current

[Prop Joe]

We've been in down curent many times. Stay with the group. Stay as close to the wall as you can, hang on if you must. Move laterally to get out of it. Clip off your camera (if it seems hairy, it probably is!). If you lose the group, search for one minute and start up. Bring a SMB on all dives up north. Plus a radio if you have one.
We only lost a diver once as he did his entire dive (Barracuda) by himself/solo. We rolled in, zoomed down to edge of the wall and lost this guy. He said his mask came loose/flooded on the way down. DM Mario called the dive when we lost him and we all surfaced. Got back on the boat. I really thought we lost him. Mario was not a happy camper. We set up stations around the boat to look for a diver on the surface. I had binoculars. It was rough. I wanted to barf looking through the binoculars while looking for this guy. We waited and waited. Then Mario tells the captain to go to the end of the reef. Sure enough he surfaces right next to the boat after 46-50 minutes at the end of Barracuda. We wanted to kill him for not following the rules. We then went back to the beginning of Barracuda and made him wait while we did our dive. He apologized, but me and TV Mark were not very sympathetic at that point. I should have barfed on him when he climbed the ladder!!!

 

[jekeith]

My wife (AOW, 200 dives) and I (Rescue and250 dives) were on the same dive that Peter describes and it was our first in such a situation, as well. I believe (but could be mistaken) that the DM chose to go in away from the reef because other boats were moored on the entry inside the reef. I think the two of us were the last to go down. We stopped at about 15', where my wife took a picture of me. Then, it what seemed like just seconds, we were both at 105'. I added air and rose to about 95', only to sink to 105' almost immediately. My wife was below me at that point (she maxed at 110'). I was pretty nervous about the oxygen exposure at that point. I added a bit more air with the same results, except that when I looked around, my wife was not visible, nor were her bubbles (probably headed to the floor). Bad feeling. The DM immediately paired me with Cindy (who is an instructor), and she helped me. Frankly, I ascended too quickly (and I knew I was), and here is where I know I was not "cool headed" - Cindy had hold of my left arm (I usually dump air out of that side) but I didn't even think to use my right-side dump (I seldom use it because the location of the tab is a bit inconvenient). Still, she was able to keep us in a relatively safe ascent and deploy her DSMB. The DM went after and caught up with my wife (who had swum north horizontally out of the vortex). The three groups of divers surfaced, as Peter reported, several hundred yards apart. My computer showed a dive time of 5 minutes; my wife's, about 7. The incident has left me certain that I need to be more sure of my equipment and do some better "practicing" on keeping close to my buddy, air release and DSMB deployment. The other thing that I'll do is get my wife a DSMB (back when we did our AOW, one didn't need a DSMB or the ability to use it). So, lessons learned at a low cost, given what might have happened.

 

[lthomas132]

Last week, we too experienced a strong down current on Santa Rosa Wall. The current originally was coming directly over the reef then down. We all grabbed a sponge as best we could but it was too strong. The dive guide called the dive and gave a thumbs up, we all pushed off the wall and began kicking up. Most of the group was below me and a visiting dive master and I noticed that their bubbles were swirling below and not rising, an O sheet moment! We were at 70 ft., looked at my wrist computer and we were at 105 ft. and dropping. In disbelief, I checked by console computer, same readings. Me and the other guy locked arms and added air to our BCD, slowly ascending back to ~70 ft. where we began a normal ascent. We hadn't deployed a SMB and surfaced close to the boat. The boat captain was frantic, knowing something was going on, then one head came out, then another, the a SMB with the guide and last 2 divers, one being my buddy. The guide's eyes were big as saucers and started counting heads. All were accounted for. 2nd dive was a nice shallow swim-through we no excitement. A real learning experience for all of us I think.

 

[Dave616]

Currents were very odd last week. We were doing Cedral and 3/4 through the dive the current switched 180 degrees and we started drifting south. The DM just shrugged and we went with it. It was almost creepy because the south-to-north current was fast and abruptly shifted.


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[Augustus]

monday around 11am we did santa rosa going north to south on a strong current. charro read the conditions an we droped at the. north end. on exit the water around el cedral was white from blowing sand. next two days also had strong weird cuurents depending on where you were

 

[DiverAmy]

We dove Palancar Caves on 4/24 and the current felt odd (it was a slow NB current that was pushing slightly out to sea), we were constantly fighting it, although we were not going against it, the viz was less than stellar. In the last 15 minutes of the dive, the current smoothed out, the viz improved and the dive was easy. The DM (Rachel from Aldora) handled the mixed group (1 who hadn't dived in 13 years, 1 newbie, us and another experienced diver) really well.

Then we went to San Francisco but the viz looked horrible from the surface. Then we went to Tunich but the current was running S. finally we dove Tunich from N to S and it was a lovely 73 minute dive.

How odd for late April.

 

[ggunn]

We dove Palancar Caves on 4/24 and the current felt odd (it was a slow NB current that was pushing slightly out to sea), we were constantly fighting it, although we were not going against it, the viz was less than stellar. In the last 15 minutes of the dive, the current smoothed out, the viz improved and the dive was easy. The DM (Rachel from Aldora) handled the mixed group (1 who hadn't dived in 13 years, 1 newbie, us and another experienced diver) really well.

Then we went to San Francisco but the viz looked horrible from the surface. Then we went to Tunich but the current was running S. finally we dove Tunich from N to S and it was a lovely 73 minute dive.

How odd for late April.

Keep in mind that the current running north to south at a dive site does not mean that the current out in the channel is running backwards. The prevailing south to north current interacts with the shoreline to produce circulating eddy currents; a current running counter to the prevailing current is a local phenomenon.

 

[gopbroek]

This weekend the currents have been 'crazy' currents. Winds have been SSE which puts them just about parallel to the SW side of the island which has caused a lot of shore debris and particulates in the water, this morning on the north end of San Fransisco it caused a 'whiteout' layer down to 20' and the vis dropped to about 5-10'.
Saturday morning at Palancar Bricks the currents were all over the place, but Delila was its normal mellow pace. Yesterday afternoon did Yacab wall and 15 minutes in the current reversed, ended up back diving the south 1/4 and then doing the shallows. Then went to Paridise with the idea of checking the pier since it was Sunday, but no luck the currrent was N to S, dropped in at the North end (nailed a nice Pez Leon on the north most mound) and drifted all the way to the bottom in a moderate current got to end and the current flip like someone hit a switch. It was cool to watch as clouds of fish popped up and then repositioned for the north flow so I re-did paradise but skipped the pier due to time.
This morning did LA Francessa Wall, iit was roaring as if we were at Barracuda, at 45 minutes was blowing through Santa Rosa.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Oddly enough, the currents way up north (mid channel) have been pretty benign at the Sleeping Shark caves—as well as sites north of Barracuda that we call Polar Express. Yes, it is that weird time of year but ought to be finished soon.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers


Bienvenidos - Aldora Divers | Only the best of Cozumel

 

[H2ODoc]

We did Palancar (?) yesterday, and had a bunch of random current issues. I was adding/subtracting air from my BCD all throughout the dive. At one point, I was on the wall and noticed my bubbles in front of me and heading down. Got the heart rate going a bit, but it never did turn into a full downcurrent. Reading these posts sure helps to think about the correct course of action before you are in an actual downcurrent. I think it should be part of the dive briefing, since not many know what to do.