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UCT 2 Seabees Complete Critical Fleet Mooring Inspection and Repairs

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090415-25
Release Date: 4/15/2009 4:06:00 PM

From Underwater Construction Team 2 Public Affairs

GUAM (NNS) -- Seabee divers from Underwater Construction Team (UCT) 2 inspected and repaired fleet moorings at Naval Base Guam throughout the month of March.

Seabees examined and documented the condition of 27 mooring buoys. Seabees also provided repairs to the buoys and the replaced over 2,000 worn zinc anodes that protect the buoys from corrosion.

A typical fleet mooring buoy consists of at least three legs attaching large weights, clumps or anchors to a central ground ring that in turn is connected by a riser chain to the floating mooring buoy.

"With all that steel submerged in the ocean, our job was to inspect all the components of the mooring system to make sure corrosion has not reached a point where the system cannot hold its rated load," said Chief Steelworker (SCW/DV) Brian Oliver. "We also installed zinc anodes on designated links of the chains to drastically slow down the corrosion process."

The fleet moorings provide naval vessels a place to berth during their multiple visits to Guam. With these mooring systems in place and operational, taking on supplies and swapping crews takes significantly less time and the impact to the environment is greatly reduced from not having to constantly set the ship's anchors.

"Twelve of the twenty-seven moorings had legs that were in water depths in excess of one-hundred feet," said Oliver, who also led the Seabee divers during this operation. "Normally diving in deeper water would involve the use of in-water decompression tables using air which keeps divers in the water column longer, or the use of recompression chambers to decompress the divers on the surface."

This deployment offered the use of an oxygen regulator console assembly (ORCA). Using this system 100 percent oxygen is provided to the divers at specified depths to greatly reduce the in-water decompression required.

"The ORCA saved us a lot of time that would have normally been lost to in-water air decompression diving or surface decompression inside our transportable recompression chamber," said Senior Chief Steelworker (SCW/MDV) Leonard Koelbel, who served as the technical expert on this new diving system.

"We performed fifty-five dives deeper than one-hundred thirty feet with working bottom times up to thirty percent longer than with air decompression alone, fifty percent shorter in-water decompression stops and no occurrences of decompression sickness. The system worked flawlessly and we now have an increased capability to perform deeper underwater construction missions."