over the cliff

About a year ago there was a cylinder explosion in Luraville, FL. A fill station attendent was filling a 30 cu ft Al pony bottle with 100% oxygen. Reports differ, but some say that while the cylinder was hooked up to the banks, but before the valve was turned on, the woman dropped the cylinder, a hissing was heard, and then the cylinder exploded: flash oxygen fire and all.

The woman was killed, several others were injured, and much of the store was damaged.

The store was Cave Excursions, owned and operated by Bill Rennaker, with whom we’ve been diving and friends ever since we began cave diving.

Then the investigation began. Reasons for the explosion varied, but my father and I are of the belief that the Cylinder exploded due to a crack in the neck. Aluminum cylinders made of the 6351 alloy (which is any Luxfer Al cylinder made before 1988) have a tendency to develop cracks in the neck which weaken the integrity of the cylinder and cause them to explode- usually during the filling process. Because of this, my father decided that he would no longer fill Al cylinders made before 1988.

Because he doesn’t want to die. Nor do I for that matter.

Now why am I mentioning this now?

I was recently made aware of the Press Release that Luxfer issued pertaining to the incident:

August 23, 2004 — Investigators continue to believe that the July 27, 2004 incident in Luraville, Florida was caused when an operator was about to fill oxygen into a scuba cylinder that was not designed for oxygen use, and most probably the valve and/or cylinder had not been purged of all organic matter. Ignition from the fall caused the organic matter in the cylinder to burn, which caused the resulting fire and explosion.

Investigators have determined that the cylinder was made of aluminum alloy 6061. Investigators have ruled out the cylinder as a cause of the explosion.

Now I’m perfectly willing to admit that I could be wrong, but it is my firm belief that it was a 6351 cylinder, that they are dangerous, that Luxfer should admit that the alloy is no good, and issue a complete recall of all these old cylinders. Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen. All that I can do, and other dive stores can do, is stop filling these cylinders. Like I said, I don’t want to die.

And I don’t want any more of the people I know to die.

If enough people get together and pool their money, we can buy the rights to Star Wars and hire someone to redo Episodes 1-3.

I hope that God exists. I hope that George Lucas goes to Heaven. I hope God smacks him upside the head and then makes him spend eternity as a love slave to Jar Jar Binks as punishment.

Luke: “Leia, do you remember your mother? Your real mother?”
Leia: “Just a little bit. She died when I was very young”
Luke: “What do you remember?”
Leia: “Just images really, feelings”
Luke: “Tell me”
Leia: “She was very beautiful. Kind, but sad. Why are you asking me this?”
Luke: “I have no memory of my mother. I never knew her”

Is it really so hard to watch your own movie before resting the entire character transformation on an event that couldn’t have happened?

Yesterday morning we watched a pack of wild dogs (also known as Painted Wolves) rip apart the carcass of a Kudu. When they were finished devouring the tasty bits, we drove up to get a closer look at the corpse. The eyes were missing.

That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I got up at 5 this morning and I’m dying to go back and take a nap so I’m gonna make this relatively quick.

The 17 hour flight from Atlanta was… not quite as bad as I expected, but that’s really not saying all that much. Once we got to Africa though, everything turned fabulous. Free alcohol everywhere. My favorite drink thus far has been something called Savannah Dry which tastes slightly of apple cider and it’s delicious.

On the plane flying into the remote area where our camp lay, I happened to spot a giraffe. And this may sound dorky, but that was so totally cool. Our first game drive was that night and our guide is gorgeous. Black curly hair, dimples, too cute. And as I expected, I’m now sick of seeing Impala. The suckers are everwhere. We did happen to see a Rhinoceros and her calf, and we pulled a little ways from her, got out of the landrover and had drinks.

We’re not allowed to walk around at night because of the possibility of wild animals entering the camp, and so we have to be escorted by armed guard from our rooms to the boma (sp?) where they serve dinner and back. Our rooms though… gah. So fabulous. Each room has its own plunge pool which looks out over the Savannah and though the water is rather chilly, it gets hot enough in the middle of the day to make it worthwhile.

Yesterday on the game drives we spotted giraffes, buffalo (we drove the landrover right into the middle of their herd), Elephants (a bull, a momma, and a little baby! too cute), hippopotimi (sp?) more Impala and other deer/bovine like creatures the names of which I can’t spell. During the afternoon/evening drive we tried to find a leopard that had been spotted in a tree with a kill, no luck, and then we went to where two lions had been heard roaring from the camp. We found the lions, and drove right up to them. Maybe… 15, 20 feet away? And he couldn’t have cared less about us. One of the other vehicles shined a light with a red filter in his face and he and his brother started roaring for us. That was cool.

So this morning we had seen all of the big 5 with the notable exception of leopards. So when Simon spotted tracks, he and Elmon, our tracker, got out of the landrover and tried to hunt them down. Our vehicle and several others were also trying to find them (there were two sets of tracks, a male and female). At one point Simon and Elmon left us in the landrover and trekked into the bush. Half an hour later, we saw Simon running towards us, sans rifle, and he said that he and Elmon had been growled at. We then took the rover into the bush after the growl but couldn’t find the kitties. Then another group radioed in and said the leopards had been spotted so we high tailed it out of there and towards the river.

Sure enough, the monkeys were giving the alarm, two baboons were skittering across a field (baboons are favorites among leopards) and then we spotted them. They crossed the road twice (once they came within a couple of feet of us to pass behind our car, and have I mentioned yet that these landrovers don’t have tops?) and while the male was skittish, the female paused a couple of times so we could get a good look at her.

Anyway, that’s my trip so far and now if you’ll excuse me, I really need to go take a very long nap. Ta ta.