Welcome to the Dive Hut!
After the divers are all prepared, we are off! Our destination is the dive hut and the dive hole we created. This is how we will gain entry to the world beneath the ice.
The dive hut is a really great diving operations platform from which to work. The dive hut is small, maybe 20 feet long by 10 feet wide, constructed from wood. Although each dive hut is a little different, there are some standard features.
The outside of the dive hut. You can see the door, windows, and the snow pushed up against the sleds.
After we position the dive hut, we usually push snow against it on all sides. Can you guess why we do that?
First, the dive huts are all brightly colored and are on sleds. Why do you think they are so brightly colored? Why sleds? Remember, these are out on the sea ice. When we are done with one dive site, we simply tow the dive hut away.
You can see the large white frame, which lays down and is used to tow the dive hut. Also, note the snow around the sleds.
Most dive huts have a door and windows. The windows allow you to view the beautiful scenery and the door is obviously for getting in and out easily. The windows also let in a lot of light, which makes it a bright and enjoyable place to setup for a dive.
View through the window of a dive hut located at The Jetty.
The dive hut is usually equipped with a heater. These are essential! You never realize how important they are until they stop working. Outside the temperatures are regularly below zero and it is no fun to get ready for a dive in a cold dive hut.
I am so grateful for the dive hut heater!
Throughout the dive hut, there are hooks and shelves to place clothing and gear. A little tip: it's nice to put your coat next to the heater and your gloves and boots on the shelf above the heater.
There are usually shelves or benches in the dive hut for all the gear.
You need to have a place in the dive hut to hang all those big red parkas!
Of course, in the floor, near the center of the hut, are removable boards that can be taken out to give us access to the dive hole. You need to be careful passing dry equipment over the dive hole, because once you drop something into the water, there's only one way it's coming back to you: wet!
Divers prepare for entry around the dive hole in the floor of the dive hut. (Photo courtesy of Annamarie Pasqualone)
Around the Dive Hole
Within the dive hut, there are always many hooks to connect essentially dive gear to. Close to the floor there are usually hooks that we can connect a weighted down-line. This is a piece of rope with a weight at the bottom. The down-line has strobe lights and checkered flags attached to it. These help to make the dive hole more visible and give the divers a way to easily find the dive hole.
The water is so clear that in this picture you can see the downline with flags attached. The ladder to climb out is on the left.
There is also a hook for a ladder. With the ice and snow, there is usually a bit of a difference between the dive hut floor and the water level.
Getting ready
SCUBA diving under the ice is always done with a buddy. Therefore there are always at least two divers getting ready at the same time. There is a sort of dance that occurs within the dive hut, coordinating the gear so that both divers are just about ready to enter the water at the same time. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. To find out how the gear comes together to make for a successful dive, check out tomorrow's journal entry.