+1 for doing the right thing.
Out of curiosity, what part of Malaysia are you diving?
Out of curiosity, what part of Malaysia are you diving?
What was the right thing to do in this situation??
- Thread starter blueaqua
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One of the things I don't ever want to have happen to me, is to be blown by current far enough away from the boat that they can't find me. You guys did exactly the right thing in staying where you KNEW the boat would be looking for you.
Current can be unpredictable and variable. My husband and I did a dive on Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea this summer, where the boat dropped seven of us together. Five descended, but Peter's scooter quit almost immediately, so we surfaced and handed the scooters off to the boat crew, and then we went back down.
We were the only team to make it to the reef. The first group got blown out into blue water, and surfaced about 20 minutes later, having seen nothing. We had a wonderful hour's dive, wondering where everybody else was! Just a couple of minutes of time, and a slightly different drop point, made all the difference.
The one thing I might have done differently in your place would have been to ask what the heading from the wreck to the reef was. But if the current at the bottom of the mooring line was really strong, I probably wouldn't even have tried to get there. Better the devil you know (current and mooring line) than the devil you don't (unknown bottom contour, unknown current strength, unknown boat location).
You did well. But I have one question -- if you pulled yourself down the mooring buoy line, how come you had to shoot a bag to have a line to come back up?
Current can be unpredictable and variable. My husband and I did a dive on Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea this summer, where the boat dropped seven of us together. Five descended, but Peter's scooter quit almost immediately, so we surfaced and handed the scooters off to the boat crew, and then we went back down.
We were the only team to make it to the reef. The first group got blown out into blue water, and surfaced about 20 minutes later, having seen nothing. We had a wonderful hour's dive, wondering where everybody else was! Just a couple of minutes of time, and a slightly different drop point, made all the difference.
The one thing I might have done differently in your place would have been to ask what the heading from the wreck to the reef was. But if the current at the bottom of the mooring line was really strong, I probably wouldn't even have tried to get there. Better the devil you know (current and mooring line) than the devil you don't (unknown bottom contour, unknown current strength, unknown boat location).
You did well. But I have one question -- if you pulled yourself down the mooring buoy line, how come you had to shoot a bag to have a line to come back up?
You did exactly what I would have done. You maintained control of the situation given the dive breifing. You didn't know the direction of the reef, so you didn't go. I've always held if you don't know the direction, you're just going to get more lost.
As I read it, the buoy was submerged when they returned. I've seen that happen a couple times, when the current is really strong and the buoy was fairly small.
+1 for a better plan, though. You did the right thing, under the circumstances, but it's always a good idea to have at least a general idea of where things are. Even without the currents, you can get seperated, and it would be a good idea to know that the reef (and exit...) was about x distance on a heading of y.
buton
Contributor
I would have done the same, call it off. I don't feel like being underwater Rambo..
You did the right thing. Period
It looked to me that not only was the mooring submerged the dive boat was not moored to it. deploying the smb is spot on to assure the moving boat is aware of your location prior to final ascent. You did everything you could to assure a safe dive.
One thing not clear to me, was the DM part of your dive team? Because if he was, even if there was no current and you knew where the reef was, you still had a problem when he didn't show up at the rally point. You got a missing teammate to worry about now and should not be continuing the dive.
I've had bad wreck days before at the Harddeep in the Gulf of Thailand. She sits in 30 meters of water in a channel, currents get very strong and visibility is generally poor. I've dove there about 40x now, one day I was on a charter with my buddy. As usual the [Annoying stereotype nationality that shows poor boat etiquette], hogged the dive deck with their advance students forcing me and my buddy to get in last. We descend the line, which is anchored to some concrete blocks just off the bow. Usually you can spot the bow before you spot the pilings on the ocean floor, but this time we saw nothing. Its not unusually for the blocks to move a few meters, but the Thai navy usually moves it closer to the wreck. We took our heading and went out 15 meters and couldn't find the wreck. Having lost sight of the buoy line, we head back, tie off a spool and start a search pattern. We found the wreck 25 meters away in 1 meter vis. We're already 15minutes into a planned 20min bottom time, so we abort and go back to the buoy line and ascend. We surface and our boat is gone, off in the distance picking up divers in the gulf of thailand. We found out later that half the other divers never found the wreck and were carried out to sea, the other half found the wreck, but had no way to get back to the line and were blown off the wreck. Don't be afraid to abort a dive.
I've had bad wreck days before at the Harddeep in the Gulf of Thailand. She sits in 30 meters of water in a channel, currents get very strong and visibility is generally poor. I've dove there about 40x now, one day I was on a charter with my buddy. As usual the [Annoying stereotype nationality that shows poor boat etiquette], hogged the dive deck with their advance students forcing me and my buddy to get in last. We descend the line, which is anchored to some concrete blocks just off the bow. Usually you can spot the bow before you spot the pilings on the ocean floor, but this time we saw nothing. Its not unusually for the blocks to move a few meters, but the Thai navy usually moves it closer to the wreck. We took our heading and went out 15 meters and couldn't find the wreck. Having lost sight of the buoy line, we head back, tie off a spool and start a search pattern. We found the wreck 25 meters away in 1 meter vis. We're already 15minutes into a planned 20min bottom time, so we abort and go back to the buoy line and ascend. We surface and our boat is gone, off in the distance picking up divers in the gulf of thailand. We found out later that half the other divers never found the wreck and were carried out to sea, the other half found the wreck, but had no way to get back to the line and were blown off the wreck. Don't be afraid to abort a dive.
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