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00:00She's the newest, most advanced dive support vessel on Earth.
00:06These guys keep us alive.
00:08They're responsible for our well-being within a hostile environment.
00:15On board this ship, even the slightest error could be fatal.
00:20If you lose this seal with pressure inside here, we would all die.
00:24Every single one of us standing around here would die.
00:28Scandi Arctic has just one mission.
00:31To keep the men who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the world alive.
00:46OK, that's your gas checks complete. We'll do the O2 checks.
00:51One hundred and seventy-five kilometres off Norway's west coast,
00:55Scandi Arctic is ready for action in the North Sea.
01:05Five minutes to helicopter, so no crane movement, please.
01:10She's a dive support vessel built for just one job.
01:13Keeping divers alive while they work on the bottom of the sea.
01:18Three, four, five, this is diver three.
01:20Yeah, loud and clear, help me. Yeah, loud and clear.
01:26Twenty-seven metres wide, one hundred and fifty-seven metres long.
01:30Below deck, Scandi Arctic's saturation diving complex
01:34has set new standards for safety, comfort and efficiency.
01:39Her advanced technology makes her the number one tool to perform research.
01:44Technology makes her the number one tool to perform risky,
01:47high-cost repairs in offshore oil and gas fields
01:51that yield billions of dollars of profit annually.
01:56On this twenty-day mission, teams of divers will be lowered from the ship
02:00in a diving bell to work on subsea installations.
02:04One hundred and thirty metres down on the ocean floor.
02:08They will be fed gas, light and heat through lifelines from the surface.
02:15She's a new ship with a new master, 40-year-old Captain Thomas Jensen.
02:28He's watching a new team of divers fly aboard.
02:31It's new things every day and it's very interesting.
02:35I think everyone who's on this vessel likes to be here because it's exciting.
02:44Captain Jensen oversees the men who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
02:49Saturation diving.
02:56First is Tony Oswald, age 39.
02:59It's a lovely place to work.
03:06If this causes you fear, you shouldn't be here.
03:08Because if you're being frightened, you can't do your job properly
03:11and if your friend or your bell partner is going to trouble, you wouldn't be able to help them.
03:16Dave Dodson is 34.
03:18He's been in the business for over a decade, but the guys still call him the baby diver.
03:24So our first dive tonight will be me doing a practice run.
03:33Oh, this ship's amazing.
03:35It's an incredible ship. It's a very big DSV.
03:39And we are in a bit of a rush. We've got a tight schedule.
03:43There's a few things for me to learn.
03:46Sam McLeod is 46 and a veteran.
03:50I always balk when people describe it as being dangerous.
03:59Danger would infer that we're incompetent, but not.
04:03It is high risk, but at the same time we are good risk managers.
04:08And it's an intrinsic part of the way we work.
04:13Over the next 24 hours, these three men will undergo a series of safety checks.
04:23First up is an inspection of the chamber that will be their sealed, claustrophobic home for the next three weeks.
04:30It's called a saturation chamber.
04:38Scandi Arctic has six of them.
04:41Six-metre by two-and-a-half-metre airtight cylinders
04:44that will be filled with a mixture of pressurised gas to keep the divers alive.
04:52They must live and breathe in the chamber,
04:54because at a depth of 130 metres, the pressure on the body and its organs is lethal.
05:01And as the body compresses, the air that we normally breathe and absorb is turned into poison.
05:09In the saturation chamber, divers are put under the same crushing pressure gradually,
05:14giving their bodies time to adjust.
05:16And they will breathe a gas mixture that will not kill them.
05:21There's just one catch.
05:23Once they're pressurised, it takes over five days to gradually bring their breathing back to normal.
05:29Anything faster could be lethal.
05:33OK, lads, this is one of the six main chambers in the system.
05:36There's two of them, one at each end.
05:38It's got much of the same functions you'll find in any other chamber.
05:41There are a few differences.
05:44They share a bathroom and shower space.
05:48And they sleep in close quarters in a six-bunk room.
05:52There's a common space for meals and leisure time.
05:55It's like a futuristic university dorm,
05:58but they cannot leave or they will die from the extreme pressure change.
06:05That's why they're constantly watched by dozens of cameras,
06:09to make sure every diver is safe.
06:11Even if one of them slips in the shower, he is five days from medical attention.
06:16OK, Nabal, can you just check the valves? You should have reclaimed.
06:20A computerised control room that is as high-tech as NASA's mission control
06:24monitors their every move.
06:26A team of highly trained supervisors is on constant alert.
06:32Kevin Muir is a life support supervisor.
06:35He's a life support specialist.
06:38Kevin Muir is a life support supervisor.
06:41I can see the entire system from the room here,
06:44but basically all the major functions that we have to keep an eye on are in here.
06:48Whether they are at the bottom of the sea or in their pressurised dive chamber,
06:52they can never be let out of sight.
06:55Cameras even watch them in the bathroom.
06:58I mix the gas that they breathe in the water, put their food in,
07:01flush the toilets, we do everything for them.
07:05Duncan Black is a diving bell supervisor.
07:09These are your two working screens.
07:11These are two permanent screens, so that's just a repeat of that.
07:15So if you go off that, then you've always got your gas status on there.
07:22These guys keep us alive.
07:24They're responsible for our well-being within a hostile environment.
07:28They're also responsible for us when it goes horribly wrong.
07:31If the ship catches fire, or something explodes,
07:34or the ship is threatened in any way, we are completely vulnerable.
07:39For the divers, a fire on the surface is a nightmare.
07:43Fire is your worst enemy.
07:45It's always a reminder that you are vulnerable.
07:50Fear of a crisis has led to psychological innovations in the chamber
07:54to add mental comfort to a stressful environment, including mood lighting.
07:59Hello, Jason. Would you mind putting on the blue mood lighting, please?
08:03Why, just stand by.
08:05Oh, what? I don't believe it.
08:08That's the blue light, sir.
08:10But lighting would be of little comfort if something were to go wrong.
08:13So there's the mood light.
08:15Good luck, buddy. Have a good one.
08:21As the divers get ready for their mission,
08:23Scandi Arctic manoeuvres into position over the subsea area.
08:27Manoeuvres into position over the subsea installations they've come to work on.
08:34Captain Jensen has a crew of 120 people.
08:38As wide-ranging as their jobs are, they share one mission.
08:42The divers' safety.
08:44Captain Jensen likes to command from a distance.
08:47I try to avoid to make it too complicated to be a captain here.
08:53There is a lot of people who have knowledge about these different systems on board,
08:57and they are taking care about their systems.
09:01As the captain readies his ship, the divers follow their own rigorous checklist.
09:10With a day to go before entering the chambers,
09:12the divers must have a final medical examination.
09:20And there's a problem.
09:23153 over 93.
09:26That's a little bit too high.
09:30Dave Dodson, the youngest diver, has blood pressure that is above accepted limits.
09:36It should be under 140 over 90.
09:40But of course we'll be running around, so...
09:42Saturation divers have to be in perfect health to do their dangerous job.
09:47If Dave can't pass his medical, he won't dive,
09:50creating a problem for the entire operation.
09:59It's day one of 20 on a saturation dive mission in Norway's North Sea.
10:06As the divers on Scandi Arctic get checked out before entering a three-week isolation,
10:11one of them has very high blood pressure.
10:14For sat divers, health concerns are not an option.
10:20I should breathe.
10:24If Dave Dodson fails his medical, he won't be allowed to dive.
10:42Dave calms himself and is checked again.
10:46133 over 96. I'm happy with that.
10:53He passes, but only just.
10:55His blood pressure is still a bit high for the tough, stressful job ahead.
11:05Next step, introducing the divers to the machine that will transport them
11:09safely from their sealed habitat on the ship to the ocean floor below.
11:14This is their lift to work.
11:18A diving bell that links with their habitat and forms a perfect seal.
11:23Tony, Sam and Dave have all used systems like this before,
11:26but nothing as advanced as the one on Scandi Arctic.
11:31The bell has dozens of valves and knobs that work separately from mission control
11:35in case of computer failure on the surface.
11:37Well, similar valves in all bells.
11:39Obviously they're in different places, different configurations, different layouts.
11:44The control system is a redundancy that could save lives in an emergency.
11:51Scandi Arctic has a hole in her hull called a moon pool.
11:55The diving bell is lowered through the pool down to the sea floor.
11:59Down there, the job that faces them is to replace rusty, hard-to-reach bolts
12:03on subsea oil and gas installations.
12:06It's routine maintenance, but it's going to be tough work.
12:11The access to the bolts is very, very difficult in certain circumstances.
12:15It's got to be working blindly.
12:17It's got to be working with restricted access.
12:20It's got to be working in a very, very tight environment.
12:24It's got to be working blindly.
12:26It's got to be working with restricted access.
12:28And in awkward positions, it will be uncomfortable.
12:33That's not what that's going to be.
12:39After a final night's rest on the ship, it's time to step into another world.
12:46Morning, and countdown to the last breath of real air and normal atmospheric pressure.
12:52Soon, they'll be trapped in a steel tube the size of a caravan for three weeks,
12:57knowing that to leave could spell certain death.
13:03In we go.
13:10The divers climb into the saturation chamber and are gone.
13:14A process called blowdown begins.
13:18It's coming out at two o'clock.
13:24It's the first step in a gradual increase of pressure inside the chamber
13:28to make sure the doors and locks are completely sealed.
13:33Life support technician Steve Redgford inspects the doors.
13:37I was just pulling on the door.
13:39We're just blowing it down to two metres.
13:43So I was just making sure we have a seal on the door,
13:47just by holding it, pulling it this way.
13:57And then we'll go round the chambers and check for leaks.
14:01A three-hour gradual increase of air pressure prepares their bodies
14:04for the crushing power of the ocean's depths.
14:08The blowdown on the hour or 20 minutes...
14:11Tony Gill will be their life support supervisor.
14:14OK, then. No problem. Cheers.
14:23You're not watching TV or anything?
14:26You don't want the sound on?
14:30OK.
14:33The pressure change is so gradual, they can't feel it.
14:37But there is another immediate difference.
14:42The divers are now breathing a mixture of oxygen and helium, called heliox.
14:47It makes their voices sound like cartoon characters.
14:51When you're speaking, as we're speaking now, we're breathing air.
14:55And air has a specific density as it comes across the vocal cords.
15:02The reason for heliox is that normal air is toxic at 130 metres.
15:08The air we breathe is 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen.
15:12But ordinary nitrogen has an unusual property at depth.
15:16It has the same effect as alcohol.
15:19Too many divers have died finding themselves drunk at the bottom of the sea.
15:24In heliox, helium replaces the nitrogen.
15:29Helium is a very light gas,
15:31and heliox, going across the vocal cords,
15:34has a different frequency than when we're speaking now.
15:39For the next three weeks, they will all speak like Donald Duck.
15:49Two decks below the saturation chambers is the gas room.
15:5340,000 cubic metres of gas.
15:5640,000 cubic metres of heliox is stored here,
16:00enough to supply a circus for a century.
16:03Ordon Hansen is called the gas man.
16:06You can have all the computers in the world,
16:09but you still need people to control it.
16:13Ordon monitors the mixture of helium and oxygen
16:16that flows through every part of the saturation system.
16:19If you have a breakdown,
16:21you still need a person to physically open valves and do those things.
16:27We open everything here, send it up to the dive control,
16:31and they can open the valves with the computers.
16:36As the divers are pressurised,
16:38Captain Jensen moves Scandi Arctic to a precise position
16:42over the first subsea installation.
16:45130 metres straight down.
16:54Scandi Arctic's thrusters on her bow and stern
16:58can keep her within two metres of an exact position,
17:01even in five-metre waves.
17:05When the bell is lowered,
17:07the ship can't move and tug on the lifelines that keep the divers alive.
17:15The ship is in position.
17:19The ship is in position and ready for the dangerous job ahead.
17:24And the divers are fully pressurised.
17:27Just a few centimetres of plexiglass
17:30separates them from the outside world, but they can't leave.
17:34If they lost a seal now, they would die in minutes.
17:38Is this close?
17:40We can almost touch...
17:43Can you tell Tony to touch the glass?
17:46We can almost touch each other.
17:48We're about just over an inch away from each other,
17:54and yet for Tony to come out of there and stand next to me
17:58will take five days and 23 hours.
18:03It's faster to bring a man back from the International Space Station.
18:09Now it's time to suit up.
18:12The dive to the bottom of the sea can begin.
18:20175 kilometres off Norway's west coast,
18:23on the dive support vessel Scandi Arctic,
18:26it's day two of a 20-day mission.
18:30Final checks are underway
18:32on the most advanced saturation dive ship in the world,
18:35as divers ready to climb into the bell.
18:39Scandi moves from its loading bay
18:41to a hatch directly over the saturation chamber.
18:44It forms a perfect seal.
18:49All the way down, just putting a bit of slack in the wire.
18:52Roger. Ready to close the flap.
18:57In the control room, a team of experts make sure
19:00that the pressure seal is safe and tight.
19:04Roger upon ado.
19:07It's like a docking at the International Space Station,
19:10with the same deadly results if the docking isn't perfect.
19:20Just letting you know, that's the pull bell. We're doing bell checks.
19:24Computer access.
19:26But something goes wrong.
19:28Sorry about this.
19:31A system that controls critical temperature and humidity in the bell
19:35has failed.
19:37The divers have to sit tight,
19:39while the bell gets hotter and more humid by the minute.
19:45Tony Gill has never seen it happen before.
19:49They need to find a solution fast.
19:57Sat control. Yes.
20:00The team of three divers spends their first hour and a half at work
20:04stuck in a bell the size of a small car.
20:15Finally, the temperature is fixed.
20:18Time to begin their descent into the deep.
20:28It takes just three minutes to descend to where 30 years ago
20:32humans could only dream of going.
20:38The bell lowers the divers 130 metres to the dark ocean floor.
20:54The divers leave the bell and get to work.
21:02One small step to the left.
21:05One small step to the right.
21:15Two divers freefall to the ocean floor,
21:18while one stays behind as the safety diver on bell watch.
21:25To avoid damaging the subsea structure,
21:27the bell is kept about three metres above and away from it.
21:33OK.
21:35A basket called a picker is lowered down to them
21:38from a crane on the ship's deck.
21:40The picker contains the tools and spare parts they need
21:43to do their treacherous job.
21:47OK.
21:58Using the picker keeps their contact with tools to a minimum
22:02to avoid dangerous tears to their suits and lifelines.
22:17Once they've picked up their tools,
22:20it's a trek back to the site and the work at hand,
22:24replacing screws on the subsea structure.
22:31Some of the screws are located behind large pipes
22:35and are very tough to reach.
22:40Each screw must be turned by hand and replaced.
22:47I'm a pitch more than low.
22:59It's delicate, challenging work,
23:01made worse in freezing water temperatures and the pitch black.
23:08The torque wrench, the yellow torque wrench.
23:17In the control room, each screw is marked off.
23:28These men in dive control are their lifeline.
23:36Each diver is supported by three separate lifelines.
23:41After you've done it five or six times,
23:43keep turning your...
23:45Get the guts out.
23:47It gets your twist out.
23:49Heliox, electrical and hot water.
23:54The electrical provides lighting, communication and camera support.
24:05The water hose fills a layer of the divers' suits with 30-degree water
24:09to keep them from dying in the cold.
24:14It's just four degrees at the bottom of the North Sea.
24:18Hypothermia could kill them in 30 minutes.
24:21And their work shift is six hours long.
24:31A ship full of technicians and state-of-the-art dive support systems
24:35have made this deadly job possible.
24:39But all the technology in the world
24:41can't replace the divers' reliance on each other.
24:49If one of them is injured, it will take five days
24:52before he can be decompressed to get to a hospital.
24:56It's almost impossible to imagine a serious injury at 130 metres.
25:02The chances of survival are slim
25:04if it wasn't for their training and teamwork.
25:26A job that seemed easy on the surface
25:28is proving to be a big challenge in the cold and dark on the ocean floor.
25:40It's the end of their first shift, and the divers are frustrated.
25:45Stripped, seized, rusted, hard to reach.
25:49A simple turn of the screw is hard work.
26:02Now the water jet they use to clean the screws is broken.
26:16After just one gruelling shift,
26:19the saturation dive team now realises
26:22that two weeks may not be enough time to get the job done.
26:30Day five of 20.
26:32The dive support vessel Scandi Arctic
26:35hovers over a natural gas well in the North Sea.
26:39So we've done the initial torque on those.
26:45The saturation divers are still struggling to replace corroded parts.
26:55Diver Dave Dodson explains how tough it is to work 130 metres underwater.
27:02It's a very tough job.
27:04You need to do a lot of them when you're in the water.
27:07It's a real thing.
27:09When you're in the water, it's a very tough job.
27:13The water, it's a great resistance,
27:15but it's a very difficult job,
27:17because there's only a metre of water in the water,
27:21and it's just a great strain on the skin.
27:24The divers work underwater in six-hour shifts.
27:27With four dive teams rotating,
27:29the job continues around the clock.
27:36After each shift, the divers return to the bell.
27:43It shuttles them back up to the ship,
27:45and they're ready to go.
27:48The bell emerges from the moon pool
27:50and moves to the saturation chamber hatch.
27:54Powerful clamps lock the two together in a perfect airtight seal.
28:00And the divers climb out.
28:03It's time to close the door.
28:07The bell is locked in place,
28:09and the divers are ready to go.
28:12And the divers climb out.
28:15It's time to clean up, get some rest,
28:18and after a strenuous day at work, a big dinner.
28:23Deep-sea divers burn three times more energy than normal.
28:30So they need a lot of food.
28:32But even feeding them is dangerous.
28:35How to get food in without letting the pressure
28:38that's keeping them alive out?
28:47The answer is a meal slot, just like a maximum security prison.
28:51Except this one is an airlock.
28:55The food goes in one side and is sealed.
28:59Once dive control determines that the lock is safe and secure,
29:02the divers can take it out the other side.
29:09The food on here has taken too long.
29:12And that has not got locked.
29:14If I'm going to be in sack,
29:16I might as well be in sack in the best system in all sea,
29:19which is this one.
29:22The next problem is the toilet.
29:24How to get waste out without depressurising?
29:27The answer is a powerful vacuum flush
29:30with a series of airlocks monitored by the control room.
29:34There's a legendary story where a diver died on the toilet
29:37a tale life support supervisor Tony Gill loves to tell.
29:41There's a story that dates back
29:43whereby a diver was sitting on the toilet
29:46and the cheeks of his backside created a seal around the toilet
29:52and the toilet was actually flushed.
29:54And the rumour is that his insides were sucked out in the toilet.
30:02The scandi-arctic system of airlocks
30:04prevents this tragedy from ever happening again.
30:07In fact, sometimes Tony Gill flushes for them.
30:12Going manual, open it up and believe it or not,
30:16I'm now flushing his toilet.
30:19He's 30 metres away, I'm now flushing his toilet.
30:22Not exactly glamorous work.
30:24It's a great job.
30:27But one more way to make sure no-one dies from a tiny mistake.
30:34The rest of the time in the chamber is spent watching TV,
30:37surfing the internet and chatting with the team.
30:40It wouldn't be so bad if not for the constant reminder
30:43that Big Brother is always watching.
30:46And you can't leave.
30:50Looking forward to getting out, obviously.
30:52As George said, we sort of put our life on hold when we were there.
30:57Everything goes, or carries on with your absence.
31:03So we're just quite happy to do this to earn a living.
31:08We're obviously looking forward to start life again when we get out.
31:14The relentless cycle of diving, working and sleeping continues.
31:18By the end of the first week, they're picking up the pace.
31:23Even the unpredictable North Sea behaves.
31:26The weather has been unusually calm.
31:29Until now.
31:32Day seven.
31:34The bridge receives word that a fierce storm is forecast.
31:38In four-metre swells, Scandi Arctic can stay in perfect position.
31:43But with waves above that limit, the ship will not be able to move.
31:49For the ship's operators, storms can be an expensive setback,
31:53bringing their 24-7 dive mission to a screeching halt.
32:02Day eight.
32:04On Scandi Arctic's bridge, Captain Thomas Jensen
32:07is keeping a close watch on the looming storm.
32:12The storm is coming.
32:14On the surface, the weather still looks good.
32:17But every sailor knows looks are deceiving.
32:20They're already feeling the ominous swells that mean a storm is brewing.
32:26It doesn't look too good for the helicopters today.
32:31Scandi's captain, Captain Thomas Jensen,
32:34has been told that the weather is going to get worse.
32:39It doesn't look too good for the helicopters today.
32:44Scandi Arctic can maintain her position in swells up to four metres.
32:49Technician Jason Monks has forecasted waves way above that.
32:53It's 11-metre waves, so that's pretty big.
32:5670-kilometre-an-hour winds, so it's a pretty big storm.
33:00You don't want to be around when that's happening.
33:03But Captain Jensen has a more immediate problem.
33:06He has a new dive crew arriving today.
33:09With the storm building, their helicopter may not be able to land.
33:13All eyes are on the helicopter landing system warning light.
33:16If there's a heave rate of more than one metre,
33:19the helicopter will have to abort the landing.
33:22What's making more concern is the sea state.
33:26When we see the forecast that it's building,
33:29we could actually go out of limits before...
33:33By this evening, actually.
33:38If the helicopter can't land, Scandi Arctic will have to head to port
33:42to pick up the dive crew.
33:44And that will add a day to their already tight schedule.
33:54130 metres below, the divers continue their delicate, dangerous job.
34:00And they're not alone.
34:07A remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, is keeping a close watch.
34:13ROV operator Paul Kershaw is no diver, but he is virtually there with them,
34:18piloting his ROV to keep a lookout for danger.
34:25The main thing is probably fishing nets.
34:29Obviously the diver, if it's bad visibility where the divers are going
34:34and they can't see the nets, there's a high chance
34:37they can get snagged up and fouled inside the nets.
34:41The ROV operators are on high alert.
34:44As storms loom on the surface, visibility on the bottom can worsen.
34:53Day nine, and the sea swell is building.
34:57Just as they feared, the helicopter landing system light
35:00has gone from green to red.
35:03Chief Officer Torleif Torkelsen knows this simple indicator
35:07means it's about to get a whole lot worse.
35:11She's got a heave rate of 1.1 metres per second.
35:14We can't go over 1, so she's just above.
35:18But as you see, the wind and swell is starting to come up.
35:22So at some point this is going to get worse, I think.
35:28The helicopter is ordered back to shore.
35:33The decision is final.
35:35The divers have to be brought up from the bottom
35:38and Scandi Arctic is heading for Bergen,
35:41a turnaround that will take one day.
35:44Are we in the hooks?
35:46Are you sure you're all the way up?
35:49Yeah, I'm down.
35:51Yeah, you're close down.
35:53Suddenly, there's a problem.
35:56In dive control, warning lights signal
35:59that the diving bell can't form a perfect seal
36:02with the saturation chamber.
36:04They can't open the door.
36:10Several redundant systems on board
36:12will prevent a catastrophic explosion,
36:15but dive supervisor Graeme Varty
36:17can't help but worry.
36:19If you lose this seal with pressure inside here
36:22at like 130 metres,
36:24and you try and open this clamp,
36:27and you've got 130 metres in there, we would all die.
36:31And not just the divers.
36:33If the pressure escaped the bell,
36:35it would be like a bomb going off.
36:37Every single one of us standing around here would die
36:40because of the pressure.
36:42It would be like a bomb going off.
36:45Every single one of us standing around here would die
36:49because when the pressure escapes,
36:51it's a violent decompression.
36:54The divers wait in the bell
36:56as technicians scramble to solve the problem.
37:01Finally, they discover that a tiny pin
37:04that lines up the bell with the chamber is bent.
37:07A $5 part in a ship worth $200 million.
37:16Day 10 of 20.
37:20Scandi Arctic has made her way to Bergen, Norway.
37:35The new dive team comes aboard,
37:37and then it's straight back to sea
37:39to finish the job on the undersea wells.
37:46This shore transfer has cost them a day and $350,000.
37:54Day 11, and the storm has passed.
37:57Scandi Arctic is back on site and ready to get back to work.
38:02And then, a sailor's worst nightmare.
38:06Smoke.
38:07Listen, we can smell smoke once again in dive control.
38:11Engineers begin to scour the area near dive control,
38:15but find nothing.
38:17The fire alarms haven't sounded yet,
38:19but the dive supervisors can smell it.
38:22We'll get back to you and let you know
38:24if our guys find anything straight away.
38:30Finally, the cause is found.
38:32Some welders doing routine maintenance.
38:35Everyone relaxes.
38:37But it's a reminder that the dive control team
38:39is always on high alert.
38:41The divers' lives depend on it.
38:51Now it's full speed ahead to finish the job on the ocean floor.
38:58Hour after hour, screws are replaced,
39:01bringing them closer to completion.
39:04Finally, after 12 days, the job is done.
39:12And that's the end of the dive.
39:15In fact, they're finished two days early.
39:20As you know, this is your last bell run on this location,
39:23and you're going to be decompressing after that.
39:25How do you feel about that, mate?
39:27Well, it's wonderful.
39:29Yeah, last dive. Are you ready for outing?
39:32Yeah.
39:33Roger. OK.
39:35State-of-the-art Scandi Arctic has proven her worth
39:38and delivered another job well done.
39:44It's time to bring all the divers aboard
39:46and back to the outside world.
39:50It will take five days to decompress them
39:52back to normal pressure.
39:57They have to be depressurised gently and watched closely.
40:01They could suffer a stroke or cardiac arrest
40:04if the helium isn't released.
40:06And if it's not released in time,
40:08they could suffer a heart attack,
40:10a stroke or a heart attack.
40:12And if it's not released in time,
40:14they could suffer a stroke or cardiac arrest.
40:18Scandi Arctic returns to port,
40:20while the divers are stuck for three more days
40:23in their saturation chambers,
40:25waiting for pressure to equalise.
40:28With no work to burn up time or energy,
40:31the wait is excruciating.
40:33There's a lot of clock-watching,
40:35and obviously it goes really slowly.
40:38It's a lot of pressure.
40:40It's a lot of pressure.
40:42It's a lot of pressure.
40:44Obviously, it goes really slowly.
40:47We're 20 centimetres off surface, 0.2 of a metre.
40:51So we're, what, less than a ruler.
40:53Pressure difference between us in here and you out there.
40:56It's six minutes to go and the door will open
41:00and we will be out of this chamber for good.
41:03Looking forward to burning the surface after 21 days.
41:10Finally, it's time to open the door.
41:14Anybody want to come out?
41:16And the first breath of real air.
41:18One, two, three, four, five.
41:20Sound normal, man.
41:21How you doing, Ollie? Andy Butler.
41:23How you doing?
41:31It really is bright. It's nice to be out.
41:34Seeing colour a bit better as well.
41:36It always feels good to come out again for the first time.
41:39But it is painful on the eyes.
41:42For the next 24 hours, they're on medical watch.
41:46Divers coming out of saturation
41:48can have unexpected, sometimes lethal problems.
41:51They're not out of the woods yet.
41:54So, yeah, ready for your medical.
41:57But it looks like everyone is feeling fine.
42:01These divers have one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet
42:05and they need a few weeks after every job to recuperate.
42:10But the ship that keeps them safe gets no rest.
42:14Captain Jensen is ready to take Scandi Arctic on another mission
42:18to help keep the oil and gas installations that fuel Europe pumping.
42:23We've done nearly 70 dives.
42:26We've done four dives a day.
42:28And there's no other boat that can do that.
42:30This boat is just built for doing jobs like this.
42:34We haven't missed a beat. We've done a great job.
42:37We can just keep putting divers in the water
42:40when all the other boats are heading for the beach.
42:43We'll still be here diving.
42:47Scandi Arctic is the mightiest dive support ship the world has ever seen.
42:53Sending men to the bottom of the sea.
43:02And bringing them back alive.
43:07It's amazing.