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Distressed Scuba Diver Saved By Helicopter
- Thread starter DandyDon
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Man, that would be an incredibly embarrassing experience . . . How does one end up on the surface, apparently alone, and too tired to swim to shore?
OP
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I wonder if being rescued by Deputy Debbie made it more embarrassing? Helicopter rescues scuba diver at Sonoma coast | PressDemocrat.com
Peter_C
Contributor
Lynne, you have been around our coast many times and know the current can kick up pretty good and fast. I know you have much worse currents than here.
Saturday was supposed to be small waves and we took my boat out to dive the backside of Bull Rock near Albion which is 35 miles or so North of Sea Ranch. The ride out was rough, and with a confused sea, dominant West Swell of around 6 feet and a 3 foot South swell, occasionally we got thrown a pretty good swell. We anchored and about every 5 minutes or so a HUGE swell would break over the shallow reef and come crashing down. Something around two stories high less than 150 yards from us. I threw out my current line and watched it not go anywhere. After a few minutes it finally extended out to it's full 100ft length. We geared up and one buddy team dropped while I kept working with my now very sea sick buddy trying to get him to the bottom which started around 46 feet and extended to well over 150 feet. We never made it! He got so sea sick I had to start the motor and rev it for a minute to recall my other friends. Then I quickly doffed my gear and as fast as possible we got my other friends into the boat. By this time the current had picked up and my sea sick friend was hanging back on the current line waiting for us to help him. We performed well as a team and quickly got him out of his gear and back on board, right about the time I had the anchor hitting the boat. I bent my anchor pulling it up and could barely hold the rope while undoing my anchor knot. We quickly headed in and once back on shore we helped my friend onto dry land, when one of my other friends decided to worship the porcelain thrown.
So the point of what I just wrote is the seas were bigger than anticipated (I had checked the buoy minutes before departing the dock on my Iphone) and the current can come up strong and quickly. If someone is prone to sea sickness it can take so much of out them that they become incapacitated. I have been around enough people that were sea sick to understand the consequences and just how much it takes out of someone. Thank goodness I have never puked off a boat yet myself and I have sailed and fished around the San Francisco Bay for hundreds of hours. Someday my time will come...then I will better understand just how debilitating it can be.
Our local Sheriffs helicopter Henry One performs a lot of rescues and stops a lot of poachers. Many thanks to them for protecting our people and our environment.
http://henry1.com/
Saturday was supposed to be small waves and we took my boat out to dive the backside of Bull Rock near Albion which is 35 miles or so North of Sea Ranch. The ride out was rough, and with a confused sea, dominant West Swell of around 6 feet and a 3 foot South swell, occasionally we got thrown a pretty good swell. We anchored and about every 5 minutes or so a HUGE swell would break over the shallow reef and come crashing down. Something around two stories high less than 150 yards from us. I threw out my current line and watched it not go anywhere. After a few minutes it finally extended out to it's full 100ft length. We geared up and one buddy team dropped while I kept working with my now very sea sick buddy trying to get him to the bottom which started around 46 feet and extended to well over 150 feet. We never made it! He got so sea sick I had to start the motor and rev it for a minute to recall my other friends. Then I quickly doffed my gear and as fast as possible we got my other friends into the boat. By this time the current had picked up and my sea sick friend was hanging back on the current line waiting for us to help him. We performed well as a team and quickly got him out of his gear and back on board, right about the time I had the anchor hitting the boat. I bent my anchor pulling it up and could barely hold the rope while undoing my anchor knot. We quickly headed in and once back on shore we helped my friend onto dry land, when one of my other friends decided to worship the porcelain thrown.
So the point of what I just wrote is the seas were bigger than anticipated (I had checked the buoy minutes before departing the dock on my Iphone) and the current can come up strong and quickly. If someone is prone to sea sickness it can take so much of out them that they become incapacitated. I have been around enough people that were sea sick to understand the consequences and just how much it takes out of someone. Thank goodness I have never puked off a boat yet myself and I have sailed and fished around the San Francisco Bay for hundreds of hours. Someday my time will come...then I will better understand just how debilitating it can be.
Our local Sheriffs helicopter Henry One performs a lot of rescues and stops a lot of poachers. Many thanks to them for protecting our people and our environment.
http://henry1.com/
Thanks for the post, Peter C.
We have significant currents, but in most places, they're somewhat predictable -- they rarely come out of nowhere (although we have one local site that's notorious for this, and we call it the "Redondo River").
The surface conditions sound like I would have scrubbed the dive from the shore that day!
We have significant currents, but in most places, they're somewhat predictable -- they rarely come out of nowhere (although we have one local site that's notorious for this, and we call it the "Redondo River").
The surface conditions sound like I would have scrubbed the dive from the shore that day!
fisheater
Contributor
Another thing is that North Coast conditions can change quickly. You can gear up and swim out in good conditons and then surface a bit later in harrowing conditions.
Peter_C
Contributor
Been there done that with Andy as Fisk Mill :shocked2: We were never in danger but the conditions changed drastically in 15 minutes and the current kicked up bigtime.
If we waited for flat calm conditions we would NEVER get to scuba dive. It was totally diveable if you could get passed the surface conditions. To an old salt like me it wasn't bad. The current is something to respect though. Next stop might have been Point Arena for us.
Our limits are pretty much anything under 8 ft is go diving, depending on wind. For Monterey often people will dive when it is over 12 ft but I never go if it is over 8 ft even there. Hiking can be just as enjoyable.
AfterDark
Contributor
We have similar conditions here in New England. We can go start a dive with acceptable conditions but end the dive with seas so bad we wouldn't have done the dive in the 1st place. Sometimes the surge is so strong that in can take a long time to cover the last 15-20 yards to shallow water or the rocks. After the reaching the rocks the fun can just be starting. I've damaged and lost gear getting slammed against rocks. There have been times I would have taken a chopper ride with Daffy Duck at the controls just to get out of the water. It's just part of the sport.
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