For those in peril on the sea

The Peril of Peril
and the
Impermanence of Calm

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. At sea this phenomenon is best illustrated pictorially by paintings like Hokusai's The Great Wave, Rembrandt's Sea of Galilee, and Klee's Sinbad the Sailor which illustrate the perils of the sea. This March has been no exception. On the 12th of March a father died in a futile attempt to save his son. The young man was harvesting precious coral and had taken a dive on air to a depth of 250 feet. Nitrogen narcosis, caused him lose consciousness. Rapid ascent for rescue must have cause embolism and fatal decompression. The latter was the fate of the father. Even a marine mammal would have died under the same breathing conditions. Only a single breathhold without scuba on the part of the father could have had any possibility of success and even then he would have to be met by a buddy breather at two hundred feet or less. Last week on of two twins frolicking in modest surf was trapped in the rocks. The second died in an attempt at rescue. The first made it ashore. A marine mammal and a wise human would have headed out to deep water where they could be safe for hours while others came for rescue in a boat or helicopter.
In contrast to these perils are the many pictorials of calm waters by artists of every genre.

The perils or rewards of the sea depend, not only on the state of the sea and the configuration of the shore but the skill of the mariner, swimmer, or submariner. But even for the most skilled, it is easy to transit from a safe configuration of the ocean to one of extreme peril or for the ocean to suddenly change its own behavior in this regard. The poet Byron was highly skilled as a swimmer and his depiction of the ocean was that of a skilled child of the sea. He persuaded the poet Shelly to become a swimmer also. Shelly romanticized the sea as a child of the land romanticizes the sea.

I see the Deep's untrampled floor
With green and purple seaweeds strown,
I see the waves upon the shore
Like light dissolved in star showers, thrown,
I sit upon the sands alone;
The lightning of the noontide Ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share my emotion.

What happens when one takes land based romantic notions out to sea. Students of the ocean answer in unison "You die!!"
Shelly did indeed die at sea, not by being struck by lightning, not by being washed out to sea from the beach by a big wave, but by capsizing in a small boat in an unexpected squall.

Only yesterday a twin of two brothers drowned by coming to the rescue of the other when he perceived that he was in trouble in moderate surf.

Students of this course are encouraged to be children of the ocean, and to that end, each semester, they join the instructor at a cove on the Big Island of Hawaii for a practical initiation into the mythical International Institute for the Advancement of Humans as Marine Mammals. All will snorkel and some will skin dive in the waters of the cove. These waters are shown schematically in the accompanying illustration.

When the sea is calm as in our Cote ˆ de Nord painting the bay is an ideal bay for beginners. A sloping sandy beach permits shallow water entry for initial training. There is no surf and the beginner can edge his/her way out to the point of rocks. On the possibility that a small offshore lateral current exists, the beginner is forbidden to go beyond the point, but the intermediate and advanced swimmers may explore the entire shore line with safety and comfort.

When there is a modest offshore wind and/or swell small surf will break about fifteen feet offshore. Inshore of the surf break the surface is calm and the pool so created is ideal for the beginner but he/she may not go beyond this point without an experienced escort. Of course regardless of the skill of the swimmer, the buddy system must be in force. One never knows when an individual will lose consciousness for one reason or another. On land this causes little problem (except while driving an automobile) but in the water can be fatal.

On March the first, Professor Craven's class in the disguise of a collection of individual members of the International Institute for the Advancement of Humans as Marine Mammals visited the cove with fins and snorkel. One third were excellent experienced skin divers and snorkelers. Most were qualified in Scuba. One student was a relative neophyte. There was a moderate surf which had a break about fifteen feet from the shore. The momentum of the wave carries water into the center of the bay which leaves at the sides of the bay in the form of rip currents heading out to sea. These were very modest. If there was an offshore lateral current it too was modest. The first set of excursions required Professor Craven to work with the beginner in the shallow water until he was qualified to swim with one of the intermediate snorkelers. The others were paired and experiments were conducted with location as though they were members of a pod through the making of underwater sound. Most of their attention was devoted to observation of the marine life.

When the second excursion was initiated the wind and wave had come up a little but not enough to change the level of concern (Aha, never make that assumption, if the weather changes an estimate must be made of change in tactics) There being an odd number of snorkelers Professor Craven joined a pair to form a trio. Professor Craven has had more than twenty five years of experience with man-in-the sea programs and should know better. He has almost lost highly experienced divers because they took a routine dive in solo conditions. But - and here is the lesson - he has never been able to enforce that discipline in relatively benign conditions and he did not enforce it on himself. The party headed out to sea and the lateral current carried them past the point and out of sight of land. Craven was wearing flippers that were the wrong size which placed an unusual strain on his calf. Aha, a cramp in the leg. Not serious for experienced swimmers but painful and a signal that more serious cramps might be on the way. Sympathetically one of the trio also experienced a cramp. The correct decision was made to return to the beach. The beach not being in sight a green marker was elected on the opposite point and the party steered in that direction. The current was still small but continuous movement was advised and Craven did not notice that he had overshot the beach. Leading the trio he headed inshore employing the surface wave to carry him in and holding position with minimum expenditure of energy during the return flow phase of each wave.

Oh damn - Craven misses the beach and a wave carries him into the rocks. Wisely one of the trio stops short of the break where he will not be affected by the wave so that he can observe Craven to see if he gets into trouble. The other member with the cramp splits off and makes a landing on the sandy beach. If that party had gotten into trouble then problems could have escalated but there was no negative reinforcement for that lapse, even though in the future that lapse could prove critical.

Craven now has a dilemma. If he were a neophyte he would try to make shore over the rocks - no no no. He might even try to stand. No No a Thousand times no. At the least he would suffer bruises and scrapes and contusions - at worst he would be knocked out. His mission now is to get back into safe waters. The Navy admonition against being caught in rocks and shoals is strong in his mind. The term for Navy regulations is "rocks and shoals". The fear of every ship captain is "rocks and shoals". The fear of every salvage master is salvage in the rocks and shoals. The shoal water increases the intensity of the breaking wave and leaves no room to float or to swim. Craven could try to head straight out to sea but his seaward progress could be defeated with each new wave. The way to safety is lateral progress toward the sandy beach with as much seaward progress as the interval between waves allows. Another dilemma relates to the mask and snorkel. Should they be abandoned, should the snorkel be used or abandoned. There is no point in snorkeling since the head is in and out of the water in a random manner. It is important to observe the wave as it arrives and equally important to observe the bottom when the wave has passed. Here experience counts, for the experienced swimmer has no trouble catching the occasional breath of opportunity without swallowing water or being drowned in it. In any event panic is an unthinkable response.

Shall the swimmer fight the wave or relax and go with the flow. If there is no room to dive beneath the wave (damn those shallows) there is no choice, the relative motion between swimmer and wave must be minimized to minimize impact forces. To the observer on shore the experienced swimmer does not appear to be in trouble. Indeed students watching this event were delighted to see their professor frolicking in the rocks and waves. Sure enough he works his way into calm water and there with snorkel back in the mouth he relaxes and rests before assuring himself that nothing exists between himself and the beach but the sand. The damage is de minibus, the skin is bloody and abraded in a few locations but nothing is deep. Appearance causes some concern for a few students but for most it is the most minor of incidents having little pedagogical value.

Not so, increase the wave height by a foot or so, change the configuration of the rocks and the position of the jagged edges by a few inches, and a serious incident results and it all begins with the wrong size flippers, the use of a trio instead of a duo, the failure to navigate and to make an assessment of the location of the beach before heading for the shore and a cavalier enjoyment of the landward propulsive force of the wave.

But if one thinks that the ocean is dangerous just wait until one gets on the highway. On the high seas you can always call the Coast Guard and sing the Navy Hymn but what can you do on the highway but fasten the seat belt, drive defensively and pray.

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