Diver missing on Oriskany 10/22/11

[dumpsterDiver]

Y'all are both right... and saying the same thing, sorta...
As a physics problem, unless the wind is blowing a couple hundred miles an hour, a diver on the surface with only his head above water will not have enough sail area to be wind driven, and will pretty much go with the current.
But... if a surface wind blows for long it will create a surface current moving in the same general direction as the wind, even if there is a substantial current running in another direction just a few feet below the surface.
It isn't unusual for the Gulf to be running more than one direction at the same time, especially in the area from Mississippi to Appalachicola. The generally clockwise open ocean current along the Gulf coast is interrupted by the Mississippi River peninsula (South Louisiana), and the current near the coast of Alabama and the Florida panhandle is filled with moving eddies that make the currents unpredictable, often layered and running in different directions, and sometimes strong. I have seen one of these currents roll in along the bottom like those pictures of approaching sandstorms in the desert, driving visibility from wonderful to awful instantly, and the water from calm to "hang-on-to-that-line-or-be-swept-away."
In the northern Gulf, when folks ask me "how much current will we have" on a dive I always answer "I'll let you know when we get back." Also, a strong current on the surface rarely means a strong current on the bottom, and no current on the surface doesn't guarantee a calm bottom.
--
FWIW, on one Oriskany trip earlier this summer, the wind was running out of the South about 10 kts; surface current was running East fast, much faster than I could swim, and it was a job hanging onto the down-line and getting under, pulling hard hand-over-hand. Several divers on the boat never even got down at all. At 18' the current suddenly went to dead calm, down to about 40 or so, where it picked up a mild westerly drift down to 150 (as deep as I went that dive). A "free" ascent with deco stops would have carried me a bit west for awhile, then stationary, and if I had to spend any time at 10' I would have been rocketing East... it was a good day to plan the final deco stop at 20', as a 10' stop would have to be made "flag" style hanging on a line.
Rick

We drift dive in Palm Beach and all too often divers are "lost" for some time period as they drift off while on the surface. Although the currents are pretty predictable here, they do vary in time and place and a diver on the surface IS affected by the wind, but much less than a boat.

One method to track a lost diver on the surface is to rig a surface current drogue. Take a large float ball, tie 6 feet of rope to it, hang a weight belt or two from the rope and then tie a towel or two to the rope. This device should effectively mimic a diver drifting at the surface and being subjected to the prevailing winds and the surface current.

The current drogue can be carefully monitored for say exactly 10 minutes via use of the GPS.. all that is really necessary is to press MOB upon depolyment, back off for 10 minutes and get the bearing and distance at the time of pick up. You get a speed and a drift vector. Or the boat could carefully follow the thing being careful not to shield it from the wind and you can get the speed and direction by just staring at the GPs.. no calcualtions needed.

then you make a table which plots the starting location at time zero when the diver should have surfaced and then you can figure the distance at say half hour increments and using the drift direction, you can position the search vessel at the predicted locations over a period of several hours.

The drogue deployment should probably be done again a few hours later at the predicted location to help account for variation in conditions.

i heard a friend of mine drifted for several hours this week on the surface until the USCG found him and his buddies off Tampa.

 

[Centrals]

One of the problem for CCR is DIY "up-grade".
Classic KISS would let you go to 70m without any need of "improvement".
Why would I need to modify a Evolution to fit a bigger tank when Inspiration is readily available?
Some of us are just DIY enthusiast.

 

[Tricia]

WhiteWaterMike, thanks for your post. It was excellent. And I can only imagine the pain you felt when writing it.

I am so sorry you have not been able to find your friend. And I am so very sorry for his poor wife, who was out there when this happened.

This man was clearly a passionate diver and we all have to take comfort that he went on his way doing what he loved.

Best regards,
Trish

 

[landform]

Thank you from an old friend of the family...the diver's wife and I have been friends for close to 50 years, and I'm unable to make it back to the States at this heartbreaking time. Your posts have given information that is understandably impossible for my friend to share with all those who love this couple. I'm not a social networker, but in this case I felt the need to say thank you to all who put their hearts and words out here.

Sending light from Europe,

 

[Wookie]

The body was found yesterday late. I have no more information than that. I do not know if the body was recovered or not.

 

[evensplit]

Yes it was. FWC and USCG are investigating.

 

[Wookie]

Out of curiosity, do you know why FWC would investigate? This wasn't in state water, and they don't really have a diving accident team. I just spoke to the Diving Safety Officer for FWC and he doesn't know that he is investigating anything, nor did he know there was a fatality.

 

[evensplit]

Part of the protocol.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Out of curiosity, do you know why FWC would investigate? This wasn't in state water, and they don't really have a diving accident team. I just spoke to the Diving Safety Officer for FWC and he doesn't know that he is investigating anything, nor did he know there was a fatality.

As part of the deal to have the O-boat sunk, special exceptions were made to include FWC. It's a little convoluted and political... I think Chickdiver is probably in the loop and could unwind that knot if you're really interested in the details.

Rick

 

[Wookie]

I probably don't really want to know.....