Diving accident at Tobermory this past weekend???

[String]

If a boat is moored or anchored, the return trip is easy to navigate and the boat is waiting.

So just do what about 100% of all dives in this country do. Pop a DSMB up and the boat is waiting for you when and where you hit the surface.

It may also be impractical to live boat on a deep wreck where the divers are counting on a line to lead them to the bottom.

So again do what 100% of boats do here in such a situation. Throw shot line and buoy in. Drop divers off on that and they get to the wreck. Very rarely some may choose to ascend on it too (but usually not due to flagpole syndrome).


Im still struggling to see the advantages of anchored vs live unless you have 30+ people in at a time. Then there maybe an argument for it.

 

[mikey b]

Since people want to talk about what should have been done or not you should also take into consideration that not all the divers on the trip were tech divers with thousands of dives. This was a boat of 22 divers consisting to new AOW divers and up. Also, consider that the area is a wall that goes down to 100' with a bunch of outcroppings and then drops to over 200' before leveling off. This means that the boat is extremely close to shore for the dive and needs to be anchored to prevent it from drifting (with the current) into all the rocks that are shallow in the area. In the past every time I dove there the captain did ask us to come up the anchor line because they did not want us popping up every where with all the rocks in the area.

EDIT: In this situation getting to him faster would have made no difference. Craig died from a massive AGE caused by his rapid direct assent from over 200' (he died instantly). There was nothing that could be done for him by the time he hit the surface. What caused him to assend in that way is still not known.

 

[String]

That to me still doesnt seem like an excuse to anchor. Is the skipper incapable of station keeping?

 

[mikey b]

"Station keeping" is possible with work. But, getting in and out of all the rocks in the area to pickup everyone that can't seem to surface near the boat isn't.

 

[String]

Odd how you dont see hundreds of dive boats stuck on roads or sunk next to them here after doing exactly that really.

People dont surface near the boat. They send a delayed marker up and boat comes to then. If the pairs have any slight degree of competence they can gently swim out away from the wall while doing their stop at the same time but that's not essential.

 

[Busdiver]

they can gently swim out away from the wall while doing their stop at the same time


The four foot chop that is generated in this area is extremely dangerous and can create treacherous situations for divers and boats. This is part of the reason why Tobermory is a graveyard of sunken wrecks. I have never had a gentle swim in these waters whenever the seas go over two feet. The water conditions are more difficult and are nothing like what I dive in the ocean when the seas are over six feet. This may be because of the bottom contour, the shape of Georgian Bay, and Lake Huron.

Now for the statement cut the line and place a ball, heck yes. This is why (I believe) there should always be someone on the boat prepared to get in the water. In this case the line could have been cut, a ball put in place, extra tanks placed on a line, and the diver from the boat could have slowed everyones ascent and then got them huddled at the surface. The emergency procedure could have been outlined during the briefing so everyone would have known their roles. The boat could then have been dispatched to retrieve Craig. The Georgian Bay is not that big and additional boat responses could occur with 20 minutes. The divers in the water could have been retrieved by another vessel and the rescue could have continued.

If I am correct this is the second fatality since 2004. Considering other dive destinations through out the world this number is extremely low.

 

[va3kgs]

moved

 

[va3kgs]

moved

 

[Busdiver]

to where? Why?

 

[mikey b]

Busdiver it is nice to see that somebody else that has dove there realizes the hazards of the area. It's not all tea and crumpits diving. I have personally dove there in conditions when I went in the water it was like glass and 45 minutes later when I surfaced there were 4'+ swells, heavy rain, lightning, strong winds and extremely dark. Things change fast here and ships don't survive.

As for the cutting the line and leaving there are a few issues with that. Yes, they could cut and put a ball to go and retreive the diver. But they could not then leave after they retreived the diver. They would have to still return to that anchor line and wait. The captain CANNOT abondon divers in the water. What if one of those other divers had an emergency. One already has so it is likely that another could as well. That captain would be criminally liable if he left divers in the water and expected somebody else to come, if a diver was injured and had to wait for another boat or if the other boat was incapable of dealing with another emergency in a proper manner (ie. extra O2). The only way he could leave is if there was already a boat on station there that had complete details of the divers in the water and had the same or greater capability to handle an emergency. Some charter operators are hired over others because of there ability to handle situations that are unique to tech diving.