Fire on dive boat Conception in CA

[lexvil]

I hope you and Wookie don't mind me answering your question.

Rule 5:
"Every Vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and the risk of collision."

As I have stated before I am a has-been; a former professional mariner.

Things change; however, I am not aware of a waiver to Rule 5 for anchored vessels in the International Rules of the Road.

Therefore, a competent anchor watch mate should hear or possibly see by vision or interpret for sure by radar, that an approaching vessel may cause a collision.

Conception is a small vessel. It is only about 75 or 80 feet. A lone mate while following Rule 5, should be able to detect smoke, heat, or fire relatively quickly. Did the fire propagate to an inferno in less than a minute? I don't know.

markm

So in effect an anchor watch cannot be expected to act as a roaming fire watch?

 

[shoredivr]

Do you have an NTSB and/or Coast Guard report about batteries specific to Conception?

Biker Becca, you have lost friends and are a loyal customer of this charter operator, you are hurting, I get it.

However I don’t need an NTSB and/or Coast Guard report to soberly weigh the information and videos about fires while charging certain battery types in many situations, including the “smart” battery fire video from NASA where the battery was not extinguished, to make an informed decision to not leave charging lithium batteries unattended. Prior to this thread I had no such awareness.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Every now and then we get a Scubaboard Staff Message in this thread. It would be nice if they added a few items. Rules regarding a roving watch aboard Navy ships and large vessels may differ than rules for a 75' dive boat. There is, as yet, no evidence of batteries/chargers causing the fire. With the divers likely dying of smoke inhalation according to the Sheriff/Coroner, arguments about escape hatches are a moot point.

 

[Colliam7]

If shutting down this thread not then answer than are we allowing scientific fact to carry the same weight as uniformed opinion?

SB is fundamentally a microcosm of the human existence. In that existence on this earth, and on SB, there are many logical, thoughtful, objective people. They don't always agree, but their thoughts and opinions positively contribute to a continuously growing body of understanding. There are others for whom even the sobriquet 'uninformed moron' would represent high praise, elevating them to a position well beyond what their intellectual capacity warrants. Unfortunately, it seems that those individuals often scream loudly, and therefore may appear at times to garner more attention.

YOU are not obligated to give ANY weight to illogical, uninformed opinion. Cast it aside, like the chaff in wheat, and look for comment that advances your understanding. Yes, that is hard when people you know and care about appear to be under attack. But, reason will prevail.

We don't accomplish the goal of facilitating learning by excessive censorship. Reasonable people can disagree, and continue to learn.

 

[lexvil]

Show me one report about batteries being the cause. Honest reports from investigative agencies and not psychotic conspiracy sites like InfoWars.

Sadly it may be a year or more before such a report comes out.

 

[BikerBecca]

For all of you armchair quarterbacks that have never dove with Truth Aquatics. For those of you that have never dove in California. To those of you that have no idea how much pain we are in right now and how angry the comments on this thread have made us, I present to you a memorial at The Breakwater. Those pictures are just a tiny percent of the friends we've lost and to hear the opinions of people who have no idea what they are talking about only cuts us twice.

Conception Memorial 1

• BikerBecca
• Sep 8, 2019

Conception Memorial 2

• BikerBecca
• Sep 8, 2019

Conception Memorial 3

• BikerBecca
• Sep 8, 2019

Conception Memorial 4

• BikerBecca
• Sep 8, 2019

 

[Slate]

I read somewhere else that the Conception crew was doing a night dive right before the fire. Has that been brought up on this thread? Hard to tell with so many pages and so many posts.

 

[cerich]

Every now and then we get a Scubaboard Staff Message in this thread. It would be nice if they added a few items. Rules regarding a roving watch aboard Navy ships and large vessels may differ than rules for a 75' dive boat. There is, as yet, no evidence of batteries/chargers causing the fire. With the divers likely dying of smoke inhalation according to the Sheriff/Coroner, arguments about escape hatches are a moot point.

and some posts have addressed that, but with so many.. they get lost.

We DON'T know what happened, we have speculation here, and frankly speculation from the authorities at this time as well.

What we have had is people processing this tragedy in posting, and that takes different forms. Speculation that is expressed may or may end up being close to what happened, but it's also educational and that has a value, people will learn from the discussions and maybe start thinking about stuff they hadn't before.

As long as it is kept respectful and kind, this venue to process is IMHO on the whole valuable. Not everyone will feel that way and I respectfully submit that they stay away, because we can't control what people think and say. What the mods will do, and have been doing a great job of is working overtime to keep the tone kind and to not let blamestorming or wildly inaccurate information be allowed.

Yesterday I dove with 3 people, 2 had a few hundred dives on Conception and the other had had one of the victims as a student in the past.There are many victims that are one degree of separation from me and frankly I expect I knew a couple at least having met. As a community we are gutted.

This is part of that grieving

 

[lexvil]

I read somewhere else that the Conception crew was doing a night dive right before the fire. Has that been brought up on this thread? Hard to tell with so many pages and so many posts.

Night dives are usually over hours before the time of the fire.

 

[Wookie]

Night dives are usually over hours before the time of the fire.

I’ve known crews to make a midnight night dive after the pax are in bed. By the time the dive is over, rinsed off, tanks filled, it could easily be 2:30.

I don’t night dive, so I always stayed on the boat.