Finding your way back to the boat

[Stirling]

I have a jacket style BC and keep it clipped to the bottom D-ring. Mine rolls up tight and is held that way by a velcro strap. Yep it's big and orange but it doesn't flop around and I know it's always there. :11: Only thing I don't like though is that it's hard to inflate. That's why I'd like to find one to inflate with the LP hose.

I would take an underwater navigation course to really learn how it's done. Otherwise (or until then), I think ScubaJenny's answer includes the basic drill - you find your way back to the boat by never losing track of where you are in relation to your starting point.

You can use a compass and keep track of your headings and times, but until you have a lot of experience, you will probably find that this only works if you keep it simple enough so that you can easily visualize your path out and reverse it. In other words, swim north into the current, take a right turn to the east for a few minutes, back to north, and then turn around and reverse the course back to the boat. If you introduce twelve changes in direction with, against, or across a current, your ability to turn around and reverse that course with just your compass and watch is going to be pretty small.

So as you introduce complexity into your course, you will also want to rely on visual cues from large structures (e.g., a reef or wall or the slope of the bottom) - depending on visibility and your ability to distinguish one place from another - to complement the knowledge gained from your compass. Somebody else made the good suggestion to look back every once in a while, to see what it looks like going the other direction (good advice under water and in the woods or desert, too), because that is what you will actually be looking for on the return trip.

At a beginning level you should know that you left the anchor line heading in a particular direction (which should ordinarily be into the current, if there is one).

You should know whether you kept to that direction for some period of time (or air consumption or kick cycles or whatever you want to measure), or whether your course varied from that direction and, if it did, generally which way and how much. You should be able to visualize the lines and angles of your course.

You should look for and remember any major landmarks that you could follow to retrace your course back to the boat. Particularly remember those at your starting point or close to it.

Bottom line for beginning navigational skills, at any point along the way, you should be able to stop and ask yourself, "what direction to the boat" and turn and point generally in the right direction - close enough that if you swam that direct course, you would come close enough to spot the landmarks where you started. You can test your own ability to keep oriented this way even while you are following a DM around on a reef. Keep track of the point(s) where you start losing your confidence in your ability to fix your location in relation to the starting point, and think about it later. It all starts coming together pretty quickly when you make a point of thinking about it as you are diving.

 

[Maya]

Much good advice here, so I won't repeat it. Except to say, dive often to gain experience and on every single dive you should be practicing situational awareness and compass nav. (even if only basic compass nav). That's how you will develop the skills and that "sixth sense" that will get you back to the anchor line. It's not really a sixth sense but the skill of being aware of your surroundings and where you are at all times, that becomes second nature with practice and diving experience.

I also love the idea of practicing with the compass on land - that really does help.

 

[Ann Marie]

The safety sausage I have is the one by Aqualung (SOS something or other). As far as safety sausages go, it is one of the more expensive ones ($60). It fits onto the back dump-valve on my bc. Pull a cord and it unfurls. Then I just over-inflate my bc and up it goes. After looking at and owning several other brands, this is my favorite. Sure $60 is more than Tridents $5-10, but if I have to inflate it I figure it will be worth its weight in gold.

 

[Web Monkey]

Where do you keep your sausage clipped?

I just got one, and haven't dived with it yet. I don't like the idea of it flopping around just clipped on. It's in a case, that's got a loop designed for horizontal 2" webbing -- the flap of the case would then open vertically.

I also have a jacket BC, and can't find a good place to keep it. Pretty bulky for a pocket. No available horizontal webbing. Only place I can think of is on the right shoulder strap, where the quick release is; I can get it on by un-clipping the release, and the case is the horizontal -- the quick release is still accessible under the sausage case.
-Marek

I've got a 9-footer that rolls up small enough to (just) fit into the BC pocket.

If your pockets are smaller or your SMB rolls bigger, you can just clip it off to a d-ring. You may be able to clip it off next to your tank (just make sure you can easily reach it).

Not sure what the case is you're talking about. Most of the SMB's I've seen just roll up by themselves.

Terry

 

[Splitlip]

Halcyon offers a 3 ' sausage which like it's big brothers inflates with with an LPH. Interestingly, you can inflate it orally as well more easily than you would with lots of other sausages. It has an over inflate valve too so it can be inflated at depth.
On another note. Most of the the less expensive sausages that you orally inflate can be inflated by inserting the infation tube into Dive Alert horn.

 

[Marek K]

Not sure what the case is you're talking about. Most of the SMB's I've seen just roll up by themselves.

It's the one from Triple-L -- image attached. The velcro-flapped case looks a lot smaller there than it is.

It fits in a BC pocket, but barely.

And it does also have a velcro strap and a clip, so it could be stowed without the case.

It would just -- oh, jeez -- flop around.

--Marek

 

[Daryl Morse]

I would like some input on how you guys/ gals find your way back to an anchored boat at the end of your dive.

Not withstanding the issues about navigation skills and the leadership qualities of a DM, this raises a good question. A few months ago, I went on a boat dive to Rottnest Island off Fremantle, Western Australia. It was a shallow dive, averaging around 40 fsw, but there were a lot of swimthroughs due to the rock formations. I was diving with a single buddy. There was no DM to lead. We went out on our dive, turned it according to plan and came back, looking for the boat. I was leading and felt pretty confident that I knew where I was going, but when we got back to where I thought the boat was supposed to be, it took a while to actually find it, even though we were in the right spot.

The bottom of the boat (approx 25 m in length) was painted blue. The color of the water made it very difficult to see the bottom of the boat against the surface. Additionally, because of the variable wind on the surface, and the length of the anchor chain, the boat was moving in a wide swing circle (120 degrees or more). I ended up realizing I was practically right under the boat when I saw the sunlight on the anchor chain as it swung around right to where we were. (This made the safety stop interesting.) I found it rather disconcerting to realize I could be in the right place without even knowing it.

This makes me wonder why boats don't hang a flashing beacon or why there is no pattern on the bottom to make it more visible in such conditions.

This post reminds me that I need to get a signalling device even though I usually do shore dives when I'm at home.

 

[zboss]

How do you find your way back to the boat if you are separated from the DM?

PS sorry this was long. :11:

I usually dive ledges/walls or wrecks. Rarely do I dive in a location that either doesn't have contours or an identifyable wreck... exceptions like shallow water dives in the keys.

For wreck dives I either follow the wreck in a big circle following the super structure, which is easy because most wreck diving I do is in fairly clear to very clear water.

For wall/ledge dives, the ledge/wall almost always (like 90% or more of the time) follows the contours of what you see of the island topside. Regardless of the position of the mooring/anchor (either on the ledge or off in the sand outside of the ledge) there is always a straight line that goes from the island, through the mooring, and over the wall, which I always follow.

1) Take a bearing from the boat to whatever part of the island would allow you to form a 90 degree angle with the reef wall, that's your imaginary line you'll follow from the mooring to the wall.

2) When you get to the wall pay attention to some identifyable structure - makes sure it sticks out. Maybe an old beer bottle or something in the sand.

3) Take a look at your computer/watch whatever you are using for timekeeping and make a note of your time.

4) Swim whichever way allow the wall is against the current

5) when you get to 1/3rd or so of you air, make a note of your swim time and turn back

6) Swim about 10-20% less time going back (since you are now with the current) while at the same time looking at your compass to find the spot where you can form a 90 degree angle back to the mooring; also watch for your indentifyable structure (or both)

Once you have mastered doing straight lines, then try squares and circles. It'll get easier.

BTW - I always look backwards about every 50-100 feet - things always look different going back to the boat. Combining this with measuring your in/out dive time works best (for me) on those dives without contours.

 

[Allison Finch]

An asy way to inflate your sausage is to press the inflator against the center of your dive alert. The dive alert cone will push the air right into the depressed inflator. Try it.

 

[Marek K]

An asy way to inflate your sausage

Oh... God...

This is definitely going downhill.

Keep it up! (Doh! There I go!)

Though we're very close to Mod intervention, I fear...