Close Call on the SC Coast

[jwc3]

On Tuesday, July 28th, I dove on the wreck of the Hebe off of the South Carolina coast. The Hebe is a Dutch freighter that sank during WW2. This is the story of how my dive buddy almost (or maybe did) get the bends. (Sorry in advance for the long post.)

I'll not name the dive shop, since none of this was their fault. I arrived on the boat alone so I paired up with a fellow diver, Bob. (Not his real name.) During the 2.5 hour ride to the dive site (the wreck is 43 miles off shore) we talked about our dive history and worked out our hand signals. We're both AOW certified. Bob was probably in his mid 50s, said he's been diving since 1975. This was the first dive on the SC coast for both of us.

My first clue that things might not go according to plan was when I asked Bob what he wanted to do if we got separated on the dive. "Let's just plan on not getting separated," he said. "Well, of course that's Plan A," I answered, "but we should also have a Plan B, too." We finally agreed that if we got separated we'd head back to the anchor line to look for each other, then head to the surface.

On the way to the dive site Bob said he was starting to feel sea sick, so I gave him one of my chewable Dramine tablets. About 30 minutes later he got sick over the side of the boat.

When the boat reached the dive site, we got into our wetsuits and gear quickly, but then had to sit in the hot sun while the boat crew rigged the lines for the dive. The crew gave us a safety briefing and emphasized that we were to enter the water from the back of the boat and hold on to the float line to wait for our buddy. Then we were supposed to follow the line that was 15 feet under the boat all the way forward to the anchor line, and then follow the anchor line down to the wreck. The crew also stressed that we needed to begin our ascent up the anchor line with 1500 psi left in our tanks.

Bob was getting impatient to get in the water, I think because he was hot and starting to feel sea sick again. He looked pale and was sweating. I tried to do the BWFAR check on the boat with him, but he pushed past me and headed for the water, saying we could do that check once we we got wet. (We never did.)

Once in the water I realized that the current was a bit stronger than I expected, so I was glad to have the system of lines available to find the wreck. Bob and I exchanged OK signs and agreed to descend. I descended to 15 feet and started working my way along the ropes toward the anchor line. I looked back at Bob to make sure he was on the line with me, but he was still above me, just 2 or 3 feet below the surface. He was directly under the back of the boat and almost got hit in the head several times as the boat moved up and down on the waves. I signaled to him to descent to avoid the boat. He gave me the "OK" signal, then let go of the line and started dropping straight down, passing me and the safety line. I watched in disbelief as he dropped below me, fighting the current as he went. Visibility was only 30 or 40 feet, so I quickly lost track of him and his bubbles.

"So much for Plan A," I thought to myself. What in the world was Bob thinking? He said he didn't want to get separated and then he descended without the anchor line and without me just 2 or 3 minutes into the dive. I wasn't going to follow him and fight that current. And I didn't even know if I could find the wreck without the anchor line. I thought about surfacing to tell the boat crew that Bob had not used the anchor line to descend and thus might be lost, but remembered that Plan B was to meet at the bottom of the anchor line. I decided to follow the anchor line down and look for him there. If he was not there, I would resurface and tell the crew.

The anchor line was tied into the wreck about 90 feet below the surface. As I got closer to the bottom, the wreck came into view. Amazingly, Bob was there, waiting for me. I gave him the OK sign, and he returned it. At this point I felt silly for worrying about him. "He has more experience than me," I thought. "I guess he knows what he's doing."

We swam into the current along the wreck for a minute and then stopped to take photos of some lion fish that were living on the wreck. Then I took a photo of Bob, and he took one of me. I motioned that we should keep moving forward on the wreck.

Bob held up 4 fingers. Four? Four hundred? Is he telling me that he has 400 psi left in his tank? That didn't seem likely since we had only been in the water for about 10 or 11 minutes at this point. I shrugged my shoulders to say that I didn't understand. He pointed to his pressure gauge, held up 4 fingers again, frantically made the out of air sign, then turned and swam as fast as he could for the anchor line. Yep, he only had 400 psi left in his tank. I tried to catch him and offer him my octopus, but he was too far ahead of me.

Well, you're supposed to stay with your buddy, and I wasn't going to stay on the wreck alone. Also, I was worried that Bob might have trouble on the way up, so I followed Bob to the anchor line and ascended as fast as my dive computer would allow. I lost sight of him about half way up the line since he was going up much faster than me, but then saw him again as I neared the surface. He swam right past the spare tank that was hanging from below the boat on a 15 foot rope and to the ladders on the back of the boat.

I held onto the line at 15 feet and did my safety stop. I could see Bob on the ladder, trying to remove his fins. His motions seemed a bit erratic. He dropped one of his weights, then his dive light and I watched them fall through a school of barracuda toward the bottom.

When I reached the surface, I held onto the line attached to the back of the boat. The crew was helping Bob remove his gear. I spit out my regulator and yelled, "Bob, you didn't do your 3-minute safety stop!" He had come up from 96 feet in about 1 minute. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. "Oh yeah, I guess I didn't." He said. One of the crew members asked him how deep he had gone. Bob didn't seem to know, so I checked my computer and yelled to the crew that my max depth had been 96 feet. The boat crew quickly offered him oxygen but he refused. Instead he said he would breathe out of one of the other Nitrox tanks that were on the boat. He said he didn't have any symptoms of the bends (and seemed to feel OK for the rest of the trip back to the dock).

Once I was out of the water I asked him how he had run out of air so fast. He said his octopus was free flowing on the way down to the wreck and he couldn't get it to stop. However, I never saw a bunch of bubbles when I was above him as he descended. And, why did he give me the OK sign when we met on the wreck and continue the dive? Why not tell me right away that he was low on air and slowly head to the surface? I think another factor was that he sucked down his air too quickly because he was fighting the current on the way down instead of using the anchor line.

I must confess that I'm still a bit of a new diver, so I was a little frazzled by all of this. I decided to skip the second dive and stay with Bob on the boat.

Bob was diving with his own regulator and octopus. He said they were recently serviced by his local dive shop. He said when he got home he was going to flame them on the internet and hoped they would be shut down in a few weeks due to a lack of customers.

So, I have a few questions for ScubaBoard members:

1. Is there anything I should have done differently?

2. How did Bob not get the bends if he came up from 96 feet in about 1 minute?

3. Is it possible that he started having symptoms of the bends later that day or night after we got off the boat?

4. Will breathing Nitrox rather than 100% O2 prevent the bends in this situation?

 

[herman]

On Tuesday, July 28th, I dove on the wreck of the Hebe off of the South Carolina coast. The Hebe is a Dutch freighter that sank during WW2. This is the story of how my dive buddy almost (or maybe did) get the bends. (Sorry in advance for the long post.)

I'll not name the dive shop, since none of this was their fault. I arrived on the boat alone so I paired up with a fellow diver, Bob. (Not his real name.) During the 2.5 hour ride to the dive site (the wreck is 43 miles off shore) we talked about our dive history and worked out our hand signals. We're both AOW certified. Bob was probably in his mid 50s, said he's been diving since 1975. This was the first dive on the SC coast for both of us.

My first clue that things might not go according to plan was when I asked Bob what he wanted to do if we got separated on the dive. "Let's just plan on not getting separated," he said. "Well, of course that's Plan A," I answered, "but we should also have a Plan B, too." We finally agreed that if we got separated we'd head back to the anchor line to look for each other, then head to the surface.

On the way to the dive site Bob said he was starting to feel sea sick, so I gave him one of my chewable Dramine tablets. About 30 minutes later he got sick over the side of the boat.

When the boat reached the dive site, we got into our wetsuits and gear quickly, but then had to sit in the hot sun while the boat crew rigged the lines for the dive. The crew gave us a safety briefing and emphasized that we were to enter the water from the back of the boat and hold on to the float line to wait for our buddy. Then we were supposed to follow the line that was 15 feet under the boat all the way forward to the anchor line, and then follow the anchor line down to the wreck. The crew also stressed that we needed to begin our ascent up the anchor line with 1500 psi left in our tanks.

Bob was getting impatient to get in the water, I think because he was hot and starting to feel sea sick again. He looked pale and was sweating. I tried to do the BWFAR check on the boat with him, but he pushed past me and headed for the water, saying we could do that check once we we got wet. (We never did.)

Once in the water I realized that the current was a bit stronger than I expected, so I was glad to have the system of lines available to find the wreck. Bob and I exchanged OK signs and agreed to descend. I descended to 15 feet and started working my way along the ropes toward the anchor line. I looked back at Bob to make sure he was on the line with me, but he was still above me, just 2 or 3 feet below the surface. He was directly under the back of the boat and almost got hit in the head several times as the boat moved up and down on the waves. I signaled to him to descent to avoid the boat. He gave me the "OK" signal, then let go of the line and started dropping straight down, passing me and the safety line. I watched in disbelief as he dropped below me, fighting the current as he went. Visibility was only 30 or 40 feet, so I quickly lost track of him and his bubbles.

"So much for Plan A," I thought to myself. What in the world was Bob thinking? He said he didn't want to get separated and then he descended without the anchor line and without me just 2 or 3 minutes into the dive. I wasn't going to follow him and fight that current. And I didn't even know if I could find the wreck without the anchor line. I thought about surfacing to tell the boat crew that Bob had not used the anchor line to descend and thus might be lost, but remembered that Plan B was to meet at the bottom of the anchor line. I decided to follow the anchor line down and look for him there. If he was not there, I would resurface and tell the crew.

The anchor line was tied into the wreck about 90 feet below the surface. As I got closer to the bottom, the wreck came into view. Amazingly, Bob was there, waiting for me. I gave him the OK sign, and he returned it. At this point I felt silly for worrying about him. "He has more experience than me," I thought. "I guess he knows what he's doing."

We swam into the current along the wreck for a minute and then stopped to take photos of some lion fish that were living on the wreck. Then I took a photo of Bob, and he took one of me. I motioned that we should keep moving forward on the wreck.

Bob held up 4 fingers. Four? Four hundred? Is he telling me that he has 400 psi left in his tank? That didn't seem likely since we had only been in the water for about 10 or 11 minutes at this point. I shrugged my shoulders to say that I didn't understand. He pointed to his pressure gauge, held up 4 fingers again, frantically made the out of air sign, then turned and swam as fast as he could for the anchor line. Yep, he only had 400 psi left in his tank. I tried to catch him and offer him my octopus, but he was too far ahead of me.

Well, you're supposed to stay with your buddy, and I wasn't going to stay on the wreck alone. Also, I was worried that Bob might have trouble on the way up, so I followed Bob to the anchor line and ascended as fast as my dive computer would allow. I lost sight of him about half way up the line since he was going up much faster than me, but then saw him again as I neared the surface. He swam right past the spare tank that was hanging from below the boat on a 15 foot rope and to the ladders on the back of the boat.

I held onto the line at 15 feet and did my safety stop. I could see Bob on the ladder, trying to remove his fins. His motions seemed a bit erratic. He dropped one of his weights, then his dive light and I watched them fall through a school of barracuda toward the bottom.

When I reached the surface, I held onto the line attached to the back of the boat. The crew was helping Bob remove his gear. I spit out my regulator and yelled, "Bob, you didn't do your 3-minute safety stop!" He had come up from 96 feet in about 1 minute. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. "Oh yeah, I guess I didn't." He said. One of the crew members asked him how deep he had gone. Bob didn't seem to know, so I checked my computer and yelled to the crew that my max depth had been 96 feet. The boat crew quickly offered him oxygen but he refused. Instead he said he would breathe out of one of the other Nitrox tanks that were on the boat. He said he didn't have any symptoms of the bends (and seemed to feel OK for the rest of the trip back to the dock).

Once I was out of the water I asked him how he had run out of air so fast. He said his octopus was free flowing on the way down to the wreck and he couldn't get it to stop. However, I never saw a bunch of bubbles when I was above him as he descended. And, why did he give me the OK sign when we met on the wreck and continue the dive? Why not tell me right away that he was low on air and slowly head to the surface? I think another factor was that he sucked down his air too quickly because he was fighting the current on the way down instead of using the anchor line.

I must confess that I'm still a bit of a new diver, so I was a little frazzled by all of this. I decided to skip the second dive and stay with Bob on the boat.

Bob was diving with his own regulator and octopus. He said they were recently serviced by his local dive shop. He said when he got home he was going to flame them on the internet and hoped they would be shut down in a few weeks due to a lack of customers.

So, I have a few questions for ScubaBoard members:

1. Is there anything I should have done differently?

2. How did Bob not get the bends if he came up from 96 feet in about 1 minute?

3. Is it possible that he started having symptoms of the bends later that day or night after we got off the boat?

4. Will breathing Nitrox rather than 100% O2 prevent the bends in this situation?

1: Don't do NC/SC diving without a know buddy, this is big boy diving. Limit instabuddies to shallow easy diving. Being certified since 75 and AOW means nothing, that could easily mean he has not dove since getting the AOW in 75. Recent NC coastal diving experience is much more improtant than a cert card or age. You are in Raleigh, there are a bunch of locals who would be a much better choice than going it alone.

2: It's matter of time, depth and luck. He had little bottom time and a lot of luck.

3: Yes

4: O2 is much better, nitrox is not going to hurt but not a good idea since O2 was availible.

 

[openmindOW]

Jwc3, thank you for posting on this forum. By posting here you are helping other divers to learn. Thank you very much.

I'll begin by saying that in my opinion deep off-shore Carolina wrecks are not necessarily good dives for beginners. When you are 40 miles off shore, the dives get pretty deep and the long boat rides are often choppy.

I am not going to bash your dive buddy. Of course, his conduct was hazardous. The point here is to learn, so that such incidents may be less likely to occur in the future. It would be great if your dive buddy would actually send in an OP telling us his version of what happened. He knows he made mistakes. He did not intend to run out of air. Bashing him accomplishes nothing and may deter him from posting.

JWC3, it sounds like yo did everything you could. You kept a cool head and tried to be a responsible buddy.

For the purposes of getting a fuller picture, I'd like to ask you several questions if Ic could:

1) Without naming the Dive Operator, can you tell us the location from which your dive vessel departed?

2) Was this your first dive trip with this Dive Operator? If not, how many dives had you done with the Operator this season?

3) If you know, can you tell us if your buddy was known to the Dive Operator? That is, did the crew know him? Was he a frequent diver with the Operator?

4) How many divers were on board? Was this a 6-pack boat?

5) What kind of gear was your buddy using? Doubles? Single 80 aluminum? Do you know if your dive buddy had rented any gear from the Dive Shop in question? Did you notice anything unusual about your buddy's gear?

6) What kind of gear were you using? Doubles? Single aluminum 80? Did you rent any gear? If so, what did you rent?

7) Did either you or your buddy have a pony bottle? If so, who had one and how big was it?

8) You suggested that you are a beginner. That's great. Welcome to the dive community. How many dives have you done? You handled things in a very professional way. You are not at fault for what occurred. I'm just asking to get a fuller picture.

9) Your wrote that your buddy said that he was was certified in 1975. Did he tell you when he had last been diving?


Thanks again, Jwc3. Keep diving, my friend.

 

[openmindOW]

1: Don't do NC/SC diving without a know buddy, this is big boy diving. Limit instabuddies to shallow easy diving. Being certified since 75 and AOW means nothing, that could easily mean he has not dove since getting the AOW in 75. Recent NC coastal diving experience is much more improtant than a cert card or age.

I agree with Herman on this.

 

[gcbryan]

100% O2 is Nitrox but breathing any higher mix (than 21%) isn't going to hurt.
He probably didn't stay down long enough to have enough nitrogen loading to hurt him...hopefully.

I wouldn't be lecturing anyone regarding whether or not they took a safety stop.

I don't think you did anything wrong however. A dive buddy like that is what you frequently get when you don't bring your own.

He probably was still feeling sick and wanted to hurry up and get in the water. He probably isn't a very skilled diver and there's not much more to it than that.

 

[herman]

Let me add, please get active with the divers in the Raleigh area. We have an active group with a lot of very experienced divers, new divers are always welcome if we feel the dive is appropiate. The quarry is a great place to get to know them, come join us.

 

[qrpc]

When diving with an unreliable or unpredictable buddy you need to factor that in to your go/no-go decision making. At best you are a solo diver; at worst you would be safer as a solo diver.

It sounds like you did what you could to help but didn't let him take you past your personal limits. I don't think anyone could expect more.

 

[billymac60]

1. Is there anything I should have done differently?

I think you handled it well. I will have to agree that I HATE to dive with anyone I don't know, especially in a more strenuous dive. Perhaps you should have taken that second dive! After all, you paid for it!

2. How did Bob not get the bends if he came up from 96 feet in about 1 minute?

He was lucky that he was not down there long enough (evidently) to saturate his body with enough nitrogen to get bent. What was far more likely was that he would suffer an embolism due to his rapid ascent.

3. Is it possible that he started having symptoms of the bends later that day or night after we got off the boat?

Sure. I've never been bent and pray to God that I never will be, but the few guys I know that have been bent didn't get hit hard until later in the evening.

4. Will breathing Nitrox rather than 100% O2 prevent the bends in this situation?

Breathing straight O2 or Nitrox won't "prevent" getting bent, if you're bent, you're bent. The O2 will treat the symptoms until you can get to a chamber. If you think you're injured, go with the O2 and get your arse to a chamber.

Don't let this shake you up, keep diving. Ya done good.

 

[SailNaked]

100% O2 is Nitrox .

Sorry but I could not resist. it is just OX at 100% no Nitr in the mix.

[back on point] yes seems you did fine, your buddy however was not a complete moron, maybe just having a bad day. maybe he breathed down his tank by exerting himself against the current from a poor understanding of your hand signal to come down, like right now? ... and was not considering the current. maybe he left the boat with a short tank... and then he waited at the bottom for you thinking "what is taking that dude so long?" and then he did not check his air, ok well it was only 10 min into the dive but really any time anyone gets someplace they should check their air. and then on the way they should check their air, then before they should check their air..... I am glad it worked out, I would have taken the second dive with someone else since he was ill. a short hop to 96ft and then a fairly quick ascent may not give you the bends and then it might, rec diving is designed around the principal that if you are in trouble you can surface. this is not science it is art.

 

[jwc3]

First, thanks to everyone for their comments. Now to answer a few questions...

Jwc3, thank you for posting on this forum. By posting here you are helping other divers to learn. Thank you very much.

I'll begin by saying that in my opinion deep off-shore Carolina wrecks are not necessarily good dives for beginners. When you are 40 miles off shore, the dives get pretty deep and the long boat rides are often choppy.

Yes, I realize that Carolina off-shore diving is not recommended for beginning divers. The dive shop requires AOW certification for this dive, and everyone's c-cards were checked before the dive, including mine. I did not have any trouble with the dive itself and felt that I was diving within my limits the entire time. I enjoyed the dive for the brief period I was on the wreck itself. I even got a few good photos. It was the actions of my dive buddy that I was not comfortable with.

I am not going to bash your dive buddy. Of course, his conduct was hazardous. The point here is to learn, so that such incidents may be less likely to occur in the future. It would be great if your dive buddy would actually send in an OP telling us his version of what happened. He knows he made mistakes. He did not intend to run out of air. Bashing him accomplishes nothing and may deter him from posting.

I am not trying to bash "Bob" either, I just wanted to learn as much as possible from this dive. I gave him my email address. If he ever writes to me I'll send him a link to this thread.

JWC3, it sounds like yo did everything you could. You kept a cool head and tried to be a responsible buddy.

For the purposes of getting a fuller picture, I'd like to ask you several questions if Ic could:

1) Without naming the Dive Operator, can you tell us the location from which your dive vessel departed?

Murrells Inlet, SC

2) Was this your first dive trip with this Dive Operator? If not, how many dives had you done with the Operator this season?

3) If you know, can you tell us if your buddy was known to the Dive Operator? That is, did the crew know him? Was he a frequent diver with the Operator?

This was the first dive on the SC coast for both of us, so this was the first dive for both of us with this dive shop.

4) How many divers were on board? Was this a 6-pack boat?

There were 12 divers on the boat, plus 4 or 5 employees from the dive shop. I think the boat could hold up to 36 divers.

5) What kind of gear was your buddy using? Doubles? Single 80 aluminum? Do you know if your dive buddy had rented any gear from the Dive Shop in question? Did you notice anything unusual about your buddy's gear?

We were both diving singles filled with 32% Nitrox. He was diving with his own gear. He had a Scuba Pro reg and octo, which he said had been serviced recently by his local dive shop.

6) What kind of gear were you using? Doubles? Single aluminum 80? Did you rent any gear? If so, what did you rent?

I rented a BC and reg from the dive shop. Both worked fine.

7) Did either you or your buddy have a pony bottle? If so, who had one and how big was it?

No. There was a spare tank hanging at 15 feet from the side of the boat, but Bob swam right past it toward the surface. I had plenty of air in my tank and would have been happy to share. I was back on the boat with 1800 psi.

8) You suggested that you are a beginner. That's great. Welcome to the dive community. How many dives have you done? You handled things in a very professional way. You are not at fault for what occurred. I'm just asking to get a fuller picture.

Not sure if I'm still a beginner or not -- depends on who you ask. I am AOW and Nitrox certified. I've done 31 dives.

9) Your wrote that your buddy said that he was was certified in 1975. Did he tell you when he had last been diving?

He didn't say, but I'll be sure to find out in the future. Before the dive in question my most recent dive was Mid-June in Roatan, Honduras.

Thanks again, Jwc3. Keep diving, my friend.

Thanks. I will.