Error Five Drifters Rescued - Hawaii Kai

[Steelyeyes]

I have a Dive Alert on my inflator hose, I believe it is a bit louder than a storm whistle.

Yeah but they are still limited. We did a couple of lion fish hunts north of Cozumel last year. The current was booming. We ducked behind topography, which is what the lion fish were doing anyway. Our bottom time was short because we were hunting from 105-80 feet. As soon as we started to ascend the bottom was rolling past pretty fast. We did a five minute safety stop to be conservative and then surfaced with one SMB deployed.

No boat. Generally Angel was good at being right there so that was odd. Pretty soon we put up all six SMBs and even held one aloft on a 6 foot pole spear. We could see the boat but he still didn't see us. I used my Dive Alert. It was very loud. Eventual Angel found us and we started back. I asked him if he'd heard the Dive Alert, he said, No Señor, the wind was wrong". Granted the weather had changed and we were in one current that went into another at a steep angle. The seas were confused too. Our distance from drop to pickup according to the GPS was 4.1 miles. I got a couple of Nautilus units when we got home. They live on our BCDs now.

 

[coldwaterglutton]

I have a Dive Alert on my inflator hose, I believe it is a bit louder than a storm whistle.

Do folks think a dive alert on an inflator introduce an additional failure point in critical equipment for limited benefit? A storm whistle is almost as loud.

 

[tarponchik]

Here is some first hand video of the scene apparently:

So, did the sailors throw a line to the divers or not? The Coast Guard report says so but it is not seen used in the video, though the lady holds it at one moment. When the chopper comes the divers seem to be too far from the boat to be holding the line (though the wide angle lenses can be deceptive).

 

[DandyDon]

Do folks think a dive alert on an inflator introduce an additional failure point in critical equipment for limited benefit? A storm whistle is almost as loud.

Yes, a Dive Alert whistle will fail if your tank is empty, but the few times I have used mine, it worked well. Be sure to duck your head underwater before activating. I do carry a storm whistle as well, just in case, but it is not "almost as loud."

So, did the sailors throw a line to the divers or not?

It said briefly on the clip that they could not get a line to them safely for some reason.

 

[coldwaterglutton]

Yes, a Dive Alert whistle will fail if your tank is empty, but the few times I have used mine, it worked well. Be sure to duck your head underwater before activating. I do carry a storm whistle as well, just in case, but it is not "almost as loud."

I meant more in the nature of the Dive Alert failing at depth or on the surface and then disabling your LP inflator. Has that ever happened that anyone knows of?

 

[Biotech Diver]

I suspect that @Wookie may not share the same faith in whistles that you do.

There are no guarantees with any signaling or locating device but it's better to have multiple options than just relying on an SMB. What do you do if you get separated from your SMB or it has a hole and can't inflate? Honestly, this shouldn't even be up for debate

 

[Biotech Diver]

How does water warp plastic? You do know what water bottles are made from. Right?

My whistle has been on hundreds of dives over years of use in SoFla and other perts of the world and still works just fine.

 

[Biotech Diver]

Plastic absorbs water, that absorption leads to the shape of the plastic changing, aka warping.

The other issue is mirrors are a laminate. The water degrades the lamination.

Plastic is hydrophobic, that's why it makes a great container for water based liquids. Signal mirrors are not laminate. A silver coating on one side is not a laminate anymore than the paint on your car. The sliver coating can come off from abrasion but that takes a lot of time and neglect for it to get to the point it's no longer useful. I'm starting to thing your posts are just trolling. I guess it's working...

 

[Scuba_Spike]

Yes, a Dive Alert whistle will fail if your tank is empty, but the few times I have used mine, it worked well. Be sure to duck your head underwater before activating. I do carry a storm whistle as well, just in case, but it is not "almost as loud."

It said briefly on the clip that they could not get a line to them safely for some reason.

The boat threw a line yes, but the current was strong enough that it was still a struggle to keep them all on it, 2 of the tourists were not doing well and had been exhausted from the beginning of the ordeal, even with weight dumped they were still being rescue towed by 2 other divers the whole time

 

[Scuba_Spike]

Also I've now had 3x safety mirrors come apart in my pocket, so that sucks. Cheap Amazon stuff, a metal one apparently is what I need.


We bought the ACR resqlink PLB (in a dry fob) and the Nautilus after this ordeal.
The nautilus already had to get rma'd due to water intrusion and corrosion.

We now have a garmin mini as well.

So we each carry a different satellite device and hope it is wasted money