Johnoly
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,973
- Reaction score
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- # of dives
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I'll echo & expand upon Jim's comments. Being a spearo, I want to be away from the crowd that spooks the fish so I NEVER see the DM nor the group until back on the boat. They dive in a straight line down the reef and I make a giant 'arc' to the east or west and make my way back to the straight dive line for an easy boat pickup.
I also drive for several personal dive boats who 'could be' flag-less. In addition to using bearing & distance on my GPS to track diver's expected path, I can position my boat to see bubbles or signs of bubbles. In an imaginary line, the divers are infront of me and the sun is directly at my back and my boat's in the middle. If it's less than 1ft waves I can either see their bubbles or the air bubbles will make about a 6ft circle 'flat-ish' pattern that is very different from the surrounding chop. If the waves are 4-6ft, as a big wave crests near the expected divers, the sunshine behind me will shine 'thru' the wave with a distinctively lighter pattern than the other darker parts of the wave and I can see it and that's 'you'. We also have sonar/fish finder on the boats and if I want to re-confirm that I actually did see bubbles, I'll drive slowly over the front tail of the expected bubbles and I'll see your bubbles on my fish finder screen as I go over them and it will show you on the bottom.
It takes a lot of years to understand and that's why it doesn't matter if it's a charter or a private boat, the difference is a Good Captain who knows where you are at, even if flag-less and can't see you. It's ALWAYS the captain's fault if he loses you. I'll be 300ft from you before you shoot your SMB on your stop and then I'll do 1 full wide circle around your SMB to let the diver underwater know that I see & am tracking them even if I have to leave and pick up another diver.That gives the U/W diver confidence that "He knows I'm here" . Sadly this is not always the case.
I also drive for several personal dive boats who 'could be' flag-less. In addition to using bearing & distance on my GPS to track diver's expected path, I can position my boat to see bubbles or signs of bubbles. In an imaginary line, the divers are infront of me and the sun is directly at my back and my boat's in the middle. If it's less than 1ft waves I can either see their bubbles or the air bubbles will make about a 6ft circle 'flat-ish' pattern that is very different from the surrounding chop. If the waves are 4-6ft, as a big wave crests near the expected divers, the sunshine behind me will shine 'thru' the wave with a distinctively lighter pattern than the other darker parts of the wave and I can see it and that's 'you'. We also have sonar/fish finder on the boats and if I want to re-confirm that I actually did see bubbles, I'll drive slowly over the front tail of the expected bubbles and I'll see your bubbles on my fish finder screen as I go over them and it will show you on the bottom.
It takes a lot of years to understand and that's why it doesn't matter if it's a charter or a private boat, the difference is a Good Captain who knows where you are at, even if flag-less and can't see you. It's ALWAYS the captain's fault if he loses you. I'll be 300ft from you before you shoot your SMB on your stop and then I'll do 1 full wide circle around your SMB to let the diver underwater know that I see & am tracking them even if I have to leave and pick up another diver.That gives the U/W diver confidence that "He knows I'm here" . Sadly this is not always the case.