Diver left behind - Florida

[AdivingBel]

As a separate issue, most of us have been aboard dive boats where passengers were not very attentive or polite during a roll call. It is amazing that divers aren’t left behind more often between yakking, head calls, eating, and showering. Kudos to crews who manage to get right and shame on everyone who doesn’t take it seriously.

Same goes for dive briefings, IMHO

 

[DandyDon]

Sounds like they handled a small issue well. Based on the news story, it sounded negligent, but we know what a drama queen the news can be. I do like a crew member watching for early ascenders but maybe they were - the miss was one of things? If it'd been me and I couldn't have returned to the boat on my own power, I would have blown my Dive Alert whistle - but not everyone carries one, I know. I'd also have a PLB, just in case.

If you don't have a PLB, this smaller one looks better than the one I got: www.landfallnavigation.com/rescueme.html?cmp=froogle&kw=rescueme&utm_source=rescueme&utm_medium=shopping%2Bengine&utm_campaign=froogle Smaller than my ACR 2881, and requires a smaller canister. Either one will work tho, mine leaves the house everytime my car does, and it certainly goes where I go beyond the car.

As a separate issue, most of us have been aboard dive boats where passengers were not very attentive or polite during a roll call. It is amazing that divers aren’t left behind more often between yakking, head calls, eating, and showering. Kudos to crews who manage to get right and shame on everyone who doesn’t take it seriously.

Go out with Wookie sometime. Impossible to be missed.

Same goes for dive briefings, IMHO

Have you been thru one of Wookie's trip briefings? Long, but entertaining and informative - and prevented me from flooding the head when the plumbing needed help. His DMs give good dive briefings too, not to be missed. His lovely wife is easy to pay attention to for sure.

 

[Akimbo]

Same goes for dive briefings, IMHO

I’m OK with dive briefings that are reasonably fun and interactive. Simply being rude is unacceptable anytime though. A divemaster with any experience should be able to get the information across or you can ask questions before splashing. Roll calls are deadly serious and they are a time to just shut up and stay put. I don’t even volunteer seeing someone go below anymore.

 

[AdivingBel]

Have you been thru one of Wookie's trip briefings? Long, but entertaining and informative - and prevented me from flooding the head when the plumbing needed help. His DMs give good dive briefings too, not to be missed. His lovely wife is easy to pay attention to for sure.

Nope, seas got us last summer around Labor Day for a Dry Tortugas trip. We were all signed up. We will try again. We're only on Big Pine.

---------- Post added March 13th, 2015 at 05:30 PM ----------

I’m OK with dive briefings that are reasonably fun and interactive. Simply being rude is unacceptable anytime though. A divemaster with any experience should be able to get the information across or you can ask questions before splashing. Roll calls are deadly serious and they are a time to just shut up and stay put. I don’t even volunteer seeing someone go below anymore.

I get the difference in level of importance, but stfu or go use the head 'cause the rest of us want to hear the briefing (not you specifically, Akimbo ).

 

[Akimbo]

…If you don't have a PLB, this smaller one looks better than the one I got: www.landfallnavigation.com/rescueme.html?cmp=froogle&kw=rescueme&utm_source=rescueme&utm_medium=shopping%2Bengine&utm_campaign=froogle...

Wow, that is a big improvement over my FastFind 210. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Just a suggestion if this ever happens to you. The first place they will come back to looking for you will be your last known location. You want to be in the first place they will look. If there is something on the bottom that you can tie your reel off too and it is safe for you to go back down secure your self to the bottom and wait on the surface for help. If there is nothing to tie off to or it is not safe for you to go back down tie your reel to your weight belt and drop the belt so it will act as an anchor to keep you in place. Once the belt is down you want to let out as much line as you have increasing the scope on the line that will reduce how far you may be dragged by the current.

For this location, this is NOT good advice. We have generally moderate to strong currents. There is probably no good reason to go back down tie off and do all that work.

The captains are extremely experienced with currents and are not expecting anyone to tie off. They are expecting you to rest, drift with the current and hang onto an SMB. There is really nothing more to do, other than to conserve enough air to allow yourself to dive back down should a ship try to run you down or even a smaller boat. If you drop your belt, you are trapped on the surface. It is a very bad feeling when you see a 400 ft ship pass by you at 20 kts and you wave and there is nobody really looking..

As for the "story" from the captain... It does not paint a clear picture to me... If he said, we recovered all our divers in the group and immediately performed our roll call. At this time, we realized the diver was not with the group and we immediately notified the USCG and initiated a search.... If he said that... then we know that they did not "forget" anyone.

 

[Rich Keller]

The captains are extremely experienced with currents and are not expecting anyone to tie off. They are expecting you to rest, drift with the current and hang onto an SMB.

Standard operating procedure for a search is to start at the last known location and expand the search outwards from there. This insures that all possible locations have been searched. The local captains are not going to head directly to where they think you might be a half hour after you were left behind.

 

[Hickdive]

I favour tazering all divers once they are back aboard so they can be lined up on the deck and counted easily without them milling about or ignoring you.

I also recommend taking the ultimate "never get left behind at sea" device with you underwater; the captain's wallet.

 

[Wookie]

I favour tazering all divers once they are back aboard so they can be lined up on the deck and counted easily without them milling about or ignoring you.

That is a solution. Any method of counting divers that relies on the diver to do the right thing is bound to fail. They are way too busy to pipe up and say 'here', and someone is in the head and can't hear you. I've never seen a Captain who is in such a hurry that he can't actually take the time to make sure everyone is on the boat. Tales a lot less time than a search.

I also recommend taking the ultimate "never get left behind at sea" device with you underwater; the captain's wallet.

If you find a captain who has anything of value in their wallet, I want to talk to them, because I'm doing it wrong.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Standard operating procedure for a search is to start at the last known location and expand the search outwards from there. This insures that all possible locations have been searched. The local captains are not going to head directly to where they think you might be a half hour after you were left behind.

Well you are sorta right. A captain will probably run back to close where he dropped the divers but then is going to really search downstream. Drift dives in this area can go 1/2 to over a mile (not including drifting on the surface), so trying to cling to the bottom makes zero sense. I have never seen or heard of anyone doing it lcally and I have been the subject of official searches where the USCG have been notified, several times. I have never called the Coast guard myself, but have lost divers many times on the surface and generally find them within 45 minutes (or I would call the CG). Plus many of us carry marine radios so we can call the boat when they are not there.

I try to be diligent to record the elapsed time since the diver entered the water and then I can get the current speed in 10 minutes, assuming they have a float and I am following it. Then if a diver(s) is/are missing I will extrapolate their location by multiplying the current vector multiplied by the elapsed time to predict the location where the search will be conducted.. It ain't where I dropped them, that is for sure.