Hickdive
Contributor
Take the Captain's wallet with you, if you take the boat keys he can't drive the boat to pick you up.
How should I prepare for the possibility of being left behind?
- Thread starter Agility
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 93,337
- Reaction score
- 91,455
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
An effective way to avoid being left behind ... don't dive on cattle boats. The smaller the group, the more likely someone's going to notice you're not on board ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I came very close to being carried away by the current and let me tell you that have it not been for my dive training I would have lost my head and probably my life.
I dive at Boynton Beach with ",,,," charters (multiple times per year) and usually with my dive trainer. Unfortunately currents at Boynton are very funky. More often than not current on inside of reef is exact opposite of what it is on outside of the reef. Needless to say while I was following 2 other divers who I thought were not following the dive flag carrier... all 3 of us were actually being carried away. Those 2 were completely dellusional and did not want to follow me to other side of the reef where rest of the group was. I swam for them initially trying to tell them they are going the wrong way. Meanwhile rest of group was swimming away from us. In no time I lost all sight of them (that's on a day with 100' visibility). I had to make executive decision of abandoning the pursuit and doing a safe ascent. With safety stop and currents I was now at least a mile away from the boat. It was just a little spec on the horizon. Shore in sight but unreachable I started hyperventilating. I then quickly told myself to suck it up and swim towards the boat.
I signaled with fins, my shiny knife, the whistle and with my SMB to no avail. In practically calm waters they did not see me. Meanwhile current took me further and further. When I lost sight of boat I started swimming towards shore (about 2 miles away) and by sheer luck I got caught by another current that carried me away from shore and towards boat. In about half an hour I eventually caught up with the boat who by sheer luck was drifting while picking up another diver. I again signaled with everything I had but neither captain nor his assistant saw me. I swam up to the boat and started yelling with my now lost voice and incredibly parched throat. Thankfully other divers paid attention.
Since then I make a habbit of telling my family what I am doing, where I am going, and that I will call them at such and such time or else they need to contact coastguard and dive charters and report me as lost. I am also about to buy a iphone waterproof dive box because I know my cell phone works couple miles at sea.
From my own experience I would have to say that:
#1 staying calm and keeping head clear of racing thoughts is paramount.
#2 situation awareness is a plus.
#3 safety gear
#4 communication and planning is a must
#5 responsible dive boat captain is a must
#6 reliance on other divers to recognize that someone is missing is a must
#7 If all else fails rely on other boats at sea and signal them down.
I dive at Boynton Beach with ",,,," charters (multiple times per year) and usually with my dive trainer. Unfortunately currents at Boynton are very funky. More often than not current on inside of reef is exact opposite of what it is on outside of the reef. Needless to say while I was following 2 other divers who I thought were not following the dive flag carrier... all 3 of us were actually being carried away. Those 2 were completely dellusional and did not want to follow me to other side of the reef where rest of the group was. I swam for them initially trying to tell them they are going the wrong way. Meanwhile rest of group was swimming away from us. In no time I lost all sight of them (that's on a day with 100' visibility). I had to make executive decision of abandoning the pursuit and doing a safe ascent. With safety stop and currents I was now at least a mile away from the boat. It was just a little spec on the horizon. Shore in sight but unreachable I started hyperventilating. I then quickly told myself to suck it up and swim towards the boat.
I signaled with fins, my shiny knife, the whistle and with my SMB to no avail. In practically calm waters they did not see me. Meanwhile current took me further and further. When I lost sight of boat I started swimming towards shore (about 2 miles away) and by sheer luck I got caught by another current that carried me away from shore and towards boat. In about half an hour I eventually caught up with the boat who by sheer luck was drifting while picking up another diver. I again signaled with everything I had but neither captain nor his assistant saw me. I swam up to the boat and started yelling with my now lost voice and incredibly parched throat. Thankfully other divers paid attention.
Since then I make a habbit of telling my family what I am doing, where I am going, and that I will call them at such and such time or else they need to contact coastguard and dive charters and report me as lost. I am also about to buy a iphone waterproof dive box because I know my cell phone works couple miles at sea.
From my own experience I would have to say that:
#1 staying calm and keeping head clear of racing thoughts is paramount.
#2 situation awareness is a plus.
#3 safety gear
#4 communication and planning is a must
#5 responsible dive boat captain is a must
#6 reliance on other divers to recognize that someone is missing is a must
#7 If all else fails rely on other boats at sea and signal them down.
createsounds
Registered
i would agree and disagree. i havent been diving long (obviously) but for about the last 4 months since my interest went from think that would be cool to dive to having completed and OWC i have heard of this all to often..
but i think as long as the captain and group leader is good and not brain dead,everybody has a buddy and each buddy group has chatted a little with other divers on the excursion no one would likely not be left behind.
for preparedness, i would just say fill up your bcd, look for the shoreline. breath in open air saving your tank for hard times. and move towards the shore slowly as to not over exhaust & stay relaxed
I always leave notice at home where I am going to dive and report back after getting dry.
Making sure another dive team watches out for my return seems a very good suggestion as all devices for optical and visual detection require someone looking (or listening).
will consider an EPIRB. Does anyone know the maintenance cost for these?
Making sure another dive team watches out for my return seems a very good suggestion as all devices for optical and visual detection require someone looking (or listening).
will consider an EPIRB. Does anyone know the maintenance cost for these?
Similar threads
