Current in Brothers/Daeldalus/Elphinstone

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Hi,

I was wondering how strong a current one has to swim in at the Brothers/Daeldalus/Elphinstone sites. Wife wants to bring a shorter travel fin instead of the harder to fin Mares Avantis. I don't think we can bring extra fins for backups given baggage weight restrictions (in addition to having to bring clothes for the rest of the trip, and photo gear that is always heavy). Would one of those be sufficient?

She seem to be able to zip thru the water, even keeping up with me on a swim in the strong current on Cozumel's Punta Sur, while dragging people who were floating off left and right. I had extra photo gear and was pushing hard, emptying out my tank real quick at 110'. We were all vastly slower than the DM, who was trying to get to the next set of corals, having all of us swim in the blue for what seems like forever, which nobody made to.

This is the one she wants to bring.

US Divers Hingeflex II Fin, 72521 | Snorkeling Accessories | Swimming & Snorkeling | GEAR | items from Campmor.

 

[Solly]

current can be strong, usually you do not need to swim against the current for long time but it is the drop from rip getting down and you have to swim to the reef avoiding to be swept away by current to the blue...
I have no experience with the places mentioned in your post to compare to but I recommend to have the harder fins in hand !

strong current is not a must, I have been to the brothers about 5 times, 2 of them there was no current at all ... and no sharks

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Ouch, so no current, no sharks? Are the current insanely strong or swimmable?

So is the swim long? Or is it just a mad dash to get to the reef below? We kind of had similar situation in Galapagos, where everybody backflips off the zodiac, sink down ASAP and grab onto the volcanic boulder or else get swept away. Usually its me that has the issues, with the camera gears, need to descend right away, hanging onto the boulder with the knees so the hands could be free to operate the cameras.

 

[Solly]

it is not a long swim, it all depends on the skill of the dive guide to get you to the zero current spot then it will be 2-3 minutes swim cutting through the current .... just as you described the galapagos... you will not have a volcanic boulder to grab on, just reef or the numidia wreck

 

[sphyrnidus]

I have been at Elphinstone 4 times, the Brothers and Daedalus both three times. At any of these places there can be zero to strong currents. Last March at Elphinstone, there was no current whatsoever. But on other occasions they drop you in front of the reef and you really have to swim down to the bottom hard. Indeed a mad dash to get to the reef. Bring a hook (Let me google that for you) to attach yourself to the bottom so you can film/photo easier.
If there is a strong current, they drop you of with the Zodiac, do a back flip and you do a negative entry.
I suspect somewhat like how you describe Galapagos. I have know idea how these fins will work as I don't know them.
At Elphinstone, after your time is up, you let go and drift to the other end of the reef and return to the boat or get picked up. And bring an SMB, thats obligatory as is a PDC. At one time our boat's Zodiac was so far away that a Zodiac from an other liveaboard picked us up. After they returned is to our boat and they were gone I discovered that my pouch was missing, it had fallen off of my webbing/wing. We never found out who they were, so I lost a back-up light, a reel and of course the pouch. So take care when that happens to collect everything when getting on your own ship.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know reef hooks were required or allowed. I actually bought one for my galapagos trip, but returned it when I found out it would be useless since the hammerheads swims into the current, and if I am hooked onto the rock, I would be facing away from them. Even clamping onto the boulder with the knees was a challenge since the current pushing from the rear will have a tendency to tip me over or destabilize me.

I have to see if I have time to get since I am leaving for the trip very soon. How does other people hang on if they don't have reef hook? Grab onto the reef?

I guess worse case, I will repurpose this line cutter that I put on my wife's BC

http://www.amazon.com/Hollis-Titanium-Line-Cutter/dp/B003JTR15G



I remember climbing onto the zodiac was a pain, having to take our gears off, lift it up to pass it to the people on it, and then try to climb up the side which practically has no grip. Then once on, help haul everybody else's gear up.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Came back from trip, all dives were wall dives, and the preference seems to be that we dive in the side of no current, or drift with the current. Only time we might go against the current is when hanging out near cleaning stations, but that's usually for 5 min or so and there are one can hang around the corner enough to not be hit by it.

When the wife was chasing some palegics, she was actually quite strong with those fins. I could not keep up or decided to forgo catching up with it due to the vast amount of air that would be consumed at depth during and after chasing it.