Almost got lost in the Current - long read

[hudson]

A flexible snorkel kept in a pocket is fairly easy to pull out (it should be the last or only item that goes in that pocket and anything else in the pocket should be clipped) and mount on your mask (if you keep the clip on the snorkel).

 

[charlesml3]

If I run into this again I will smile and say. "I'll take two of those little guys" Strap them up to the BPW, Add an isolator and go to town.

Screw that. I'd pick a different liveaboard. 72 foot tanks at 1700 PSI? What is that, like circa 1982? I always dive with the Aggressor fleet and I can't imagine them having these kinds of problems.

-Charles

 

[ShakaZulu]

Now imagine you had split fins in that situation....see you later I would not have surfaced without my buddies. I would have deployed my SMB an do a open water ascend. Then I would have signalled the boat to pick us up. Welcome to SoCal diving

 

[TSandM]

I think one of the biggest lessons from this is that, when you dive off a boat, the boat's crew becomes part of your team. You really count on them to know where to take you, assess conditions, give a good briefing, monitor the teams in the water, and have contingency plans for pickup in events like this. But how many of us check that kind of stuff out on every boat, or ask those questions? And how many of us would use something like the lack of a chase boat to decide to call a dive in a high current area?

Just on another note . . . 1700 in a LP72 is 35 cubic feet of usable gas. Even for me, that's only 40 minutes in the water at 30 feet, and obviously significantly less at any greater depth. I'd have been royally ticked to have paid for a charter boat to get half hour dives.

 

[Gombessa]

Actually.. If I run into this situation and I know they don't have a chase boat. I will swim to shore, Walk up current about a mile then hop back in and try and catch the boat.

Whoa there, I don't really understand this one. If the current was that strong and you decided to and made it to shore, the last thing I'd consider doing would be to walk a mile (with gear a 15-20 minute-hike) and jump back into the current to thread the needle at the ship.

Besides being gone for far longer time than expected, you'd also be approaching the boat from an unexpected direction/location, not to mention the possibility that you don't judge your line correctly and over/undershoot or become exhausted. Then there's the possibility that the boat leaves while you're making your way to them (to look for you downcurrent); would you then be able to make your way back to shore again, through the current?

I'd say, if you could make it to shore, stay there. Better to spend a few hours/nights on dry land than floating in the open ocean!

 

[Hank49]

Always make a note of the moon phase and tide charts before diving areas with big tides and currents. Currents don't usually just "pop up". It's water moving with the tide going up or down.
If someone tells you during a full or new moon that there won't be any current....find another boat.

 

[TSandM]

Are all currents tidal? I know the ones we have in the Sound are, and can be pretty well predicted. But I was told in Cozumel that they can't predict the currents, which made me think they must not be tidal.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Are all currents tidal? .

Goodness gracious no! There's thermal driven currents, coriolis driven currents, longshore currents, river currents, wind driven currents, rip currents, etc, ad nauseum. The normal current in COZ is an "arm" of the North Atlantic gyre, and generally sweeps south to north.
Rick

 

[Teamcasa]

Are all currents tidal?

Certainly not in and around Catalina. We have the Pacific Current, local eddys and off shore storms influence currents. All will effect the currents around the island. Sometimes the current can rip along at a brisk rate.

 

[TSandM]

That's what I thought I remembered. I know reading about the Atlantic wrecks, the point is made over and over again that it can be calm one moment, and ripping the next, which is NOT how tidal currents behave.