- Messages
- 93,449
- Reaction score
- 91,760
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Depends on the boat and the circumstances ... I've dived off of plenty of small boats where we left no one on board while diving. The key is to make sure the boat's secured properly, and if there's current, that you have a pretty good length of tag line trailing off the back in case you overshoot the anchor line when ascending.
I recall a boat story with Uncle Pug several years ago, diving from his Whaler at one of my favorite sites ... Possession Point Ferry. We grappled the wreck and started gearing up when, upon dropping a lanyard overboard with a bolt snap for clipping off our rig when we got done (you get out of the rig before attempting to climb aboard) I realized how strong the current was ... this area's known for surface current, but once you get down below about 20 feet it goes away completely. Anyway, the bolt snap skipping on the surface behind the boat was a clue that maybe this was going to be a bit of a challenge. Talking about it, we decided to go around the corner to the Fingers, where we'd be out of the current. But we couldn't get the anchor unhooked, so we decided to just go off the bow and hand-over-hand down the anchor line to the wreck. As expected, at about 20 feet the current petered out and by the time we got to the wreck at 70'ish feet it was gone completely. We had a glorious dive. After the dive Uncle Pug unhooked the anchor (a smallish grapple) and we took it with us as we made our ascent. When we surfaced next to the boat it seemed quite calm. "Where'd the current go?" I asked. Uncle Pug said "We're in it." Looking for the buoy near where we'd anchored I realized it was nearly a half-mile away and we were moving at a good clip away from it ... but right here next to the boat it seemed perfectly calm. We shrugged out of our gear, clipped it to the lanyard, and climbed aboard without any real effort.
As with most things diving, the word never doesn't really apply ... it depends on circumstances. What often gets people in trouble is applying rules of thumb (or not) without considering the circumstances, or understanding why those rules exist in the first place ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I recall a boat story with Uncle Pug several years ago, diving from his Whaler at one of my favorite sites ... Possession Point Ferry. We grappled the wreck and started gearing up when, upon dropping a lanyard overboard with a bolt snap for clipping off our rig when we got done (you get out of the rig before attempting to climb aboard) I realized how strong the current was ... this area's known for surface current, but once you get down below about 20 feet it goes away completely. Anyway, the bolt snap skipping on the surface behind the boat was a clue that maybe this was going to be a bit of a challenge. Talking about it, we decided to go around the corner to the Fingers, where we'd be out of the current. But we couldn't get the anchor unhooked, so we decided to just go off the bow and hand-over-hand down the anchor line to the wreck. As expected, at about 20 feet the current petered out and by the time we got to the wreck at 70'ish feet it was gone completely. We had a glorious dive. After the dive Uncle Pug unhooked the anchor (a smallish grapple) and we took it with us as we made our ascent. When we surfaced next to the boat it seemed quite calm. "Where'd the current go?" I asked. Uncle Pug said "We're in it." Looking for the buoy near where we'd anchored I realized it was nearly a half-mile away and we were moving at a good clip away from it ... but right here next to the boat it seemed perfectly calm. We shrugged out of our gear, clipped it to the lanyard, and climbed aboard without any real effort.
As with most things diving, the word never doesn't really apply ... it depends on circumstances. What often gets people in trouble is applying rules of thumb (or not) without considering the circumstances, or understanding why those rules exist in the first place ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)