Washington: Titan I Missile Silo
Titan I Missile Silo
UnderSea Adventures
August 4th-6th, 2017
Dave K., Frank N.
Arrived in Seattle, and then drove to Othello, WA for the night. We met Divemaster Don in the parking lot of Judy’s diner then drove to the silo complex through an old junk yard with rusting trucks, cars and other pieces of machinery, all under the red orange haze of wildfire smoke. After unloading from the car we got everything together and then lowered our equipment, down into the silo through an old emergency escape hatch, into the “ready room”. We assembled our gear, pulled on our suits and waited for everyone to get ready. After a briefing we began to hike through the tunnels, wading through chest deep water, climbing over I-beams, shimmying on pipes, and avoiding being tangled in exposed wires, or falling through the floor that suddenly disappeared.
Both dives are about 105-110’ with the water being a balmy 50° with no thermoclines. The silos are about 45’ in diameter with scaffolding, all the old cat walks, ladders and elevator equipment lining the walls. We ended dive one early so that we could go and explore the adjacent equipment rooms. This was two floors of flooded space with a central atrium or elevator shaft to access the lower levels. On both of the submerged floors were side rooms off of the main room for storage. There was a small access tunnel that connected back into the main silo, through a small (2’x6’) doorway.
Dive One: Silo #3
103’ for 31 minutes, 52°
Dive 2: Equipment Room
27’ for 20 minutes, 52°
Dive Three: Silo #2
106’ for 45 minutes, 52°
For silo #2, the blast door is partially closed, and in order to gain access to the silo, you must swim through a cut out approximately four tall by 6 feet wide, then turn 90° and swim down an elevator shaft and then out an opening ten feet below.
