrison could almost hear them discussing it.

“Yes. But we think we’d like to try to send down the wire and clamps first. Then follow that with the lift bag with some weights inside it.”

“Why would they expect any of that to work?” Kate asked. “Surely it will just get hung up on the wire.”

“I guess we’ll wait and see.” Morrison suggested. “I like that better than relying on one clamp.”

Babin’s voice came back again. “We also want to send down another wire rig to stabilize the crew cylinder. We are concerned that it not move as we try to pull the Pheia back up. Over.”

Morrison pushed the talk button. “OK. How will that work? Over.”

“We want to tie the tops of the two cylinders together to prevent any further separation there, then attach lines from the weight stack on the crew cylinder to the weight stack on the ops cylinder, one on each side. That will stop it swaying and prevent it from rotating further up. Lastly, we want to rearrange the lift cables on the top of both cylinders to even out the lift forces. Over.”

Morrison raised his eyebrows and looked at the others. “And you are going to send all this down to us?” he asked.

“Yes. We are assembling the cables and clamps now,” Babin replied.

On the surface, Babin and Leclerc organized the equipment. They took several lengths of cable and made up the sets of cables and clamps needed for each attachment. When they were all assembled they made a short loop of cable around the main lift wire and attached all the others to it.

Once Leclerc had done up the last clamp he took a large cable tie and attached the wrench to the main loop of wire then dropped the whole assembly it into the water. The wire made a splash as it hit the surface and disappeared immediately.

“I wish we could be sure it’s going to go all the way,” Babin said looking down into the water. “Let’s get the bag ready.”

They took a large lifting bag and put about 20 pounds of dive weights in it. Leclerc attached a large snap link to the bag and lifted it up. “I think it will jam on the wire.” He said.

Babin looked at it. “I agree. Take most of the weight out. We just need to make it negative. If it flutters in the water it will take longer to go down but I think that will stop it from snagging up.”

Leclerc tipped the bag up and the weights fell on the deck. He picked up a four pound weight and dropped it in the bag then rolled the bag up to get the air out.

He reached out and snapped the link around the barge’s winch cable then let go.

The bag hit the water and stayed there unrolling on the surface and sinking very slowly. Once water had covered one end it sank faster and started to descend. Leclerc watched it go down through the clear water. The yellow bag was quite visible as it went down the wire.

Babin leaned over the side and watched. “Is it still moving?” she said.

“Barely.” Leclerc answered.

She picked up a dive belt and threaded a few weights onto it then reached out and passed it around the lift cable. She put the end of the belt through the buckle and pulled it tight until it was almost snug on the cable, then dropped it into the water.

The weights hit the surface and went down the cable. Babin and Leclerc watched until the weights hit the lift bag’s snap link. They saw the bag change shape in the water and get smaller.

“Alright,” Babin said. “I wonder if the sonar can track that.”

The loop of cable floated slowly down through the water column like a large leaf falling from a tree in still air. It floated to one side, tipped down and floated to the other side.

Above it, the dive bag and weight belt passed a manta ray cruising off the top of the wall. The ray changed course slightly to avoid the suspicious fish and went on its way, its massive wings beating slowly.

When Babin asked the sonar operator if he could see the weights, he laughed. “That’s what? About the size of a parrot fish?” He shook his head. “Sorry.” he added. “There’s way to much other noise from the wall to pick that out.”

In the Pheia there was a lot of discussion about how long the wire falling from the surface would take to arrive.

“Let’s just wait until we are sure it should be here before we go out.” Morrison said. “We don’t need to be out there wasting gas waiting for it.”

“So, how long is that?” Stephens asked.

“I have no idea.” Morrison answered.

“You guys ever do math at school?” Kate asked.

“Sure.” Stephens answered here. “Adding and stuff like that. And I can count all they way to twenty in Spanish.”