Ft. Lauderdale 11/12 The Sea Empress AOW

[DandyDon]

I got lost on a NC wreck once, surrounded by a big school of fish - Amberjacks maybe. I knew which way the line was on the wreck, but could have passed within 5 feet and never seen it.

 

[Vayu]

Is this correct:
You enter the water on a descent line to the wreck with about 3000 psi
You swim along the wreck (presumably against the current) for 12 minutes or so.
When you get to 1800 psi, you signal the instructor and everyone reverses direction (now swimming with the current)
The group swims too far, past the ascent line
You all turn around and swim into the current again, presumably trying to find the ascent line
At 1200 psi you signal to the instructor that you want to go up
At 1000 psi you show the instructor your gauge and the group begins to go up
You arrive at your safety stop with about 700 psi
At 200 psi you start buddy breathing with an instructor (we assume your buddy was similarly low on air)

Mostly... only: We began by swimming with the current away from the wreck. Instead of reversing direction and traveling towards boat, i'm pretty sure we were still traveling away from it or parallel to it. We never swam past the ascent line or were anywhere close to it. Instead of ascending when we lost the wreck, we swam more and THEN began to ascend.

Rigeurin, plan was at 1800 to turn around and do slow swimming ascent until ascent line and then head up as a group.

Ayisha, I hear what you say but in that visibility there is not much to reference.

-V

 

[JRScuba]

Reading your last post changes my impression of what happened from reading the first post w.r.t. directions and air.

Is this correct:

1. You enter the water on a descent line to the wreck with about 3000 psi
2. You swim along the wreck (presumably against the current) for 12 minutes or so.
3. When you get to 1800 psi, you signal the instructor and everyone reverses direction (now swimming with the current)
4. The group swims too far, past the ascent line
5. You all turn around and swim into the current again, presumably trying to find the ascent line
6. At 1200 psi you signal to the instructor that you want to go up
7. At 1000 psi you show the instructor your gauge and the group begins to go up
8. You arrive at your safety stop with about 700 psi
9. At 200 psi you start buddy breathing with an instructor (we assume your buddy was similarly low on air)

When I've dove wrecks in FLL, what they mean by "turn around" is not "end the dive" but "head back for the ascent line." That point is usually at 1500 psi or so (since on the way out you are often into the current and swimming back and forth on the wreck).

Sorry, just confused as to the timeline.

I'm glad you brought that up. I've been quite puzzled about the 1800 psi and the now 80', which earlier he said was a little deeper then 60'. The Dm/Instructor on the dock told me it was a clean dive (his words ) down to 60' and up from 60'. Hung at 15' for 3 minutes and then surfaced. I'm quite sure that it was a bit more then a clean dive with 4-5' breakers. Not sure what he meant by that.The line to the wreck was tied off to the boat, Swam 300 ft to the boat or did I miss something.
I checked the list of wrecks and there is no Sea Empress, but there is a Sea Emperor. Here is the data on the wreck.

http://www.dixiedivers.com/shipwreck.htm#SEA EMPEROR

I have a hard timely dealing with the statement about all the DM/Instructors Ignoring him when he showed them his SPG. If that were the case, the dive plan would have went the way you explained it ( above entery ). I might believe, maybe, one but the not all of them. The DM/Instructors in this FFL and WPB are very good qualified people, I'm sure Vicky will agree with me on that.

Unfortunately, we only heard from one side of the story and I understand why they are not participating. But with both parts of the story it would read a little differently. Laying out the whole story would omit the the speculation on everyones part. Everyone did a great job on trying to sort things out.

I'm not trying to poke holes in the story, just wondering about
things that were said. Because they don't fit.

We are all glad that he is doing fine and hopefully there is nothing underlying that will turn up. Great post and some great ideas by some great diver.

 

[Vayu]

Jr.

The only time 60' was mentioned in this thread was when you posted it. My original post was 68' to 74' and I posted 80' for our profile because according to NAUI tables depth is in 10' increments.

Second, I didn't say they ignored me, they just didn't follow the plan.

Third, we had two boats and upwards of seven different groups in the water. I don't know who you spoke to but obviously they were not in the water with ME.

Fourth, none of the instructors from FLL or WPB but from Gainesville. Alot of them are good instructors... some of them aren't.

We did not swim 300ft to the boat in fact I'm sure we were a bit farther than 300ft from it. We swam until the boat started to move toward us.

I don't know what a "Clean dive" is but it doesn't sound like one with 3 injured divers, 5+ left at sea and almost everyone else seasick or pissed off.

I would suggest that you spend less time typing and more time READING since you may or may not be understanding.

Thanks,

-V

 

[DandyDon]

<excerpt> The Dm/Instructor on the dock told me it was a clean dive (his words ) down to 60' and up from 60'. Hung at 15' for 3 minutes and then surfaced.

Quite a difference here...?

I don't know what a "Clean dive" is but it doesn't sound like one with 3 injured divers, 5+ left at sea and almost everyone else seasick or pissed off.

I guess he was there, and you weren't....?

 

[vondo]

Fourth, none of the instructors from FLL or WPB but from Gainesville. Alot of them are good instructors... some of them aren't.

Are you saying the instructors who were with you were not from the area, but from Gainesville? Were they familiar with this dive site?

 

[Vayu]

To my knowledge some of them dove the site last spring. I'm not sure if the hurricanes have changed anything.

As an update to JR... I see in the other thread that I said "we were a bit deeper than 60 feet". I guess text is an insufficient vehicle for irony. We were quite a bit deeper. You know the site better than I do but the boat DM that is from the area said bottom was at 74'. My gauge still reads below 70' and I was not skimming the bottom.

-V

 

[JRScuba]

Quite a difference here...?
I guess he was there, and you weren't....?

Right Don, That is why everyone is speculating as to what went on.

He keeps saying, no one was following the plan.
He was following his plan. Looks like they were following
their plan. Check the entry that I posted with mine.
Surface at 1800 psi. on a dive to that depth?

Ignore - not follow the plan means the same thing.
Since they did not surface they had to be ignoring his plan and doing their own. There is always 2 sides to a story. That I'm sure you will agree with me. When combined tell the whole story.

What I read was, he was following a plan and when he aproached the DM/ Instructor ( not 1 one but more then one ) they did not surface according to the plan he was following. It then makes you wonder what plan they were following.

One thing is certain, 4-5' seas is not the place to be on a dive.

You bet it is confusing. By the way, do you get on a horse on the right or left side???

Oh well, everyone is safe and getting better.
That is the main thing.

 

[DandyDon]

Oh, for a newibe with less than 15 dives, I guess he's explained himself pretty well. I've had a hard time following some of this, and I would expect some personal bias in any story. Not trying to convict anyone of anything, but perhaps offer ways he, we, others might learn from his mishap.

Snowbear posted a link to pony mounting, I'll see if I can find it for you.

Okay, found it: here

But the horse has to be alive.

 

[riguerin]

... The plan was NOT to ascend at 1800 psi as stated in Vayu's first post. It was to TURNAROUND at 1800 psi as Vayu stated in his last post.

Those terms are completely different.

I respectfully disagree. .

In a typical dive plan for a SE FL recreational wreck dive, there is no significant turn around point. The normally strong currents prohibit this. Consequently, a long navigation back to boat or surface swim are NOT normally a part of a typical dive plan.
These dives are NORMALLY conducted in one of a few variants, here are the top 3:

1.) Boat drops you off upstream of wreck, group descends, drifts into wreck site, hooks off line, explores, unhooks line, surfaces, boat picks you up (this is a drift dive).

2.) Boat sends down DM to hook up to wreck, group descends down DM attached down line, explores, unhooks line, surfaces, boat picks you up (this is a modified drift dive).

3.) Boat ties up to permanent mooring line or DM attached line, group descends down line, explores , ascends via same line, boat is hooked up to wreck waiting to pick up divers, poor ******* DM does goes back to unhook the line (if applicable).

A clear understanding of the dive plan by the entire group is crucial to the success of the dive. I would recommend that Vayu review the intended entry/exit procedure with his instructors to determine how the group "got blown off the wreck" and ended up 300 yards away from the boat.