Diving with way too much gear

[miketsp]

This happens...?

Occasionally.
The longest wait I had was at the "Parcel do Coronel"
Parcel do Corone,Parcel do Corone dive,Parcel do Corone diving,Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Angra dos Reis, Wannadive.net, The dive site atlas, maps, GPS location, photos of scubadiving sites.
About 15 divers off a live-aboard that couldn't get too close to the submerged rock formation. A fairly strong surface current which meant you needed good UW navigation to hit the target. Vis during the swim to the target was limited so it was each buddy pair for themselves. We reached the rocks and had a great dive in the big rock formations. When we surfaced we found that none of the other divers had made it to the formation and they all got carried away down the channel. So the main dive boat launched the inflatable and both of them set off to round up the rest of the group that were specks on the horizon.

So I deployed my SMB and we linked together with the buddy line.
There was no stress because we were easily visible with the SMB and there were boats passing at 10 - 15 minutes intervals, most of them slowed and asked if we needed assistance. But I could see the main dive boat gradually working its way back to us. In the end we did ask one of the passing boats for a short tow to pull us back out into deeper water so the dive boat would be able to pick us up more easily.

But there's no doubt that having an SMB, a Dive Alert, signal mirror and a dive light takes all the stress out of a situation like this. The crew on the dive boat later confirmed that they were able to easily see our SMB the whole time and that's why they left our pick-up until last. They were much more concerned with the divers that were not easily visible.

 

[scubadude79]

Occasionally.
The longest wait I had was at the "Parcel do Coronel"
Parcel do Corone,Parcel do Corone ....

I have seen some SMBs have an eyelet for strobe or light of some sort. If the dive was around dusk, that would have been a nice addition to avoid being not seen and hit by one of those boats.

Thanks for the story!

 

[miketsp]

I have seen some SMBs have an eyelet for strobe or light of some sort. If the dive was around dusk, that would have been a nice addition to avoid being not seen and hit by one of those boats.

Thanks for the story!

The trick to use an SMB at night is to stick your reserve light into it.
I have one translucent orange plastic SMB that lights up really well at night. My other SMB is a much heavier plastic/canvas that doesn't let any light through. This one I never use at night.

 

[scubadude79]

Cool!
I'll have to try that some time.

Thanks!

 

[mts0628]

The trick to use an SMB at night is to stick your reserve light into it.
I have one translucent orange plastic SMB that lights up really well at night. My other SMB is a much heavier plastic/canvas that doesn't let any light through. This one I never use at night.

Don't discount Cyalume glow sticks either. The clear vinyl pouch at the top of diver alert markers holds them nicely and they take no space to pack. White is optimal at night.

And scubadude79, did your buddy pass AOW?