UB-88
Location: San Pedro, California
Wreck/Site: UB-88
Teams:
Team 1 - Jung Hseih, Norbert Lee
Team 2 - Karim Hamza, Mark Self
Team 3 - Jim Babor, Curtis Wolfslau
Surface Support: Laurie Dickson, Katie McWilliams
Mission Impact: No net collected
Team Ghost Diving USA returned to the UB-88 aboard the Giant Stride. When we concluded our UB-88 project, we found that there was still some net to be cleaned up and there was some steel cable that needed to removed.
Divers, armed with heavy duty bolt cutters, planned to try the cut the cables with the bolt cutters and continue their work removing the remaining nets. We arrived to the site, the anchor dropped and Jung and Norbert geared up to jump in. After getting in, Jung and Norbert noted a strong surface current. They opted to drop below the surface, hoping the current would go away as they got deeper.
Bad news, the current blew them away from the boat in the opposite direction. The team and Captain Jim sprang into action and sent a current line out to them. Jung and Norbert continued to try and get back to the boat using their diver propulsion vehicles aka scooters and kicking. They were not making progress getting back to the boat. They grabbed the current line and the team worked to pull them in. Once they were safely back on board, the team opted to wait for a little bit to see if the current would die down.
Unfortunately, it did not. But, it was a ton of fun to hang out on the boat with the team members and wait. Ultimately, the team opted to cancel the diving for safety reason and headed home.
Until next time, UB-88.