Ascending to a lost boat - what should you do?

[Guille G]

Had a bit of a mishap diving in Playa this Saturday. The DM and the boat had some miscommunication which resulted in us (two divers + DM) emerging to no boat.

We were close enough to the shore that we could swim to it, even if it was a bit of a long swim. The sea was calm, no strong current or waves on the surface. We floated around for around 20 minutes, then the DM told us to start swiming to shore. We did, and after another 20 minutes of swiming we actually saw the boat show up but they were far and did not see us. By then we were wading in a shallow reef, stepping over it and wading waist-deep in nasty seaweed.

I think if we had just floated there the boat would have found us sooner, but I'm not sure what is the "proper" procedure for this - found no guidance for the situation in the AOW manual (outside carrying a whistle, which we didn't. Lesson learned).

What would have been the proper way to act here? And more broadly, what should you do if get back to the surface and the boat isn't there?

Thanks!

 

[NeilA.]

Happened to me and a divemaster last month off of Isla Mejures. I was sick feeling so we ended the dive early. No boat in sight. The wind was really blowing with sizable waves. I knew they would find us eventually, it just took a while- probably 30 minutes, maybe longer.

I had air left and was well hydrated. We stayed within 6’ or so of each other. Didn’t bother me a bit.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

I don't think there is a right answer for all situations. Calm seas, no current, close to land...hang around for a bit then swim to shore.

Rough seas, current, and/or far from land...inflate a 6 foot SMB and hope. There are all kinds of rescue devices for lost at sea. GPS beacons, radio personal locator devices, lights, mirrors, dye packs, whistles, small air horns that run off your inflator hose, strobes, and dozens of others.

What dive shop was it? I hope they made it right. Sargassum is some nasty stuff.

Jay

 

[ssssnake529]

This thread may convince me to carry my inReach with me when I dive. (I'd just decided that I didn't need it.)

 

[Joneill]

Had a bit of a mishap diving in Playa this Saturday. The DM and the boat had some miscommunication which resulted in us (two divers + DM) emerging to no boat.

We were close enough to the shore that we could swim to it, even if it was a bit of a long swim. The sea was calm, no strong current or waves on the surface. We floated around for around 20 minutes, then the DM told us to start swiming to shore. We did, and after another 20 minutes of swiming we actually saw the boat show up but they were far and did not see us. By then we were wading in a shallow reef, stepping over it and wading waist-deep in nasty seaweed.

I think if we had just floated there the boat would have found us sooner, but I'm not sure what is the "proper" procedure for this - found no guidance for the situation in the AOW manual (outside carrying a whistle, which we didn't. Lesson learned).

What would have been the proper way to act here? And more broadly, what should you do if get back to the surface and the boat isn't there?

Thanks!

Did you inflate an SMB? I carry a 6 footer to make sure it’s visible!

 

[CT-Rich]

I bought a Nautilus GPS transmitter. Deploy your SMB and stay together. Bad form to forget divers in the water. Did they leave or were you blown off the site or did the boat anchor drag, was it a drift dive? These are not small questions.

It sounds like the DM made the call, so he obviously had lost faith in them finding you. I am very interested in hearing what the boat captain said.

40 minutes? When did they realize they were three short?

 

[boulderjohn]

What follows is admittedly involves speculation plus some observations based on experience.

1. I don't believe there was a communication problem. There must have been a wholly unexpected reason for that boat not to be there. Your DM was probably quite surprised. There could have been a good reason. Years ago, the owner of an operation in Cozumel reached the surface already suffering from severe DCS. Even though she was his boss, the skipper refused to take her to shore because he had divers in the water. He might have made a different decision and taken her to shore and leaving the divers on their own.

2. The DM assumed the boat would know where you were and come back for you. The currents are predictable. The boat can follow them and find where you would most likely ascend. This happens a lot in south Florida. If the current is ripping and different groups of drift divers surface at slightly different but reasonably close times, by the time the boat has picked up most of the divers, some will have drifted out of sight. No problem. The captain knows the current and will find you.

3. After a while, the DM was saying WTF? He decided to head for shore. The direction was obvious. No problem except tired divers. On the other hand, no matter what, those tired customers have something to complain about. At the very least, they should get an explanation. Lots of operators would offer a full refund.

4. There is no standard procedure because what you described is so very rare. What happened after there was no boat was reasonable. but it never should have happened. I would be very curious to hear an explanation. In this situation, you were never really in danger. If you were out on the Great Barrier Reef, 60 miles from shore, or somewhere in the ocean off of Papua New Guinea, that would be a different situation altogether. In those cases, you don't want to do the dive without a proper locator beacon.

5. The earlier advice to carry an SMB is a good one. Every diver doing a dive like that should have one. They are cheap and easy to carry.

 

[Doc]

Blow your SMB and try not to get run over by something driving around “Playa”, whichever Playa that may be.

 

[johndiver999]

Blow your SMB and try not to get run over by something driving around “Playa”, whichever Playa that may be.

Yeah, it is surprising that the recommendations don't START with an SMB. Avoiding getting run over is probably your primary concern in most places. I would not swim for shore unless I thought it necessary. A very good reason to always carry a back up light. If you end up drifting off into the night time, a light should be very effective at signaling boats and aircraft unless the weather is very poor.

 

[Guille G]

Sorry, that would be Playa del Carmen, Mexico - my bad. The DM did have a DSMB, typical bright orange tube. I did take away that I should probably buy and learn how to use one in case I got into that situation separated from the group.

As for the situation itself, I think the DM effed up. He jumped from the site we went down in to the reef “next door” following the current. His take is that the captain didn’t understand that he was doing that, but since he didn’t say he would do that in the briefing I’m inclined to go with the cap here.

In any case, I didn’t want to focus on the DM’s or boat’s actions. There are non-dumb reasons to be in this position or much worse and I don’t know exactly what I should do if it happened to me on my own - float in place or try to swim in the shore’s direction . Seemed like something this group would have ideas on

@boulderjohn thanks for that detailed reply! And you are right , we were not in danger. Just a “learning moment”, fortunately.