Helix Wind Turbine

Last Sunday – for the weekly ‘Church of Scuba’  It was decided that we would scour the bottom of the bay in search of a local residents Helix Wind Turbine what was lost in the 125+ mile an hour winds that hit our island a week earlier.for

Check out Ann Hillmans report on the storm at the KUCB website.

We met at the small boat launch in Unalaska, near the Alyeska Seafoods plant at noon.  Six of us divers surface swam about 281 yards to our respective search areas.  Jennifer, Brandon and Myself were team 2 and Shari, Simon and Aura were team 1 (I just made that up to explain the teams)  Team 1 practically descended on the target – reporting having to swim about 40 feet to it.  Team 2 descended on an old ship wreck (by coincidence, not plan) after a few minutes of checking it out, we swam our pattern and found the wreck AFTER team 1 had already marked it and continued on a recreation dive.

Helix Wind Turbine

PLEASE NOTE: The turbine did not come off it’s mounts until winds reached 125+mph.  More than twice the speed that it was rated for.  Helix Wind is sending a replacement for free and some extra gadgets to help gauge the speed in real time.  Please read the KUCB article!

The helix is in about 45 feet of water.  The owners are not interested in it’s return.  We decided that we would use the recovery as an experience in local salvage diving.  Practicing underwater knots, c-links, lift bag inflation, monitoring and surface dive salvage profile planning.  It will give our newer divers a chance at getting involved in recovery efforts of various items we come across in the drink.  The photos in this gallery were take by Sgt. Jennifer Shockley of the Unalaska Police Department and the author of the world famous Unalaska Police Blotter.  Google it, and you will see what I’m talking about…  The rest of the gallery is here. We will document the rest of the recovery in January of 2010. (right after I return from Vacation)  Those images will be in the gallery as well.