Used my Nautilus in real life

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So I it wasn't a life or death situation, but my buddy and I surfaced some 500 yards from the boat on a west palm drift dive. The boat was east of us and the sun was at our backs making my 3ft smb tough to see. Surprise 4ft swells didn't help the situation.

We chilled out for some 10mins and the boat made no indication of being aware that we had surfaced, so I busted out the Nautilus and called them up. Sure enough, they had no idea we were topside. We directed them on where to look and after a few mins of searching they found us and picked us up.

10/10 experience!
Great to see that this compact handheld VHF unit works as advertised.

I originally purchased a large handheld Uniden Mystic VHF/GPS unit eight years ago (after two divers surfaced lost in heavy fog after drifting deco in strong current NorCal ocean waters, and were luckily found & recovered after nearly an hour of searching), and used to stow it inside a Sierra X-scooter for open ocean pinnacle dives here in the SoCal Channel Islands, along with carrying a McMurdo Fastfind PLB in a dive canister. Not as convenient to quickly deploy & operate as today's Nautilus Lifeline though, as it would have involved opening up the scooter to retrieve the Uniden Mystic, screw on the antenna, and try not to get it immersed while operating it (only rated as "splash proof") --all on top of a fully inflated Halcyon Life Raft.
 
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I still want a dye pack.
 
Did you hail the boat on CH16 and then switch to another channel?
 
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Did you hail the boat on CH16 and then switch to another channel?
The capt mentioned that she was monitoring 78 (I guess thats the south Florida dive boat channel?) and 16 of course.

I set my radio to 78 and all the conversation was on that channel. No use of 16 at all.
 
A close call but great outcome.

With the sun at your back, 4' swells and 500 yards from the boat, I'm not sure that a 6' SMB or a Dive Alert would have been noticed by the boat. The Nautilus was the ticket in situations like this.
 
So I it wasn't a life or death situation, but my buddy and I surfaced some 500 yards from the boat on a west palm drift dive. The boat was east of us and the sun was at our backs making my 3ft smb tough to see. Surprise 4ft swells didn't help the situation.

We chilled out for some 10mins and the boat made no indication of being aware that we had surfaced, so I busted out the Nautilus and called them up. Sure enough, they had no idea we were topside. We directed them on where to look and after a few mins of searching they found us and picked us up.

10/10 experience!

Y'all are making me change my shopping list. I don't have that much opportunity to do offshore diving but a Nautilus would be nice for the times I do. Thanks for sharing.
 
In open seas, a dsmb together with a nautilus is probably best.

Like many who responded, it's good to keep testing your nautilus unit, such as doing a radio check before jumping in for the first dive of the trip. The liveaboard boat we use happens to be really nautilus friendly, so for night dives, we can even order a hot drink when we surface.
 
A good outcome.

I'm a firm believer that you are responsible for being seen and heard in the water.

People think because they can see the boat, the boat can always see them. Spotting a diver at distance is harder than it seems - even with a small swell.

A couple of years ago we ran an exercise, because we dive in an area with decent currents and the ever present possibility of divers being swept off a site.

As we dropped the 1st wave in, we also dropped in a 2' diameter weighted buoy. Once we recovered the divers after an hour dive time, we ran the exercise of a missing diver and with knowledge of the current and wind directions (and with a skilled skipper) took off in teh search boat. it took 45 mins to locate that buoy.

On the next dive we again dropped the buoy but left it for 2 hours, to simulate someone coming up early on the first wave, but being missed off the roll call and not being noticed that they weren't on board until the last divers were recovered.

We never did find that buoy....

Two lessons everyone took away.

Speed is of the essence.

Make sure you are checked in after the dive.
 
Have witnessed people being lost on north sea wreck dives. I always take a 2m (6ft) SMB with me. Halcyon is producing 2m long ones which are not too wide (easier to blow up, and store). Ideal.

I always take a spare SMB with me, and I have a flare stored in an empty heser backuplight which is stored in the traditional wing d ring (I still have 1 backup light stored traditionally and the other in my pocket... on most wreck dives light failures are less of an issue).

Might look into a nautilus as well. Good job and good report.
 

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