Down current + bad visibility + DM disappeared

[timz]

I've made a day trip to one of a dive site at Pulau Sembilan located at West coast of Peninsula Malaysia along Melacca Straits.

On our second dive which took place at Pulau Saga dive site, We did not expect much due to the poor visibility from the first dive. Anyway, we jumped into the water waited for the DM and we descent. Couldn't see anything below, we have to descent holding the rope down. Upon reaching the bottom at about 5m depth. DM signaled buddy pair and direction of dive. And we started finning. As we were diving, we saw a few big rocks with some corals. But the rpck is only visible when we aproaches near to 2m or less. DM signalled stop and level off. We did and he search around the rocks and found nothing interesting, so we moved on amd continue the dive.

However, after around 5 minutes, DM decided to change direction. Within a few kicks DM dissapeared due to the extreme poor visibility. Me and my buddies turn around. None of us can spot our DM. So we started banging our tank with our banger. We hear the same tank banging from our DM but we just can't see him. Lookig around us, we can only see ourself covering by the jade green water. No refference, no reef, no ground...

I signaled to my buddy "how??" Both my buddies reply with the same "how??" Sign indicating "dunno". So, I signaled "1 minutes stop and level, let him look for us. Then we ascend". Both of them agreed. So we waited for 1 minute. But as we were waiting, environment became darker. I thought there is something above us and I looked up. Nothing. Then i felt the pressure change on my ears. So, i looked on my Dive computer and realize we were descending quick. So, we hold hands and started finning up slowly to 10m. Environment became brighter. Another 1/2 minutes later, it became dark again. So, i looked on the dive comp and it showed 16.3m. We finned up to 10m again and i continue finning to mantain 10m.

I signaled to my buddies we are leveling off 3mins at 10m. Then we ascend to 5m for safety stop amd we ascend. I al not sure if it is correct to make a 10m 3mins stop. All in my mind was we shouldn't ascend too quickly. As we were leveling at 10m, all 3 of us inflated the bcd a little as we still see our depth gauge showing descend slowly. I continue finning to maintain the 10m depth. Looking around, there is nothing i can see except for my 2 buddies and the jade green water. All i wanted to see is the island and the sky covered with haze again. My eyes locked on my dive comp. 3 minutes felt like forever.

When the 3 minutes 10meters stop completed, we ascended to 5m and our dive comp show 5m 3min safety stop. I slightly deflated my BCD for neutral buoyand. We hover and maintain 5m with breathing. Suddenly, I just decided to hold my gopro to take a selfie shot of ourself and I did. So my eyes went back to locking my dive comp.

Finally 3mins safety stop ended and we all deflate our BCD and fin up slowly to the surface feeling glad we for seeing the hazy sky and breath the hazy air again.

Upon reaching the surface, our boat is already 150m away. DM surfaced 2 minutes later at 200m away and feeling extremely happy to see us. We gathered near to the boat and He told us he heard our tank banging and he responded. He swims around and couldn't find us for quite a while. Then i told my buddies, we were just hit by downstream current and had a drift dive.

I asked us to descend again at another area which is safe with maximum depth of 12m. But we decided to abort the dive. On the boat, I checked my dive comp.With all the dramas that felt like forever, the dive was only 14mins.

3rd dive went on smoothly with same low visibility. But DM swim much slower than 1st and second dive to make sure we are able to catch up.

When we reached the dive centre, I took out my phone and saw a few messages from my friends asking "How was the dive??" I just replied "great".

In my mind, as long as we surface safely, it's a great dive.

It's not the thing us see under the surface that is valuable, it's the experience that I gained in a dive.

BTW,

What visibility would you guys call this?? Screenshot taken with gopro hero 4 silver.


The smallest moray I've seen. Bpdy diameter around 6-8mm.

Thanks for reading.

Timz

 

[Steve_C]

Sounds like you handled it well. Also learned the important lesson about being ready to take care of yourself DM or not. You cannot count on them to be there.

 

[kevindsingleton]

I would say that's pretty poor visibility, for salt water. Keep diving. It gets better!

 

[Neilwood]

Sounds like you handled it well. Also learned the important lesson about being ready to take care of yourself DM or not. You cannot count on them to be there.

Agreed. There is really only one person you can truly rely on for your safety - you!

Only thing I would have possibly suggested in addition to what the OP did is to try to swim sideways out of the down current (from the info I have seen, a lot of them are highly localised and even a few metres would quite possibly get you out of it).

As the OP says though - great dive as they came back safely.

 

[Searcaigh]

With such bad visibility consider carrying dive lights, which may help or not, but I have found them useful for locating dive buddies in low visibility situations. Banging on a tank does not help with direction IMHO

At any rate you and your buddies stuck together and that is very positive.

Given how far you drifted from the boat, consider carrying an SMB that you can inflate on the surface, helps the boat crew spot you

 

[timz]

Sounds like you handled it well. Also learned the important lesson about being ready to take care of yourself DM or not. You cannot count on them to be there.

Thanks.

I would say that's pretty poor visibility, for salt water. Keep diving. It gets better!

I'm sure there are time in a month with better visibility. According to our 72 years Old DM, We booked the wrong diving date according to the chinese lunar calendar which is relates parallel to the moonpath.

But how many meters/feet visibility would you call it??

Agreed. There is really only one person you can truly rely on for your safety - you!

Only thing I would have possibly suggested in addition to what the OP did is to try to swim sideways out of the down current (from the info I have seen, a lot of them are highly localised and even a few metres would quite possibly get you out of it).

As the OP says though - great dive as they came back safely.

Ya... My friend which is a much more experience diver messaged and asked me about the dive. I replied her that I got "pulled down by down current". She immediately called and scolded me for being stubborn for proceeding with an unpopular dive site.

Then advised me to kick sideway if i encounter similar situation. However, there is nothing I can see around me due to poor visibility. And it's our first encounter with down current amd i see positive response on my divecomp kicking up, so all i can think off is kick myself up.

Actually were not exactly experiencing a down current. It was a down slope current and I can't see a thing. I just have no idea where to kick.

 

[Storker]

Like the other posters, I think you handled the situation very well. If your dive count is correct, better than expected. Good call to thumb the dive, far from everyone thumbs the dive when they really should. And like the others, I think this was a very valuable lesson about whom to trust during a dive.

Now for a few questions/comments:

• It seems as if you were three buddies and one DM. Correct?
• Did you have a pre-dive discussion with the DM about separation procedures?
• Was the DM there to oversee you, or was s/he expected to be more of a guide?

If you were three buddies, you should be aware that this puts an extra strain on your task loading. I often dive threesomes if needed, but particularly if I carry a camera I prefer to dive in normal buddy pairs. Keeping track of two buddies while operating my camera while maintaining buoyancy, keeping track of tank pressure and N2 loading stretches my mental bandwidth.

My best dives with buddies I didn't know from before - including the few guides I've dived with - have been after a leisurely chat about preferred style, buddy distance, primary objective of the dive, speed, swimming formation etc. It doesn't need to be formal and you don't need to make big deal out of it, but if you have a pre-dive chat, you can avoid some confusion underwater because you've tuned in a bit, so to speak. This may be something to consider in the future.

You seem to have a good attitude, so continue to stay safe!

 

[timz]

With such bad visibility consider carrying dive lights, which may help or not, but I have found them useful for locating dive buddies in low visibility situations. Banging on a tank does not help with direction IMHO

At any rate you and your buddies stuck together and that is very positive.

Given how far you drifted from the boat, consider carrying an SMB that you can inflate on the surface, helps the boat crew spot you

Thanks for the advise. In South East Asia, most of the Divers are well pampered. And now I really feel the importance of having an SMB for unforseen circumstances.

And i think I'm going to bring a torch for every dive with bad visibility from now onwards for just incase situation be it under or above the surface.

Thanks.

 

[Doby45]

I was going to say, I would have shot the SMB right after the 1 minute wait for the DM. If you have already decided to abort the dive there is no reason not to shoot the SMB, it would also act as a line for you to hold on to and give you a point of reference in the water column.

 

[kevindsingleton]

I'm sure there are time in a month with better visibility. According to our 72 years Old DM, We booked the wrong diving date according to the chinese lunar calendar which is relates parallel to the moonpath.

But how many meters/feet visibility would you call it??

I'm sure the Moon has some effect on visibility. It seems to affect everything else! I'm not sure how far you are from the other diver you photographed, so it's hard to say what distance you could readily see. I would call it 10 or 15 feet, but that's more of a guess than a statistic. It could easily be half that. I've enjoyed better vis in fresh water lakes, so it's pretty bad, for ocean diving.