The current was not particularly hateful that day - surpisingly. I will say that Eve was in a hover - that is, not moving and holding her space. I've done that dive with that particular group of divers many times and know how bad the currents can be - accounting for the "loose buddy system" you referred to. Often all it takes to get seperated is for one person to stop. I can't say if it was 1 knot current vs 1.5 knots or .75 knots but I can say that I was able to swim back against the current that day. It was actually one of the most benign currents I've dove in that area.
Eve was not kicking/struggling to stay there. Having dove with Eve many times, this hover was a classic Eve pose. She would not have been able to hold the hover in the hateful currents that are often there. She had been in the blow out with us but moved up and out of the way. She had been taking pictures in the hole - and others along the way.
The vis and the sharks were the only wild cards that day. (Thankfully, the sharks had no part of this.) Once you got about 20-25 ft above the bottom the vis quickly deteriorated. With all the storm water run-off, the middle waters were very murky. It had been like that the week before when we were all diving in Boynton too.
The bottom where we were was 100 ft. so our average depth would have been about 85-90 ft between holes. If one of us saw something we wanted to check out, the other two of us would wait - yes, we were able to hold our positions in the current. Even using the more conservative ATA of 1.4, we were well within our safe MOD.
No, I never actually grabbed her gauge and looked at it. We did check our own and signal OK though. In this group, given not only the experience level, but also the familiararity of diving with each other, this would not have been a common practice for us. I do this, however, when diving with less expereinced divers that I'm not as familiar with.
In Caribediver's defense, for all of us that knew Eve well and/or were there that day, our emotions are more than a little raw. Some of the speculation has seemed a bit callous given how we are hurting. I appreciate that the intent of this forum is to prevent future accidents. I only added my post to try to disspell some of the speculation and misinformation that is circulating. Perhaps no one has speculated more than me (and certainly Quinn and the rest of us that were there) as to what "really" happened. The sad truth is that we may never really know. I still do the "if only" and "I should've" dance till I'm dizzy. I'm sure I'll second guess this for a long time to come. We all have to make peace in whatever way we can: accept that it was God's will, fate or just a horrible, stinking accident. I just wanted to convey that this was not a case of being careless, negligent or acting like "cowboys". It was a group of close friends and experienced divers enjoying a beautiful morning dive.
Our group has had an outpouring of support from many folks, some we know and some we hope to meet some day. Thanks to all of you.
