Bridge debris from old Donald Ross Bridge

[havnmonkey]

I might try to hit up the spot Sunday or Monday if the water looks good... On another thought, has anyone done it at night? I'd be game.

 

[mksmith713]

I think it would be fun to go to the rockpile...but aren't you worried that some yahoo is going to run you over in his boat because he isn't paying attention? That has kept me from attempting any shore dives in the area (other than diving the reef along the shore south of the inlet.)

Dude.....are you psychic?
Sat morning... 7:30ish....I entered the water a good 300 yards south of the boats who were gathering bait.
I swam out past them about 100-150 yards, drifted towards the rockpile with my face in the water looking for the debris(one of the few dives I use a snorkel).
Vis was about 30-35 feet....I was just able to make out a shadow of the rockpile in the distance when I hear a rumbling noise.
I look up just in time to see a 24'-26' barreling down on me.....this guy was running wide open.
I had just enough time to spin my body and tuck my legs tight so my tank was towards the boat that hit me.
I bounced hard off the hull and spun like a top and instinctively I grabbed the tow line for my dive flag (mistake...line on cave reels is strong stuff).
The line got wrapped on his prop and gave a pull that tore through my gloves and nearly severed my pinky finger.
The guy stopped hard and to be honest, he was more shook up than I was.
He was heading directly into the sun that was low on the horizon and didn't see the flag from the glare off the water.
It took about 5 minutes to let my line unfouled from his prop.
Again, this guy was shaking badly he was so upset. He told me he was a diver too and was profoundly sorry that he didn't see my flag.
I guess I must've been in shock myself because I didn't even notice the blood pouring from my hand (black dive gloves). I didn't notice my hand was injured until the swim back in.
After he got unhooked from me, he checked to make sure I was OK.... (I was alive so that's about as OK as I needed to be)
I made sure he was OK and wished him a good day fishing.
I'm sure this incident totally ruined his day.
Another boat in the area who saw what happened came flying over...I gave him the OK sign which he accepted and moved on.
The thing that really bummed me was by the time all was said and done, I drifted past the drop zone and missed the rockpile completely.
The current took me well past where I wanted to be.
Maybe next time.

Note to everyone........Wait until after the sun is high in the sky before diving here......

 

[trigfunctions]

WOW! Glad you are OK and that we are reading about this here instead of in the fatalities section. You are REALLY lucky.

 

[djtimmy77]

Yeah that is insane. Glad you are OK. In my experience, 90% of boaters are completely clueless....

I have been considering making a diving platform out of a broken surfboard. Paint it bright colors and put a large dive flag on it. I think having something big in the water is the only way I'd consider a shore dive here.

 

[havnmonkey]

Holy ($@£!!! that's nasty, glad you're alright. Maybe there's a justifiable reason for a set of marker bouys near the sight. I know there's the white pylons near the pier, and they're anchored well enough to survive hurricane surf.

I just saying maybe it'd be good so that we don't get thumped!

 

[mksmith713]

My dive flag is an innertube with a red and bluecover and a flag sticking up about 3 feet above it.
It's hard to miss it.
I can see where he could have been blinded by the sun on the horizon.....

My body was achy as hell on Tuesday.
Happy to be alive

 

[Splitlip]

I was hit by a boat myself once. I had an anxious buddy who shot to the surface. I could hear the whine of the prop when I reached him. I grabbed him an pulled him down. Which course popped me like a cork and we were face to face.
I wrapped an arm around his neck, laid out and tried to get small.

The operator saw the hand I raised when I popped up and he chopped the throttle. He came off plane on top of my buddy's tank and kind of knocked us down and away. The prop was still spinning however when it went over us.

We were so shook up, we went back to the bottom. My buddy had lost his second stage and mask. I got his reg in quickly, but I did not find his mask until we were on the bottom again.

When we finally surfaced, we swam to the what I thought was my boat. Turned out it was the that hit us. The operator took us on board and he returned us to my boat. The guy on my boat never knew what happened until we showed up on a strange boat.

The operator's wife/gf fainted. They told me when they crashed, they thought for sure we were dead. But they hung around our bubbles.

sorry for the hijack.

Dude.....are you psychic?
Sat morning... 7:30ish....I entered the water a good 300 yards south of the boats who were gathering bait.
I swam out past them about 100-150 yards, drifted towards the rockpile with my face in the water looking for the debris(one of the few dives I use a snorkel).
Vis was about 30-35 feet....I was just able to make out a shadow of the rockpile in the distance when I hear a rumbling noise.
I look up just in time to see a 24'-26' barreling down on me.....this guy was running wide open.
I had just enough time to spin my body and tuck my legs tight so my tank was towards the boat that hit me.
I bounced hard off the hull and spun like a top and instinctively I grabbed the tow line for my dive flag (mistake...line on cave reels is strong stuff).
The line got wrapped on his prop and gave a pull that tore through my gloves and nearly severed my pinky finger.
The guy stopped hard and to be honest, he was more shook up than I was.
He was heading directly into the sun that was low on the horizon and didn't see the flag from the glare off the water.
It took about 5 minutes to let my line unfouled from his prop.
Again, this guy was shaking badly he was so upset. He told me he was a diver too and was profoundly sorry that he didn't see my flag.
I guess I must've been in shock myself because I didn't even notice the blood pouring from my hand (black dive gloves). I didn't notice my hand was injured until the swim back in.
After he got unhooked from me, he checked to make sure I was OK.... (I was alive so that's about as OK as I needed to be)
I made sure he was OK and wished him a good day fishing.
I'm sure this incident totally ruined his day.
Another boat in the area who saw what happened came flying over...I gave him the OK sign which he accepted and moved on.
The thing that really bummed me was by the time all was said and done, I drifted past the drop zone and missed the rockpile completely.
The current took me well past where I wanted to be.
Maybe next time.

Note to everyone........Wait until after the sun is high in the sky before diving here......

 

[mksmith713]

No apolggies need...I don't see it as a hijack...just sharing similar experiences.

Though a had a bit of misadventure, that's not going to keep me from going back.
If everyone who was ever in a motor vehicle accident stopped driving.....well...you see where I'm going with that.
I can't let something like this keep me from doing something I truly enjoy.

 

[mksmith713]

Still waiting for an invite or exact`directions so I can dive the reef salong the south shore of the inlet.

 

[sportxlh]

Geez: this is frightening stuff. I wonder if this would be a better site to kayak dive. While walking my dogs on the beach, I see regular kayakers (e.g. non-divers) fairly far out all the time. A kayaker might be harder to miss than a flag.

I agree that the sun low on the horizon makes it hard to see. Bicyclists and occasionally motorcyclists get killed by automobiles for the same reason. When I used to cycle a lot, early morning and late day rides always made me nervous.

Glad to hear that you are OK: I think I would have had to dry clean my wetsuit or get a new one after an incident like that.