Almost got lost in the Current - long read

[Windwalker]

I recently went on a dive trip to the Catalina islands, aboard a live aboard boat. We were on the water for 4 days. The diving was great and the captain knew what spots to go to. Early in the morning we did a 110 foot deep, high current dive where we had to pull ourselves around the boat and descend down the anchor chain. In the afternoon we anchored into a little cove that had the most awesome kelp forest. The boat sat about 100 yards away from the kelp over a white sandy bottom in 60-70 feet of water. We would hopped in, descend then make our way to the kelp.

This was to be the last dive for the trip, we had to go back into port. This was my 13th dive of the trip and I was feeling the effects of being in a wet suit for most the week.

I was the odd 3rd person on a 2 man team, I am a big guy, I weigh in at roughly 260 pounds and I am 6 foot 5. The tanks that the live aboard issued were steel 72's. The boat compressor could not kick out more then 1700psi. These tanks allowed me a 30 minute dive at 50 feet surfacing at 500psi.

The kelp dive was awesome, I would say probably the best dive of the weekend. We spent 20 minutes in the kelp getting lost before we decided to turn around and return to the boat. As we were leaving the kelp forest, I noticed that the kelp near the edge was laying flat against the ocean floor. Visibility was dropping pretty darn fast and we could not see the boat. I had 700Psi of air, and I did not recognize the area so I motioned to my dive buddies that I would surface and point the direction of the anchor line.
Upon surfacing we were about 300 yards away to the boats forward port side (at roughly its 11 O'clock) I could barely see my buddies so I use both arms to motion to where the boat was, they nodded and started along the sea bottom to where I directed them. At this point I had to start paying attention to what was happening to me. The boat had been drug along its anchor and I knew the further out of the kelp I would go, the stronger the current would be. So I swam into the current figuring I would slow down the progression of the current and I should make the side of the boat. My air was down to 400Psi, So I inflated my BC, flipped over onto my back spit out my regulator and kicked like the dickens. At about the point I figured I should be near the boat, I flipped over and found out that I was 25 yards behind the boat, loosing ground fast. I screamed at them to throw the current line, I was getting winded and knew I could not last much longer fighting the current. In my current state 400Psi would not last me even to the bottom. I could try and turn around and head back to the kelp, but I would probably have been swept around the point if I had tried. I either had to get the current line or inflate my buoy and wait for rescue. I flipped back around onto by back. After another brief jaunt, I looked and I was 100+ yards from the boat, but the captain had heard me and was throwing the current line attached to a lifeguard buoy. I was almost spent I felt like I was running an Olympic event but if I stopped running, I would get eaten by the dragon that was hot on my heels. I kept swimming and waited. I had sucked a little water when I flipped over because the chop and the wind was starting to pick up. I made one last turn in the water and saw the buoy with the current line was about 3 feet away, I lunged and grabbed it. The buoy line was roughly 200yards long, it snapped tight and pulled me, the buoy and my inflated BC underwater for long enough to take another breath of salt water. I was spent, all I could do was try and stay calm and hold onto the current line. At least I was attached to the boat.

My Dive buddies, had gotten underneath the boat, and could not find the anchor chain. It was WAY out in front, so they attempted a free ascent near the bow of the boat. They came up just behind me. One grabbed the buoy then had to stretch to reach the other to pull them to the buoy. I inflated my BC more, until air started coming out of the dump, To get my head more out of the water, I took my mask off and stuck it around my arm then started to remove my hood so that I could breath better.

Usually it is a bad sign when I diver starts removing gear in the water. My buddies recognized how wiped I was and told the deck hands to pull me in. I was in no shape to pull myself in. I talked to the captain afterwards. He said, by the time he had fired up the engines, pulled anchor and went looking for me, I would have been long gone, I would have been swept past the island into the open ocean.

After resting a bit, I asked several of the more senior divers and instructors what would they do in that situation, and I was unanimously told roughly the same thing. I had done it.

Thanks for Reading.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Harrowing story! Kudos to you for keeping your cool. Glad you made it.

 

[Teamcasa]

Those of us who dive Catalina frequently know of what you speak. The currents can come up suddenly and watching the kelp is a good indicator of current force and direction. I’m glad you were alright. Finning against the current on the surface is a challenge for a good swimmer, very tough on most everyone else. Most of the local boats know to toss a line out when the current starts to rip. The trouble starts when too many divers are hanging on the line and it breaks. DAMHIKT!

We also take to heart the rule of always start your dive into the current, it makes getting back to the boat much easier.

I’m glad you made it out OK.

 

[Windwalker]

We also take to heart the rule of always start your dive into the current, it makes getting back to the boat much easier.

I’m glad you made it out OK.

I agree! I do that too.
If we had not surfaced up current from the boat, we would have been in even worse shape. I think that if I was not weighing down the end of the current line, my buddies would have missed it and there would have been three of us taking a wet suit tour of the pacific ocean.

 

[tonka97]

.......... I had 700Psi of air, and I did not recognize the area so I motioned to my dive buddies that I would surface and point the direction of the anchor line.
Upon surfacing we were about 300 yards away to the boats forward port side (at roughly its 11 O'clock) ...........

My air was down to 400Psi, So I inflated my BC, flipped over onto my back spit out my regulator and kicked like the dickens. At about the point I figured I should be near the boat, I flipped over and found out that I was 25 yards behind the boat, loosing ground fast. I screamed at them to throw the current line, I was getting winded and knew I could not last much longer fighting the current. In my current state 400Psi would not last me even to the bottom.

Lessons learned?

1. You had a significant amount of air left, considering you were at the surface and assuming you were not panicking. When you flipped onto your back, why not leave your regulator in your mouth to protect your airway?

2. Knowing that you couldn't fight the current, why not signal the boat with a yell or your whistle, communicate your problem, then inflate your Sausage Signaling device, or equivalent, and relax?

3. A pre-dive plan should have clarified procedures to be followed if the current prevented a diver from returning to the boat. Did this communication occur?

Thank you for sharing your adventure!

 

[hudson]

Lessons learned?

2. Knowing that you couldn't fight the current, why not signal the boat with a yell or your whistle, communicate your problem, then inflate your Sausage Signaling device, or equivalent, and relax?

If the current was so strong that he'd be "gone" by the time they turned around (apparently a dinghy wasn't available?) this doesn't seem to be practical.

I seriously hate surface currents. It's not just a matter of making it to the boat either, that much exertion right after the dive is inviting DCS.

 

[Windwalker]

Lessons learned?

1. You had a significant amount of air left, considering you were at the surface and assuming you were not panicking. When you flipped onto your back, why not leave your regulator in your mouth to protect your airway?

2. Knowing that you couldn't fight the current, why not signal the boat with a yell or your whistle, communicate your problem, then inflate your Sausage Signaling device, or equivalent, and relax?

3. A pre-dive plan should have clarified procedures to be followed if the current prevented a diver from returning to the boat. Did this communication occur?

Thank you for sharing your adventure!

Good Questions, At the time I flipped over I had 400PSI of air. I decided to leave that in reserve for adding buoyancy and just in case I needed Emergency air. At the time that I started towards the boat, I was upcurrent of the boat off to its port side but made a misjudgment as to how fast the current was running, and the fact that the closer I got to the boat, the faster the current was moving. I was going from an protected area into basically open ocean current in a little space.

saving 400PSI of air follows a line of thinking that is akin finding a dead person in the desert with a canteen 1/4 full because they were conserving water. I think in the future, I might keep the reg until I am down to 200PSI but I don't think it would have made any difference. The only time I sucked water was when I turned into the current and wind. A Snorkel would not have helped. Staying on my back protected my airway but made me more vulnerable to the current.

Blowing my whistle is a point I did not think about. I did not know if the current line was already deployed, and when I got behind the boat, it obviously wasn't. Even so, The boat could not move with divers coming up underneath it. So there was nothing the boat could do but send out the current line. The Operation actually had a rescue boat just for situations like this, but it broke down two days prior, and was stored.

Prior to the dive, the captain said there would be no current. He did warn us earlier on the trip that on occasion currents do pop up on occasion and we would need to plan accordingly. The Plan was to leave together and return together. I already knew I had 30 minutes of underwater airtime, and that correlated closely with the team that I was diving with. I have trained with the two people I was diving with before. We had done stress and rescue classes and Deep Water diving classes together. I had only one other dive that day and we knew our max depth would be no more then 70 feet surfacing in sight of the boat. Our depth, bottom time, and general route was planned. We did not plan for the boat getting dragged on its anchor, or the current. That is why I surfaced to see where the boat was to let the rest of the team go along the bottom to the boat.

Splitting the team may have been a bad decision. It allowed the other two to proceed along the bottom and not have to fight the current. If all three of us had surfaced together, The boat would have had to rescue all of us. If I had stayed down. We were not heading to where the boat would have been and would have run low on air, and had to surface in heavy current nowhere near the boat.

I think several mitigating factors were. The deck hands should have detected the current and deployed the line before seeing a diver. It was obvious that the current had picked up because the anchor line was tight and had played out significant distance. The operation had just changed hands, and the new deck hands were not divers, and liked listening to their Ipods while refilling the Air. When they were not on the deck filling tanks they were in there berth. Pretty much all the divers were pissed at the lack of help from the noob deck help. I don't think they got much in tips.

The rescue diver procedure was; If a diver was not able to return to the boat, they were to deploy there Safety Sausage and wait for rescue from the small rescue boat. The person being rescued would then be responsible for buying a round of beer. That was before the rescue boat biffed it.

 

[Windwalker]

If the current was so strong that he'd be "gone" by the time they turned around (apparently a dinghy wasn't available?) this doesn't seem to be practical.

I seriously hate surface currents. It's not just a matter of making it to the boat either, that much exertion right after the dive is inviting DCS.

Ahh.. You point out another thing I didn't even think about. Yes. It was VERY Lucky for me that I did not take a DCS hit. That was my second dive of the day, the first being a 100+ foot dive with a 4 hour SI. Perhaps I can chalk up no DCS hit to proper hydration and EAN.

 

[spt29970]

I would have dealt with the situation differently. If I didn't think I could swim back to the boat, and I was getting water in my face the very first thing to do is to drop the weights. This will help you float higher and prevent the surface chop from getting into your airway. I certainly would not have removed my mask and hood. The mask protects your face and if you are swept away and have to await rescue, hypothermia is a real concern. You really want to conserve heat by keeping your hood in place.

As tonka97 suggested, the next step is to use your whistle to get the attention of the boat. Next is to deploy your safety sausage so that if you do start drifting, the boat will be able to keep an eye on you. I keep my safety sausage tucked in my BC pocket for just such occasions. It is cheap insurance.

Many of my nondive friends ask if I am afraid of sharks. I tell them, "Hell no, I am afraid of currents." Remember, with a 1 knot current, you can kick into it. With a 2 knot current, you can hold your own. With a 3 knot current, you are moving backwards.

BTW, what boat is is that can only give 1700psi fills? I certainly want to avoid them, especially if they are diving 72s.

 

[dkatchalov]

I decided to leave that in reserve for adding buoyancy

You can inflate orally for added buoyancy @ the surface. No need to use air in your tank if you are concerned.