Would you be OK with this?

[TMHeimer]

My buddy and I did it once diving from his small boat. We were within very easy swimming distance from shore. It was anchored. I wouldn't do it in any other situation. I guess we used the boat to get there as a shore entry there was probably difficult. As I said, it was HIS boat.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I would not be comfortable with that. I hope everyone had a PLB....

 

[Murphy in NC]

PLB ?

 

[D_Fresh]

PLB ?

Personal Locator Beacon

 

[jonhall]

I always think of Clive in Aruba. Boat captain and DM (and every other position rolled up into one.) Took divers down, stayed about 15-20 minutes, and then went back to boat leaving divers to dive. He would meet us where he thought we were going to come up as most of the dives were drift dives. That was on my 18th dive and then 6 more dives the same way.

Having been in the situation with no-one in the boat for a short time, I wouldn't even have a second thought about it.

 

[johndiver999]

I will avoid scuba from an unattended boat unless I can swim to shore. In other words, only if I don’t need the boat to be there.

 

[FinnMom]

If you know they blow off safety this much, you have to wonder what you don't know about. Not acceptable as a paid-for service.

 

[Bob DBF]

Well the good news is they took you somewhere there were fossils, otherwise they would have stayed aboard.

I believe it is in bad form for a licensed captain to leave a hired boat with passengers unattended. Since there there was a crew, they could have easily gone diving and have someone onboard.

All things considered, I would have dived, and made different arrangements for the next trip. Unless, of course, I hit the motherlode.


Bob