okiejeff
Contributor
Last night was a night dive from h@11!. I went with a different operator than the previous night . There were only 3 divers on board including myself. We were diving the Antilla, a freighter ship, that is broken into multiple parts. Doesn't sound to bad, but we had a tank banging DM with a mission to complete some specific preplanned route at a specific pace . On top of this the DM took us into some degree of penetration into the wreck that was not expected. Needless to say this caused me and one of the divers who had not been on this wreck a little stress. This may have been a different story during daylight hours, but when I realized the DM had already took us in he completely lost my trust and that of another relatively new diver.
At the point I realized penetration had been made and not knowing if it were intentional or accidental I backtracked out while the rest continue on. I waited for what seemed like forever for the DM and the other two divers to come back out while they remained about 30 feet inside. I studied the area where entry was made and decided to proceed back in as I was starting to wonder if maybe I was confused and entered a different section that was open to the surface. I let the DM know that I did not want to be in a situation with overhead obstructions as clearly as I could with hand signals. He got the message and pointed to an exit point for me. At this point I had completed lost trust in the DM I spent the rest of the dive making sure that I had a straight shot back to the surface and did not end up back in the wreck. I really lost focus on taking any underwater photos, but came out with a few. I have spent a lot of time since then questioning whether or not I should have went back in leaving and I am sure that each of you may have a different opinion on what your course of action would be. I know this is a long note, but I thought it was worth sharing. This is one type of situation I hope you never find yourself in and thinking about what you would do in advance can be helpful to be mentally prepared if you ever end up in the same situation.
Here are a couple of the pictures that I liked.
Star Coral with Polyps Extended
Spiny Lobster surrounded by various sponge and coral
Basket Star (tumbleweed looking thing) resting on tube sponges.
At the point I realized penetration had been made and not knowing if it were intentional or accidental I backtracked out while the rest continue on. I waited for what seemed like forever for the DM and the other two divers to come back out while they remained about 30 feet inside. I studied the area where entry was made and decided to proceed back in as I was starting to wonder if maybe I was confused and entered a different section that was open to the surface. I let the DM know that I did not want to be in a situation with overhead obstructions as clearly as I could with hand signals. He got the message and pointed to an exit point for me. At this point I had completed lost trust in the DM I spent the rest of the dive making sure that I had a straight shot back to the surface and did not end up back in the wreck. I really lost focus on taking any underwater photos, but came out with a few. I have spent a lot of time since then questioning whether or not I should have went back in leaving and I am sure that each of you may have a different opinion on what your course of action would be. I know this is a long note, but I thought it was worth sharing. This is one type of situation I hope you never find yourself in and thinking about what you would do in advance can be helpful to be mentally prepared if you ever end up in the same situation.
Here are a couple of the pictures that I liked.
Star Coral with Polyps Extended
Spiny Lobster surrounded by various sponge and coral
Basket Star (tumbleweed looking thing) resting on tube sponges.
