Don't move the upline!

[Ifoundnemo]

My partner and I have actually been on the "less experienced team" side of this situation. I posted this as part of my trip report to the red sea in may of this year and also posted in the incidents but both posts were lost as part of scubaboard server moves and issues shortly after I posted and I have never got round to re-posting them : "

Last dive on Thistlegorm no guide again descended down the stern line to mid section had a little look around on the top deck across the bow and swam around a bit returned to the davit where our rope had been tied to discover that our descent line was no longer attached to anything on the surface however as we were not physically pulling ourselves up the rope we didn’t realise until we were at about 8 metres. Hastily stopped our ascent looked around and saw an alternative mooring line realised of course it wasn’t to our boat but in order to avoid a saw tooth descent to find our boats bow line we took hold of the secured line made our stop and ascended turned out we were at the stern of the Typhoon – one of Tony Backhurst’s Boats (looked quite nice from our point of view but we did only see the props the rudders and the dive deck) signalled our boat we were ok and they despatched the zodiac to pick us up….turned out the line we descended on had been about to cut through and had been replaced but attached further astern on the wreck by one of the crew doing checks on the lines – I made my feelings known on the fact that the remaining line that was left on the original securing point should have been removed completely so that we would pick a different line all together or alternatively the new line should have been secured to the same anchor point so we could ascend where we descended as per the dive plan or alternatively line run from old securing point to new securing point!! – not happy rabbits after this, the dive guide and crew made aware of my dissatisfaction and educated on my perception of the potential safety issues this could have resulted in particularly if we had been of a disposition to panic."

I have to say looking back now it was a scary moment and I learned a lot about making sure I ask about alternative ascent procedures if plan not possible.

I'm glad to say the guide and crew also learned from our experience.

 

[wedivebc]

If the cookie is gone, retrieve the spool as you proceed to the upline.

It all has to be discussed prior to the dive.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

One should never remove someone elses cookie. There should be 2 teams placing cookies and yes most dive problems stem from improper pre-dive briefing.

 

[Missdirected]

Respectfully - you would never be my buddy. Too many errors there. You are supposed to be more experienced. Personally I would not tout that with this many errors. You did no briefing, no cookie, you allowed yourself to against your gut and what you knew was right (going off with hubby), and you took the line away from new divers. I move anchors all the time. As a matter of fact we "collect" them here. You could have moved it just a couple of feet - taking it away entirely was wrong.

 

[TSandM]

I think my whole point in posting this was to highlight precisely those mistakes, Missdirected. I've been diving for a grand total of two years, and the number of boat dives I've done in that time is probably less than 50, almost all of which were live boat. I made several mistakes, and owned up to them, and learned from them, and hopefully people who have read the thread will avoid making the same error.

You don't have to dive with me if you don't want to.

 

[jefffalcone]

Your posts are always helpful, and I'd consider it a privilage to dive with you. Misdirected must be pretty lucky to have an abundance of buddies that never make mistakes.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I think my whole point in posting this was to highlight precisely those mistakes, Missdirected. I've been diving for a grand total of two years, and the number of boat dives I've done in that time is probably less than 50, almost all of which were live boat. I made several mistakes, and owned up to them, and learned from them, and hopefully people who have read the thread will avoid making the same error.

You don't have to dive with me if you don't want to.

Divers do make mistakes and I don't hold that against you. However, what I do sometimes take issue with is that you pass yourself off as an expert on almost every diving related subject. Clearly, your total lifetime diving experience of 2 years doesn't support that. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call that there's more to diving than what you can learn on the Internet.

 

[wedivebc]

Divers do make mistakes and I don't hold that against you. However, what I do sometimes take issue with is that you pass yourself off as an expert on almost every diving related subject. Clearly, your total lifetime diving experience of 2 years doesn't support that. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call that there's more to diving than what you can learn on the Internet.

I would suspect that Lynne spends more time in the water honing her dive skills than any 20 SB users and frequently qualifies her statements on this forum with a disclosure of her short dive experience.

 

[b1gcountry]

I'd rather dive with someone who makes a mistake, realizes it, and tries to fix it than someone who never thinks they make any mistakes. I try not to fall into the second category, but sometimes I find I do. It's hard to admit your mistakes, but incredibly educational. Let's try not to discourage it.

 

[dpbishop]

Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a post by TS&M where she calimed expertise, she just offers opinions, which are usually pretty good.

A similar situation happened to me two days ago in La Paz. Last dive of the day on a reef, on the return we passed the anchor with about 1200 psi left, so we continued on. Viz was 15-20' feet at best. I rechecked the depth as we passed. I also noted that the chain was draped over a ledge about 10' above the anchor and it would be a bear to free from the boat. When we returned along the depth contour we did not see the anchor. As it was a site I had never dove before, I did not recongnize the spot were the anchor was. We back tracked again at a higher countor & found it. The Dm had reset it to make it eaiser to weigh, and if Viz had been better it would have been no problem.

I had been thinking out options while we looked for it. There was a moderate current running, our max depth had been 50', the dive lasted 40 minutes. If we had not found the anchor we would have swum up current to 500 psi, done a 3 min. safety stop and probably drifted right to the boat. Had the current been stronger it would have been safety sausage time. It reinforces two primary rules for low visibilty diving: watch your compass & always have an idea of where you are in relation to the boat: Never get down current of the boat, even if it is still on the bottom. You never know what is happening up on top.

I had to get the DM to tell my GF that he had moved the anchor so she wouldn't think I got us lost.

 

[Missdirected]

Your posts are always helpful, and I'd consider it a privilage to dive with you. Misdirected must be pretty lucky to have an abundance of buddies that never make mistakes.

On the contrary. I never stated I had buddies that make no mistakes. You have added more than what was there. As a matter of fact, I dive with new divers all the time, it is a passion of mine. So trust me, there are a lot of mistakes, myself included.


See DeepSeas post that about sums it up.