*Ekapol was an orphan who lost his parents at age 10, friends say. He then trained to be a monk but left the monastery to care for his ailing grandmother in Mae Sai in northern Thailand. There, he split his time between working as a temple hand at a monastery and training the newly established Moo Pa team. He found kindred spirits in the boys, many of whom had grown up poor or were stateless ethnic minorities, common in this border area between Myanmar and Thailand.
“If he didn’t go with them, what would have happened to my child?” said the mother of Pornchai Khamluang, one of the boys in the cave, in an interview with a Thai television network. “When he comes out, we have to heal his heart. My dear Ek, I would never blame you.”
I have just read that not only do the divers need rest time, but that oxygen tanks need to be replisnished along the route. Apparently the pumping out of water has reduced the round trip travel time by two hours, and heavy rain has begun to fall again, but that it shouldn’t yet undo all the efforts of pumping out water.
Now i had heard that the weakest four came out first because conditions were perfect and they weren’t sure what tomorrow would hold. But lots of conflicting reporting on this so we shall see! In any case, thank the heavens that 4 have made it.
Nice link - especially the 4 minute video on the volunteers who are washing the Navy Seals’ dirty uniforms each night, motorbikers giving rides to rescuers, cooks preparing halal food for Muslim and other volunteers.
I wonder how they’re doing the rescue. Are two divers assigned to each boy and they escort him all the way … or do they have two divers at each dive section and hand off the boy to the next section? Deciding between the two methods would drive me crazy if I was involved in it.
With the first method (full escort), you have a little team that knows each other. The divers become experts on their “kid”. Familiarity helps keep things calm.
The second method (sections) allows the divers to become “experts” on their section. They just need to get the kids from point A to point B. I think this method would work better if a kid has a problem and panics.
I just read that 2 divers escort each boy. The lead diver is tethered to the boy and is holding the air tank. There are many places they were able to walk. They placed ropes through and are leaving oxygen along the route. No mention in the guardian article how the boys were chosen, but 3 went by ambulance to the hospital and one went by helicopter. It’s sounds to me like they’re training the kids how to do it. One diver said at one point he had to squeeze through a hole and could feel the sides on his front and back.
If they keep up the water pumping while they are preparing for another rescue, that may speed things up even more. Glad to hear they were able to wade for a good part of the time, as the diving must consume a lot of energy.
My thoughts exactly, sylvan8798. 100% fine with me, in fact, if every remaining rescue is borderline “routine” for these amazing and courageous Thai Navy SEALS and foreign cave divers.
This morning I read that they were taking a 1 hour break to rest and refile O2. It is actually a 10 hour break so then next 4 will not be coming out soon and probably like the first group we’ll wake up to news of the next group getting out.
I hope so.
Also hope they can figure out how to bring out one group with 5 so there will only be 2 more trips to get all 13 out.
More tiring than the diving is climbing in and out of the water with those heavy tanks, but at least less diving means a better ability to manage their air. I’ve seen speculation among cave divers that the Thai diver ran out of air because terrible visibility made it impossible for him to read his gauges.
It also looks like the second half of the trip is all relatively dry at this point, meaning they might be able to jettison some of their equipment for that part of the trip back.
One thing I haven’t seen discussed in the media is depth. Are there portions of the cave where divers have to go, or are likely to have to go in the event of more rain, more than 2-3 meters below the water’s surface? If so, that adds the complication of the need equalize. [For non-divers out there, think of what happens if you fly with a bad cold and can’t clear your ears, or what your ears feel like if you try to touch the drain in a 8-10 foot deep pool.] Severe ear pain could definitely lead a kid to panic.
Despite my frequent gloom and doom posts about the dangers of this operation, it sounds like everyone’s bravely and efficiently doing what needs to be done. Kudos to the Thai government for accepting international help, to the expert cave divers who are carrying out the actual rescue, and to the many, many people volunteering in support positions-drivers, cooks, pump operators, technician, engineers, etc.
I’ve seen many reports saying that they’re taking time to refill the tanks but my guess is that what takes a while is restaging the tanks along the route. Actually filling a tank takes only a couple of minutes.
I’ve seen confirmation that they’re using full face masks. They’re a little more complex to use but the ability to talk to the boys to keep them calm and give them directions probably outweighs any other issues.
I’d read that too, but what wasn’t clear was whether that was bottom depth or a depth to which divers actually have to go to get through openings in the rock. If they have to go to some depth they’ll have to deal with the pressure issue and perhaps even deco stops. Also, at greater depth divers can develop nitrogen narcosis, aka, “the rapture of the deep.” Anxiety and fatigue can both increase the danger of getting narc’ed. That wouldn’t be an issue with the experienced divers and it wouldn’t matter much if the kids got a bit narc’ed because they’re not making any real decisions in this rescue. They’re tethered to a rescuer. Narcosis usually develops at greater than 30 meters but can happen in as little at 10+ meters.
Apparently the coach is among the four taken out, as he was in the worst condition. It does seem to be the case that the weakest were first out. Poor guy, he’s young. Can’t begin to imagine how they must all feel.
They demonstrated the use of the full face masks on the news this morning. The news does seem to give conflicting reports as to whether the weakest or strongest came out first.