Divers lose boat, no pilot left aboard - Florida

[MaxBottomtime]

“We knew there was some bad weather coming, so our last words to each other were let’s not push the envelope,” Engle recalled. “It was just after 2 p.m. when we went down. We said, ‘Let’s just go down quickly.’ ”

I'm thinking the needle is pointing toward stupid noob. Trying to beat the weather rarely works. Here in Southern California, we don't have to contend with current like Florida, so diving from an unoccupied boat is not a big deal. We do get winds in the summer afternoon, so we get out early, make two dives and get back in the marina by 11 or 12:00. We have over 400 feet of chain, so the anchor is never really holding the boat. We also don't go far from the anchor.

The only time I have ever dragged an anchor was when I allowed a buddy to talk me into an afternoon dive. We saw that the anchor was digging into the sand and the rode was taut so we aborted the dive. After that day I have never gone out in bad conditions.

 

[kelemvor]

Unattended boats seems super risky to me. Maybe if you've got an autopilot that can fire up the engine and use GPS to position the boat in the event of anchor line failure. I guess you could probably put something together with an Arduino, gps receiver and some servos if you wanted to DIY. I know I've seen documentaries mentioning expensive systems on huge ships, but I'm sure those are out of the price range of most folks.

Any professional captains (@Wookie for example) care to share an opinion? Would you leave your boat unattended with divers in the water?

 

[Jcp2]

Do we hold all car drivers to the same standards as a commercial truck driver?

 

[Bob DBF]

Unattended boats seems super risky to me.

If one dosen't know how to anchor properly, and read the weather, as @MaxBottomtime mentioned, then it is best not done. There are proper ways to do it, if one chooses.

Any professional captains (@Wookie for example) care to share an opinion? Would you leave your boat unattended with divers in the water?

Proffessional captains are under a different set of rules when carrying passengers for hire.


Bob

 

[johndiver999]

I would worry about the boat catching on fire, sinking, getting run over by a ship, a shackle pin failing or who knows - even stolen. Leaving the boat anchored 25 miles off shore and everyone going diving is not something I will do (anymore).

If you can swim to shore, that is a different situation, but if the boat has to be there, I at least want someone who can call for help if I screw up, get a leg cramp and float off with a buddy who needs a tow.

 

[Dsix36]

@The Chairman I won't debate the passing laws to fix stupidity thing, but instead pose this question: "Is what you describe a normalization of deviance?" To determine this we would need to first agree if leaving a boat unattended while you go off diving is a safe SOP. I suspect that you see it as safe, but the others don't.
The other question you have to ask yourself is this: "Do you see it as a safe practice only because you haven't had a mishap?" I'll bet a fresh dollar bill that all of those folks that morning thought they were fine because they did it a million times before. That tune changes dramatically after the incident. I'm also not certain that these folks were truly stoopid noobs.

PS I would never do it but that's because I recognize that I am a stoopid noob.

I know this was not directed at me but I want to chime in. I have had 3 separate mishaps by not having a person topside. i still consider it reasonably sake and will continue to do it. My tune has not changed at all.

 

[CuzzA]

FWIW, it's more common than people know. I have a crew I dive with sometimes, they clip a PLB off on a jug and of course I always dive with my PLB. I don't love this style of diving, but I'll do it. Good navigation skills are important. Get back to the jug line.

The divers involved here are not noobs and they'd run circles around most divers. The fact Melody pulled off the feat says a lot. She also could have went and picked up the divers and left the Coast Guard out if it, but she made the right call, as did the USCG by instructing her to stay put.

As I posted in the other thread here about this incident. Through years of experience they got complacent and used poor judgment, especially given the approaching cold front. They got lucky, Melody saved the day, and I do not want to see the government making scuba laws.

 

[woodcarver]

I do not want to see the government making scuba laws.

∆∆∆∆ This ∆∆∆∆
Nanny legislation to protect people from their own stupidity rarely does that. But it always has the consequence of restricting everyone else, whether they need it or not.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

There are so many poor decisions that they made:
1) They knew conditions were going to deteriorate but made no concession to it. If you know a storm is coming, realise that the weather doesn't work to a timetable, storms can arrive early and plan accordingly.

I believe this was the biggest mistake they made. They knew weather was coming late afternoon yet descended at 1400. Weather is highly unpredictable and what they did was push the envelope of safety. Regardless of if they had someone onboard or not, they should have called the dive.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I went out diving today in my boat off Sydney. The forecast was for a strong westerly wind (over 17 knots) coming up between 0900 and 1000. This is an off shore wind, but if in close enough it will not affect you but once out more than a few hundred metres from the shore, it can get very rough indeed.

We never dive and leave the boat unattended, although we do all end up in the water at the same time. We have a rule that the second group (2 or 3 divers) cannot leave the anchor till they have confirmed the first group (3 or 2 divers) are safely on the anchor line. This way there is always someone attached to the boat. We have been diving this way for almost 30 years and (for me) over 2,000 dives without any incident at all.

Today the swell was too big to go in close to the shore so we had to dive out about 500 metres. As predicted, the wind came up at 0920. By then the first group was back on boat (which it was before the predicted time of change). Certainly I would never have left the boat unattended in such a forecast (well, I would not leave unattended in a totally benign forecast too).

Unfortunately I know of a few dive boats that dive all in the water at the same time. These are all carrying four divers or more, so have no need to dive this way and diving the way we do, only adds about 20 to 30 minutes big enough to most dive days. The boat from this incident was (I seem to recall) about 40+ feet, a very big boat which will have a huge amount of wind resistance and will be very hard to keep anchored once the wind picks up.