Hmmm... the water there is much different than around Catalina Island here in SoCal, but a local diver (Jon Council) circumnavigated the island (54 miles of coastline) that way. Before his attempt, I told him he was like a fishing lure for GWS!
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The real answer is they won't see 3 knots. 3 knots is 303 feet per minute. That exceeds the best scooters tested at Tahoe.
Even 2 knots or 202 feet per minute is going to be a challenge.
18.25 nautical miles at 2 knots is a little over 9 hours. Add in diver changes once an hour, ~ 9 changes and 12 hours starts to look about right.
Tobin
I think the fundraising aspect of this event is great but I don't really see the diver challenge myself (other than equipment and weather/tide logistics). Even if it does take 12 hours, that basically boils down to 6 -1 hour dives at 15' (with 1 hour SI's) hanging off of scooters following a compass bearing or surface towed marker. Not really a DCS risk and the surface support boat could alert either divers or other vessels encroaching along the anticipated pathway.
Now, if one guy was crossing on one scooter...
Have to agree with Dale here, great fundraising event but not really a challenge, linking a few one hour dives together by different people. One guy going the whole way might be more of a challenge. One cuda fury and a rebreather or bottle switches on the fly for open circuit and we have a dive worth writing about.