Diving in a shipping lane

[Scuba_Noob]

I am comfortable and pretty good with my navigation abilities, so I don't think I'd navigate incorrectly enough to hit a shipping lane.

I wouldn't recommend diving that close to a shipping lane unless you were confident in your navigation, though. It's like diving too far beyond your experience level. I wonder what there is to see there anyway.

 

[NAM001]

after listening to the sound of the video i (submarine sonarman retired) hear the prop doing about 120 rpm possably doing about 12 kts. i have no idea how large the diameter of the prop is but the angular volocity is not slow enough to dodge prop blades. even if it was a variable prop ship and the speed was say 5 kts ( more reasonable for an area that a diver could be at) the shaft rpm is still that same. End result is doomsday for any diver cought in the prop. great sound tract.

 

[RTee]

I talked with a diver once on the St. Lawrence who liked to surf along the bottom of the river on the pressure wave generated by the big ore boats passing above. He said he got the idea from watching the fish being pushed around. We just missed having one pass over while we were on the barge America, which was disappointing. The big boats there can only draft 26', so they're quite a ways above you.

Did the Keystorm and the America two weeks ago. I was between the rocky shoal and the hull when a Laker went above us...I with the two divers who were with me use an opening between the hull and the shoal and ended up under the America as the vessel went over us. Bottom is 77 ft or so there. My GF was diving with two other divers and ended up on the channel side of the America (by the ladder that is standing close to the hull). She stuck close to the bottom, grabbed it and watched the surroundings. She told me afterward that she could see cyclical movement of the particles in suspension as the ship went by.

 

[Ayisha]

I talked with a diver once on the St. Lawrence who liked to surf along the bottom of the river on the pressure wave generated by the big ore boats passing above. He said he got the idea from watching the fish being pushed around. We just missed having one pass over while we were on the barge America, which was disappointing. The big boats there can only draft 26', so they're quite a ways above you.

Not if you're going up the ladder when a freighter is about to go by. Years ago while doing the America in Brockville, I got to the top of the boat ladder and was about to climb aboard and the DM yelled, "Go back down!". I said "No, we're coming up". I thought he was crazy. He said, "No, go back down! There's a freighter coming!" So we re-descended a ways and soon enough, the vibration and noise and the ladder jumping up and down were unbelievable. We waited a short time and went back up the ladder. The DM said, "Aren't you glad you went back down?" He said that the freighters move about 40 feet of water around them or something to that effect.

 

[DevonDiver]

If you navigation is unreliable, don't dive within an obtainable distance to a shipping line.

Am I missing something?

 

[flyandive]

How did you end up under a cruise ship? At least the hulls aren't too deep on those, some hulls are around 20 meters deep.

Lucky for us it wasn't one of those massive Carnival cruise ships. We were doing a drift dive in south Florida off a commercial dive boat. Apparently they never altered course despite the dive boat near by with a flag up and us towing a dive flag as well. I highly doubt they even saw our small insignificant legal sized dive flag.

 

[Skydiver1]

If you navigation is unreliable, don't dive within an obtainable distance to a shipping line.

Am I missing something?

I know of dive sites around Gibraltar that are very close to shipping lanes.

Just reading about propeller accidents. Seems there has been a lot of divers sucked into small props and been killed or suffered serious injury. I just came across one who was sucked into a larger prop while inspecting a ship in port.

Diver killed, two injured at Malta Freeport - DivingForMe.com

 

[NAM001]

i bet there are. most everything is near shipping lanes at gibralter. not a friendly place to be in the water

I know of dive sites around Gibraltar that are very close to shipping lanes.

Just reading about propeller accidents. Seems there has been a lot of divers sucked into small props and been killed or suffered serious injury. I just came across one who was sucked into a larger prop while inspecting a ship in port.

Diver killed, two injured at Malta Freeport - DivingForMe.com

 

[Ayisha]

Some wrecks are IN a shipping lane. The America, on the U.S. side of the St. Lawrence river, accidentally blew itself up while blasting the shipping channel. Dive boats go there and divers go there. The wreck is treated as an overhead environment - you must go back to the mooring line to ascend. No blue water ascents.

The Niagara river drift dive has lots of boat traffic. Got to tow a bleach bottle or flag and surface only on the edge of your nation's side rather than in the middle of boat traffic.