Divers: Watch where you attach your deco

[BoneCrusher]

I also typically don't drop stage or deco tanks on OW wreck dives. If ever needed, I can then shoot a lift back and do my ascent/deco anywhere. Only time I drop tanks is when going into the wreck. Then re-attach them when exiting the wreck. Caves on the other hand, since I need to go out the way I came in (in most cases), those get dropped along the way.

 

[flots am]

I was taught that you don't drop deco bottles in OW, and this is a real good example of why.

Same here. If it isn't on me, it doesn't exist.

If you're not carrying them, there's no guarantee that you and your deco bottles will ever meet again.

The bottles might move (or be taken) or you might need to ascend where the bottles aren't.

flots.

 

[openmindOW]

Might it have been a penetration dive? I am told that it is possible to squeeze into the U-352, but I don't know. There would not be anything to see but silt, I expect.

 

[Doubler]

I don't see the issue here. It is common practice for most liveaboards I have been on to either hang bottles (Truk Odyssea, Spoil Sport) or have a regulator at depth. I do have a problem if people are " depending" on the hang bottle to be there. On the San Fransisco Maru they hang a bottle at 90' as I recall, I asked if it was replaced if someone took it and was told No, so plan your dive accordingly.

 

[AfterDark]

Might it have been a penetration dive? I am told that it is possible to squeeze into the U-352, but I don't know. There would not be anything to see but silt, I expect.

At times the water inside the U853 is more clear than the water outside. There are two large blast holes the forward one accesses the hatch for the main way down the middle of he sub the exit is out the aft blast hole or reverse the tour. It is loaded with slit and if you are not careful all you will see is silt suspended in the water around you.

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

My students and I almost always take our bottles with us. If we were diving something like the USS Algol, the boat ties in at the top of the main tower thus that's our exit point. If my plan called for staying on that tower (wreck is 480' long) and we are doing penetrations then we can stage our bottles together at the top of the wreck but NOT clipped off or attached to the anchor line. The upper part of this wreck is very stable and bottles can't fall off. When staging cylinders you have to do an environmental assessment, you want them to be there when you get back. I am not a fan of attaching bottles to the anchor line. You need those bottles to exit the water if line breaks free or in this case boat leaves you can be screwed. Better choice is to stage bottles away from anchor line but in visual site of it and of course....if two boats are there, at the right line!

 

[dwhthediver]

With no penetration, it makes no sense to me to drop your stage bottles, I was taught to keep my stages with me, other than during penetration. BTW, we were told not to penetrate the the U352, as it is a war grave.

 

[Max Speed]

With no penetration, it makes no sense to me to drop your stage bottles, I was taught to keep my stages with me, other than during penetration. BTW, we were told not to penetrate the the U352, as it is a war grave.

let me guess... Discovery Diving? Quoting a treaty the U.S. never even signed?

Sent from my SPH-P100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RJP]

If I plan to breathe from it, I plan to carry it.

 

[HowardE]

The issue that I see isn't the divers dropping their deco bottles, which is ok in open water on a wreck IF you are exiting the wreck and ascending the same line you went down. The issue I see is that it sounds like the divers left their bottles tied off to someone else's line.

If you're diving a wreck, and the boat you're diving from is tied in to the wreck (either by hooking in, or permanent mooring), and your plan is to return to the anchor line, then it's acceptable to leave decompression gasses tied off near to the point of ascent. Usually, I mark my bottles with a strobe light as well. However... If you're not doing any wreck penetration, then what's the point? The only reason for dropping your bottle would be to be more streamlined as you enter the wreck. In this case, the 352 is pretty full of sand, and almost impossible to penetrate aside from the others who say you shouldn't penetrate at all because of war grave stuff... But either way, the big problem as you noted in the OP is that the tanks belonged to people on another boat entirely. Now the two boats are tethered together with a dive plan. Not to mention, the guys who were supposedly using these tanks weren't even in the water anymore when you guys were ready to leave?? Wow.

So, in this case, I'd say leaving the tanks wasn't a bright idea for the guys who did it. Things to remember and walk away with from this is; if you're dropping tanks on a wreck dive leave them near your line, or not even on the line, but somewhere nearby where you WILL be returning to. Maybe attached to the gunwale or some other strong wreck feature.

Tying off to the chain also poses a problem, because what if the chain pulls out? Then the boat and your deco bottles are somewhere else.

If I was drifting a wreck, and there's current, then I wouldn't even drop the tanks at all, because it's probable that I won't be exiting the way I came in, and probably don't want to swim against the current just to grab a tank that I could have carried with me.

If you ask me, there are two commandments from the 10 commandments of wreck diving according to John Chatterton which apply here "One size cannot fit all." and "Nothing is free. Everything in diving, and life, is a compromise." --- We must weigh the pros and cons of our decisions before we do them to determine which scenario is going to fit the mission. Nothing is free... Dropping our tanks leaves us with advantages and disadvantages, and depending on the mission, we must weigh the risk vs reward.