Florida Mini Season

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I would have marked them on GPS and called them in without slowing down....

That is not a good idea. Mariners must give aid, by law. Ana's friend was not in immediate and imminent peril--Ana and Zieg had another bottle of O² and first responders were on their way. Drifting divers on the ocean's surface with no immediate surface support is no joke. I have been involved with real man-overboard situations. Finding people on a flat calm ocean is not that easy; it becomes quite difficult when seas are running. People make for a very small target on a vast ocean.

Ana and Zieg; Thank your taking your responsibilities as mariners seriously. By your account, you did an excellent job! Three people owe you much gratitude.

cheers,
m²V2
 
That is not a good idea. Mariners must give aid, by law. Ana's friend was not in immediate and imminent peril--Ana and Zieg had another bottle of O² and first responders were on their way. Drifting divers on the ocean's surface with no immediate surface support is no joke. I have been involved with real man-overboard situations. Finding people on a flat calm ocean is not that easy; it becomes quite difficult when seas are running. People make for a very small target on a vast ocean.

Ana and Zieg; Thank your taking your responsibilities as mariners seriously. By your account, you did an excellent job! Three people owe you much gratitude.

cheers,
m²V2
Are they, Ana and ziegg, medical professionals trained to recognize the danger their friend was in?

I am not dismissing that someone floating at sea needs assistance. But they were not in immediate danger, the Diver on their boat needed professional medical assistance. A delay of a few minutes could have cost that Diver their life.

If there was first responders in route to their boat, I believe three boats showed up to assist, could they not have gone to pickup the divers, sea tow perhaps.

Shrug. Different strokes for different folks.
 
Are they, Ana and ziegg, medical professionals trained to recognize the danger their friend was in?

I am not dismissing that someone floating at sea needs assistance. But they were not in immediate danger, the Diver on their boat needed professional medical assistance. A delay of a few minutes could have cost that Diver their life.

If there was first responders in route to their boat, I believe three boats showed up to assist, could they not have gone to pickup the divers, sea tow perhaps.

Shrug. Different strokes for different folks.

Hi Letterboy,

Different Strokes? Will that be your legal defense in your criminal negligence trial?

At the least, if you are ever in that situation and you are the PIC of the vessel, that is required by law to give aid to people who are in real danger, you should call the USCG and get their permission to leave people floating free on the ocean. Don't make that decision on your own.

Cheers,
m²V2
Former Tug Boat Captain, Fish Boat Captain. From Alaska to the Panama Canal, The Caribbean and east coast of Florida.
 
Hi Letterboy,

Different Strokes? Will that be your legal defense in your criminal negligence trial?

At the least, if you are ever in that situation and you are the PIC of the vessel, that is required by law to give aid to people who are in real danger, you should call the USCG and get their permission to leave people floating free on the ocean. Don't make that decision on your own.

Cheers,
m²V2
Former Tug Boat Captain, Fish Boat Captain. From Alaska to the Panama Canal, The Caribbean and east coast of Florida.
No, my legal defense will be I am not a trained medical provider and only know that during the training I received it was stressed to get a person with a dive injury to proper medical care asap. I would say I made the best decision I could at the time, divers floating in open water were spotted, I called it over channel 16 to alert other vessels in the area and emergency personnel there were divers in the water.

If they want to press charges for that, have at it.

But this is south florida.
 
I can only say that after all our years working offshore neither my husband or I would be able to sleep at night if we abandoned someone in the water.

Is not about them, if you stop and think about the profile of these divers it takes 1/2 minute to realize they are not very bright, but it is about us.
You can't unsee people asking for help once you see them. It goes beyond the law... Even if I wasn't nice to them we got them out of the water.

I'd like to think I didn't jeopardize my friend's health by that delay. But who knows, all our training in first aid, stop the bleed, O2 provider and whatever other little medical emergency courses we've taken do say that time is of the essence.


Fortunately she's ok and the doctor at the chamber actually cleared her for future diving.
 
Based on my experience, the local Coast Guard will pursue no action against a recreational boater who abandons and provides no help to an individual who is in distress while in the water. Glad to hear you friend is doing well.
 
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I skipped mini season this year.
My wife went to Montana for a while the day before it began, my boat has been in Trinidad now for three years and I just never got around to buying another one, plus I didn’t want to be on a crowded commercial boat anyway.
When I see the boat charters’ pics of everyone gathered in the stern for the group photo on the ride in, my blood runs cold.
 
Well do we have a story !

Just as planned we got underway stupid early this morning with the idea of doing 3 dives each. A very good friend of ours joined us, she stay home for the night so the 3 of us were ready to go after a quick cup of coffee. Big cooler full of fruit, water, sandwiches , some sweets, and cocktail ingredients for the way back.

Not many boats in the intracoastal but as soon as we get out of the inlet the shoreline is just covered with boats, they appeared to be all around in 15-25' of water, who knows maybe 30 just very close to shore. Easily over 100 vessels from the Lighthouse Pt inlet south to maybe Oakland/Commercial Blvd, I can't see well past that so I can't tell farther south.

Oh well, we don't like to dive that line of reef anyways, our favorite is farther out on the 40-60' feet and there was NO BOATS there, nothing, almost felt for a moment like we didn't get the memo, but didn't care. While suiting up my friend starts feeling seasick but optimistic that once she gets one dive things will settle for her.

My husband dive was good but he reported very heavy current, lots of life but not so many lobster, he got 2. Friend and I go in and right away we are greeted with a huge turtle, that distracted us for few minutes, right away 3 cuttlefish got on my face and that was another bunch of minutes, we ended up only getting 1 lobster but a great time.

As soon as my friend goes on board, she starts turning grayish-green again. She drinks water, Gatorade, eats apples and just tried to soldier on, Husband comes back for dive #2 with 3 lobsters and a big smile on his face saying we need to dive that same location because it was gorgeous. Alright I help my friend a little and as soon as we hit the water she's fine.

Sure enough the locations was great, a huge school of barracuda, big grouper that knew there was no spear guns around so just hung around us for a bit, got in the sand to check the garden eels, and some other creatures that just distracted us from the lobster mission, we came up with 3 this time and again a huge sense of satisfaction, at least I did.

Unfortunately things didn't improve for my friend, My husband started his #3 but topside she started to feel worse, and suddenly she complained of tingling in one arm, dammit, the water was so blue in that area and I wasn't going to dive #3.

Ok we have a big bottle of O2, WTF is not there where we always keep it. Fvvvvck... let me recall my husband and get the Coast Guard. Get by flag rev 3 times twice and right away I see the change in the bubbles … he didn't do the 3 minutes safety, but also didn't shoot to the surface. I asked him about the O2 and he reminded my that we decided to get a 2 bottle set on a pelican case by the first aid kit... Good, set the first bottle up and put her on oxygen .
Called the coast guard and started heading to the inlet.

Right away her symptoms go away with the O2 which tells me this may be IT, even if she didn't do anything truly wrong besides being seasick, she was on NItrox, came up way before NDL we both came up super slow both times, because I was dealing with the lobster on one dive and the 2nd it was just too pretty to rush up.

But wait there's more!! while communicating with the Coast Guard my husband spots some people in the water waving him... waaaatt no boats anywhere to be found and these 2 are waving like their arms are going to lift them off the water.
My friend is somehow stable, we can't just leave these divers … OK hurry it up, put the ladder down and start assisting but not feeling very compassionate.

It was a very young woman ..mid 20's maybe I dunno she looked 12, and the guy maybe late 20's or mid 30's. Neither one of them very good at climbing up a ladder. On top of that my deck was bit cluttered with my husband taking his gear in a hurry and the O2 bottles, just not a lot of room and these 2 just wanted to explain stuff and be in the middle... granted there was not much room to go to but they couldn't even take their fins off by themselves.
I took 2 surgical masks and told them to put it on and just shut it... They were safe but will have to wait until we take care of my friend.

At this point the small bottle of O2 was empty and now her neck was tingling, I set up bottle #2 and soon after we are surrounded by what appeared to be Coast Guard, Tow Boat, and Broward Rescue, Couple of guys from Broward rescue were about to board our boat while I was giving her the 2nd bottle of O2,,, yeah more people in the crowded boat, no actually I was grateful to see them, they started talking to her, taking her vitals and doing what they do.
One of the Broward Rescue guys told the 2 other divers to chill until they get my friend to an ambulance that was waiting on land by the lighthouse. Transited to the dock by that CG set of buildings and they took her out to the chamber in Palm Beach ... St Mary's . The other 2 divers disappeared at that moment.

After communicating with her, she is taking a chamber ride for 6 or so hours. Her husband went there for company.

Sitting home now just wondering what tomorrow will bring. We are taking the big bottle of O2, just in case.


Wow! Despite the chaotic scene you saved 3 lives. Hope your friend is okay. What a trip. What about the other divers? No boat?
 
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