Had a real call on a bridge piling job in Savannah that forced a gear choice

We were doing a visual check on some concrete spalling, maybe 40 feet down in the Savannah River. The current was picking up faster than the tide chart said. My choice was to stick with the standard Kirby Morgan hat I was in, or switch to the full face mask with coms that was on the boat but I hadn't used much. I went with the full face, thinking talking to topside clearly would be safer if things got hairy. Good call. About 20 minutes in, the viz went to zero with stirred-up silt and I got a line snagged on rebar. Being able to just talk and not fumble with a slate while working blind let the tender talk me through the tangle. Took ten minutes, but I got free without having to cut anything. Anyone else had a situation where switching to a different comms setup mid-job saved your skin?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thomas2mo ago

Ever think about how much that extra gear costs versus the price of getting stuck down there? You made the right call, but does your company push back on using the more expensive setup for routine jobs? Seems like a lot of shops would rather risk it.

mila_craig42mo ago

Companies always cut corners until they're paying for a rescue mission.

blairwhite1mo ago

Wait, @mila_craig4 are you saying the company actually paid for the rescue mission or did insurance kick in? Because that's a pretty important difference. Most places have rescue insurance built into their liability coverage specifically so they don't have to eat that cost directly. The real corner cutting I see is when they cheap out on the prep gear like backup ropes and extra oxygen, which is what actually causes the need for a rescue in the first place. A buddy of mine works for a bigger operation and they got hit with a big surcharge after their third rescue in two years, so now they actually buy the good stuff because the insurance company started checking their equipment logs.