hammet
Contributor
I've done lots of SE Florida drift diving with various dive ops but ran into an tough situation a few days ago.
I was on a boat that I've been on a few times before with a boat driver who I've also been with a few times. I was instabuddied with an older gentleman who I never met before, but he seemed reasonably experienced and fit. Long story short, we got dropped on the west side of the reef where the current seemed to go west. Uh-oh.
I was carrying the flag which bobbed on the surface so I led. I tried heading north for a few minutes but wasn't making much progress... tried south and managed to go a little better, but we still struggled stay on the reef. I looked at my buddy who seemed not too concerned that we were moving ever so slowly despite the fact that I was also fighting with the flag on the surface which constantly tried to pull me further west away from the reef. I decided to stick out the dive and we still managed to get just under an hour (both of us had HP100s) despite the fact that I was sucking air to keep over the reef. We didn't cover much real estate and it was a less than optimal dive.
I thought about going to the surface and asking to get re-dropped several times but my concerns were:
1. Coming up from 60' feet or so, we would still need to make a slow ascent and safety stop thus using more gas. And who know how far away the boat would be by the time it realized we were on the surface. Then we'd have to get on the boat and get re-dropped.
2. Would the current shift in our favor or be slightly blocked if we managed to make it to a part of the reef where we could swim in the lee of a ledge?
3. I wasn't sure if my buddy really felt the need. What was he thinking? He didn't have the flag pulling him so he seemed to be more relaxed. It was hard to communicate what I was thinking underwater especially with someone I never dove with before so I never really tried other than a 'I dunno' signal with both palms turned upward.
In retrospect, I would've headed up since on the second dive, I learned my buddy sips air like me. We did almost 75 minutes on a much more pleasant second dive.
Interested if any of you have had similar experiences.
I was on a boat that I've been on a few times before with a boat driver who I've also been with a few times. I was instabuddied with an older gentleman who I never met before, but he seemed reasonably experienced and fit. Long story short, we got dropped on the west side of the reef where the current seemed to go west. Uh-oh.
I was carrying the flag which bobbed on the surface so I led. I tried heading north for a few minutes but wasn't making much progress... tried south and managed to go a little better, but we still struggled stay on the reef. I looked at my buddy who seemed not too concerned that we were moving ever so slowly despite the fact that I was also fighting with the flag on the surface which constantly tried to pull me further west away from the reef. I decided to stick out the dive and we still managed to get just under an hour (both of us had HP100s) despite the fact that I was sucking air to keep over the reef. We didn't cover much real estate and it was a less than optimal dive.
I thought about going to the surface and asking to get re-dropped several times but my concerns were:
1. Coming up from 60' feet or so, we would still need to make a slow ascent and safety stop thus using more gas. And who know how far away the boat would be by the time it realized we were on the surface. Then we'd have to get on the boat and get re-dropped.
2. Would the current shift in our favor or be slightly blocked if we managed to make it to a part of the reef where we could swim in the lee of a ledge?
3. I wasn't sure if my buddy really felt the need. What was he thinking? He didn't have the flag pulling him so he seemed to be more relaxed. It was hard to communicate what I was thinking underwater especially with someone I never dove with before so I never really tried other than a 'I dunno' signal with both palms turned upward.
In retrospect, I would've headed up since on the second dive, I learned my buddy sips air like me. We did almost 75 minutes on a much more pleasant second dive.
Interested if any of you have had similar experiences.