Drift Dive - Lousy drop - what do you do?

[seeker242]

The beauty of drift dives carrying a flag is that the flag is the navigator. Depending on the strength of the current you could obviously go on a different direction, but why? If you run out of reef, keep going there's plenty of magic in the sand adjecent to reefs n many times there's another patch of reef close by.
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Not necessarily. Couple weeks ago we got blown off the reef, mostly because the guy with the flag was a bad navigator... But, the sand was probably 130'. Pretty boring.

 

[hammet]

@hammet
Hi Andrew,

Where were you, Boynton, or some place else?

I have had dives when wind and/or current pulled strongly west, off the reef. Not much you can do but swim east. It often seems to help by increasing the line out on your flag. I have found that by hanging in for a while the conditions eventually improve. I have also had the opposite, with a strong pull east, makes it difficult, particularly on the outside.

I have been on dives when all but the strongest swimmers have been pulled off the reef and had to be re-dropped or bagged it. Sounds like you did OK and made the best of it.

Will you be diving in Sept for GG aggregation?

Best, Craig

I'll message you the name of the dive op. I don't want to anyone here to have a bad impression of the boat or crew because of single occurrence.

No plans on diving until early December in Turks and caicos sadly.

I did see about 12 or so groupers at the castor last week. I get a little meh at seeing them over and over. Last season spearfishing there was a monster sized one following us. He just knew we were hunting by seeing us with our spearguns and stringers even without fish. He was patiently waiting. Smart bastard. Now that was an impressive fish. And huge!

 

[sportxlh]

Hemmet: I think you handled the situation pretty well. If you had surfaced, it might have taken the boat 10 minutes or more to get to come and retrieve you if it had been picking up other groups that wanted another drop. In that sort of situation, you'd probably would have had to keep the redropped dive shorter than 60 minutes to keep the boat on its schedule.

 

[Ana]

Not necessarily. Couple weeks ago we got blown off the reef, mostly because the guy with the flag was a bad navigator... But, the sand was probably 130'. Pretty boring.

I can see that happen, but I wonder if that was due to lack of current and this person didn't know any better, I use the flag as navigator for strong currents, other than that I usually zig-zag as I move forward, or hang in the same spot for a while if there's something holding my attention. Just another reason to not have insta-buddies. I see you're local, you must have a special kind of patience.

Also I do agree deeper sand is usually boring, I was referring to the shallowish sand between reefs.

 

[Ghetto Diver]

What is this flag thing you speak of...

 

[scubadada]

What is this flag thing you speak of...

Ha!

 

[hammet]

What is this flag thing you speak of...

 

[doctormike]

I have only thumbed a dive once because it was boring, and this was the exact circumstance that it happened in. South Florida, got a bad drop, and just spent a half an our drifting quickly over the sand, trying to find the reef. Finally gave up. Maybe if I had been more familiar with the area...

Yes, you can find all sorts of interesting things in the sand, if you are doing a muck dive near a pier or really anywhere there is no current. But looking for tiny camouflaged critters as you fly quickly by is pretty unsatisfying...

 

[scubadada]

I have only thumbed a dive once because it was boring, and this was the exact circumstance that it happened in. South Florida, got a bad drop, and just spent a half an our drifting quickly over the sand, trying to find the reef. Finally gave up. Maybe if I had been more familiar with the area...

Yes, you can find all sorts of interesting things in the sand, if you are doing a muck dive near a pier or really anywhere there is no current. But looking for tiny camouflaged critters as you fly quickly by is pretty unsatisfying...

Boynton Beach is very easy. If you're in the sand at 60 ft, swim east. You would know if you were dropped outside, if in the sand at 70-90 feet, swim west. Works every time.

 

[uncfnp]

If blown off the reef onto sand and it’s lobster season. Just start looking for those honey holes.