Abandoned: what's the best course of action?

[Louie]

Very interesting account of the two lost divers.

It brings me to a topic that I often wondered about. It's also one that's not discussed in great detail in courses for rescue; nor is it explained by dive operators and liveaboard managers.

What is the best course of action if you realised you've been abandoned? What do you do first? what to ditch and keep? Other considerations?

 

[jonnythan]

Here's what comes to my mind...

Pull out your compass and try to head to shore, or to a lighthouse if you see one.

Deploy your SMB immediately.

Conserve your torch batteries in case you need them for signaling a ship or aircraft at night.

Ditch the weights.

Conserve any remaining cylinder air in the event of large seas making breathing difficult.

Keep on all your thermal protection unless it's very hot... do anything you can to maintain body temperature and avoid dehydration from excessive sweating while avoiding hypothermia from prolonged exposure.

Any others?

 

[O-ring]

Any others?

Carry a zodiac and an EPIRB?

 

[lakesdiver]

Take the boat keys with you!

 

[TCDiver1]

O-ring once bubbled...


Carry a zodiac and an EPIRB?

It was either the Hughs or aggressor boat in Palau that were issuing personal Epirbs to all their divers last winter.

You get on the boat for the week and the first thing they do is attach the sending unit to your BC. It don't come off until your done diving for the week.

A great idea, especially where currents get rippin like Palau

 

[O-ring]

You get on the boat for the week and the first thing they do is attach the sending unit to your BC.

That wouldn't work. EPIRB mounting to a BC is definitely not DIR. Did they call JJ or GI3 from the boat to find out the best way to mount it? Did they use SS hardware?

 

[TCDiver1]

LOL, not DIR approved BUT,

definately USCG approved!

Seriously, they were pretty cool little units. We were on a different boat so we only saw them from a distance. As bad as the current can get in Palau, we were kinda wishing we had the "extra drag" the EPRIB caused.

 

[Zagnut]

Nobody mentioned inflating your BC.

 

[Wendy]

I heard this at the beach clean up weekend

Don't use those green colored chem sticks (glow sticks, whatever you call them) cuz at night the coast guard won't be able to see you. Night vision shows up green and your green chem stick will just blend in, so its better to get a different color like pink or orange.

And I hear from a air force rescue paratrooper that I know that any surface marker that is orange is highly visible from the air and good to have.

 

[TCDiver1]

Wendy once bubbled...
I heard this from GI3 at the beach clean up weekend

Don't use those green colored chem sticks (glow sticks, whatever you call them) cuz at night the coast guard won't be able to see you. Night vision shows up green and your green chem stick will just blend in, so its better to get a different color like pink or orange.

Good to know, i didn't know that.

On those personal EPRIB's it was the Hughes boat using them.

Here is a link ....http://peterhughes.com/safety.htm