Coast Guard crews search for missing diver off of Key Biscayne

[Hetland]

No that is an important mistake to assume that the boat has to do all of that stuff... First of all, the boat should have a floatline off the stern stretching out a considerable distance from behind the anchored boat. A diver who forgets fins (and even forgets to turn his air on) would simply have to paddle over a few feet, grab the rope and his buddies could haul him in, laugh at him and dump him back in the water. Second, if you didn't put the floatline off the stern, and the diver is in distress, then a rescue swimmer could swim a rope and float to the diver. If that option is not available and there is a significant problem, you do NOT have to pull an anchor up...Just untie the anchor line and go get the diver.(should be able to be done in 60 seconds... running up on an anchor and pulling it, could take 5-8 minutes).... If the guy was simply unable to swim on the surface and could work his dive gear, he would have been located quickly by the boat (or the coast guard) if he really got away. MANY things would have to go wrong for this to happen and for a diver to be lost. Also, why would we assume that the two floaters would be separated. The rescue swimmer would stay with the immobilized diver on the surface. Who knows, but I suspect that the diver was not on the surface for long and probably sunk very soon after entering the water... No way the USCG is that incompetent that they can't locate a drifting diver from a known location and a known time in decent weather conditions....

+1, and it sounds from later reports that they had a safety/floatline off the back of the boat.

My guess is that he was negative, had a medical, or got struck by the boat during the turning operation, otherwise, I'm thinking they would have found him by now.

 

[boulderjohn]

No that is an important mistake to assume that the boat has to do all of that stuff... First of all, the boat should have a floatline off the stern stretching out a considerable distance from behind the anchored boat. A diver who forgets fins (and even forgets to turn his air on) would simply have to paddle over a few feet, grab the rope and his buddies could haul him in, laugh at him and dump him back in the water. Second, if you didn't put the floatline off the stern, and the diver is in distress, then a rescue swimmer could swim a rope and float to the diver. If that option is not available and there is a significant problem, you do NOT have to pull an anchor up...Just untie the anchor line and go get the diver.(should be able to be done in 60 seconds... running up on an anchor and pulling it, could take 5-8 minutes).... If the guy was simply unable to swim on the surface and could work his dive gear, he would have been located quickly by the boat (or the coast guard) if he really got away. MANY things would have to go wrong for this to happen and for a diver to be lost. Also, why would we assume that the two floaters would be separated. The rescue swimmer would stay with the immobilized diver on the surface. Who knows, but I suspect that the diver was not on the surface for long and probably sunk very soon after entering the water... No way the USCG is that incompetent that they can't locate a drifting diver from a known location and a known time in decent weather conditions....

I wasn't speculating. I was just reading what the reports said:

Name released
Search continues for missing diver | News - Home

From that report:

Vincent got into the water as planned, but when he tried to grab the life line, he missed. The current pushed him away, investigators said.

One of the Vincent's friends jumped in to help but the seas were too rough. The boat's occupants kept an eye on him and circled around, eventually losing sight of the diver in high waves.

"When his buddies lost sight of him, it was only within minutes," said Alvaro Zabaleta with Miami-Dade police. "At this point, preliminarily, it looked like they did everything by the book."​

On Wednesday Coast Guard crews will move their search pattern farther North as they follow the current in the efforts to find.
Jeffrey Vincent was on a 27-foot boat with his friends Sunday getting ready to dive the Princess Britney wreck, about three miles off Key Biscayne. When he jumped in the water without his fins, he missed the safety line off the back of the boat and was swept away by the current.
“This has nothing to do with them being careless, it’s just the current was strong,” said Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta. “Another person tried to jump in to assist him but the current pulled him away too far. That’s when they decided to anchor up and turn the boat around to be able to assist him and that is when they lost sight of him.”
.

 

[peterbj7]

I recently did a dive in Florida in extremely strong current in which we were very much at the mercy of the surface current and very much dependent upon the skilled crew to get us back on board after the dive, and that was with our fins on. We had a line coming up from a wreck, but the boat chose not to tie off on it because of the fear of what that would do to the line as people ascended. What we ended up doing was hanging on to the float while the boat positioned itself relative to the current. Then we let go while the current swept us toward the boat and the crew member through a line to us. We did this one at a time so the crew could concentrate on one person at a time. On another dive I was starting to climb the ladder on the back of the boat when a huge wave knocked me off. This time I did not have my fins on--they were on my wrist. The boat had to turn around and re-position itself to pick me up again, and that took a while. In the meantime I just floated helplessly while the boat crew worked to get me.

In this case, the boat was apparently anchored, and they ended up with two divers in the water floating away rapidly. They had to pull the anchor, start the engine, turn around, and find the two floaters, who would be separating the whole time.

On another dive a while ago not far from there, my buddy and I were doing a drift dive with a flag. We were given a target time to surface while the boat followed the dive groups and their flags. We surfaced at the target time to find that the wind had come up and the seas were very high. When we were pitched to the top of a wave, we could for an instant see for quite a distance. There was no boat in sight. We were on the surface for at least 15 minutes before we saw the boat. It turned out that the other groups had surfaced just before us, and in the time it took to pick them up, we had drifted out of sight. The experienced crew knew the direction of our drift, and they were able to see our dive flag when the waves pitched us to the top. When we were in a wave trough, we were invisible.

I suspect that the diver in question was not carrying a surface marker buoy, which would have helped a lot.

Are you familiar with the operation of what we (in Britain at any rate) call a "lazy shot", a second down line with a float at the top and attached to the main down line (which is attached to the bottom) around 20-30ft down in such a way that it can be disconnected? The ascending divers can then drift with the current and decompress in comfort, and the boat will know where they are.

 

[boulderjohn]

Are you familiar with the operation of what we (in Britain at any rate) call a "lazy shot", a second down line with a float at the top and attached to the main down line (which is attached to the bottom) around 20-30ft down in such a way that it can be disconnected? The ascending divers can then drift with the current and decompress in comfort, and the boat will know where they are.

In the case I described, I was talking about NDL dives with diver being licked up at the top of a descent line. The purpose was to show how powerful currents can be and how easy it is for a diver to be swept away under certain circumstances.

On a decompression diver, there are many much more appealing options for divers who know how to do them.

 

[peterbj7]

Yes, but a lazy shot is not restricted to "deco dives". I was very used to the technique in British waters long before I started doing that sort of diving. It really comes into its own when there are strong currents, and in fact is most valuable with relatively inexperienced divers who don't know how to behave in a strong current.

 

[DennisS]

The Coast Guard has called off the search, if he is still on the surface, he's heading for North Carolina

 

[Abdullah]

A blogger on one of the news sites claims to have been listening to the chatter on the marine band. She states that the diver fell off the boat in the rough seas when he was putting his fins on, rather than entering without his fins. She also states that the Coast Guard directed the captain to anchor at the location the diver was lost and await their arrival.

 

[ScubaSteve]

She also states that the Coast Guard directed the captain to anchor at the location the diver was lost and await their arrival.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but am curious......what legal ramifications would there be if the Captain decided to hoist anchor (after being told to anchor by the CG) to follow the diver and try to find them before they got too far away?

 

[iamrushman]

three day search and nothing....very large ocean out there.....perhaps he's in key west at the bar...seriously good luck and god speed to him.....my thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

 

[oldschoolto]

Something is just WRONG with this story... Too many chances to get this guy if the story is " RIGHT "... And the coast guard telling the boat to not go after the guy?? This whole thing smells.....

Jim...