hypothetical scenario 4 our Monday morning quarterbacks 20 miles out & boats gone

[D_B]

How far can you see me?


This is a good article about diver location trials in all kinds of weather off Scapa Flow ... http://www.jeanelaine.co.uk/diveraids/intro.htm
A long but a good read

one reason that I decided on bright yellow for my SMB

Edit: thanks Doc, I was just going to post the Surface Survival Primer

 

[minikinminx]

I don't know how well it would work but, assuming one wasn't to tired to hold on, would you not be better to fully inflate the bc and sit on top of it as much as possible. Assuming the air temperature is warmer than the water, would being wet on top of the water in a slightly warmer setting be benficial to having your whole body submerged in colder water?

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Edit: thanks Doc, I was just going to post the Surface Survival Primer

Great minds, and all that......

 

[ba_hiker]

Long ago I was taught that survival is often determined by you personal preparedness to survive. This include several parts including you personal mode, and equiptment.

I have a small pocket with a strechy velcor strap that I wear on my upper arm for any dive or than a mile from the mainland coast. Even for dives at places like catalina or the chanel islands.

It contains an extra whistle (other is on my bc), 3 skyblazer flares, a mirror, two packets of marker dye, a strobe light, and two long life chem lights. I also attach a alert horn on my bc inflator hose, and always carry a flash light. At some point I will get a smoke/flare unit.

So, for this senario I will always have this gear.

 

[MSilvia]

Why'd the boat strand you down in Belize? They lose track of you with the drift dive?

I still don't know for sure. It was a dive organized by a NCL cruise ship excursion desk, and we were picked up at the ship while anchored offshore. Both the captain and DM were divemasters, and they had a helper/first mate. On dive #2, the DM got in the water, followed by most of the divers, while the captain helped the few stragglers with their gear. When almost all divers were in the water, one woman had trouble with her weightbelt, and while the DM assisted her, about half of the group descended to wait. In what must have been a combination of poor judgement and mistaken identity, the majority of this group stopped waiting and headed off without the DM. The captain left the mate in charge, and already being suited up, he jumped in and tryed to catch up to them. The seven of us who stayed with the DM enjoyed a lovely dive, but when we surfaced neither the captain's group nor the boat was anywhere in sight. My personal suspicion is that the mate either fell asleep and drifted, or had mechanical trouble and drifted. Either way, it was about 2.5 hours before we saw him again, and he wasn't very talkative... probably because he hadn't found the captain yet and was thinking about the emminent loss of his job.

As it turns out, the captain's group had decided to make the 3 mile swim to Goff's Caye, and by lucky chance were picked up by a pleasure boater on the way there just before the tide changed and the current would have started working hard against them. That wouldn't have been as big a problem fo us, as they were crossing open water while we were somewhat sheltered by the reef.

Adding insult to injury, the cruise ship security folks kindly confiscated all of our dive knives when we returned to the vessel. Thanks guys!

 

[plot]

I guess if you're in the right place you could ride a few seaturtles back

 

[FredT]

I've made a couple of long swims. Once due to personal stupidity and not watching my navigation on a beach dive with some "assist" from a gulf stream eddy taking us out to sea, the other due to a stolen boat. Coming back to the cut end of an anchor line 7 miles from the beach sucks big time! Including down current drift that was a 27 mile swim for 3 people.

The first thing you need to do is get as positive as you can. This means ditching ALL weights, guns, fish, game bags,etc. that are negatively buoyant. Ditching them at a known location may allow you to come back later to recover them. Ditching them early is always better than later in a brown world situation.

The second thing is to remember what your "plan B" is. ALWAYS determine the second way out of the water before getting in! East coast Fl south of WPB it's "swim west". North of WPB the beach goes away faster than you can swim across the prevailing current. In the north central GOM it's the rig down current. Off Florida's northern Gulf coast it's swim north or north east since the fools on the barrier islands stopped the siting of oil rigs within 200 miles of the beach to protect "their" view. Atlantic basin north of WPB its the EPIRB on your belt or other structure down current. I haven't studied the local currents N of Hatteras enough to know what the options up there are but I expect there is an EPIRB involvement here too.

If you don't have a viable "plan B" for getting out of the water that does not involve the boat you rode out on, keep your arse on the boat in the first place!

As to the keep or ditch tank question, empty 72s in a tight harness rig are effectivly neutral and make good keels for long swims, which keeps your heading from changing very quickly. In a newfangled loosish jacket probably not so much for any tank. Heavier new steels may not do as well either. Aluminum tanks may be a help, but only if you ditch the reg or invert the tank in the harness, as it will be trying to drive your head under water.

Pick a cloud on the horizon and swim AWAY from it, do a compass nav check every half hour or so to make sure you are heading in the right direction and pick a new cloud or star to swim away from if necessary. Given a reasonable sea state you'll use less energy floating on your wing and swimming on your back.

From past personal experience, if you feel you NEED to dump weights you should have gotten rid of it at least an hour ago. If the cost of your ballsst system is high enough to even think of keeping it, you need a new ballast design. Lead is always disposable, PERIOD!

FT

 

[plot]

That's alot of good advice FT, never thought about having a plan B before.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Thanks for all the replies. I hope to hear more. On land, I am very prepared for the sort of disasters or inconveniences that I will likely face. Last year we had an ice storm and I lost power and my central heat for a week. Within 15 minutes of loosing power, I had several light sources, 2 different sources of alterative heat, 4 alternative methods of cooking, plenty of water, food, extra fuel for my heat, and extra batteries to power lights, radio, and fans to more efficiently circulate the alternative heat. It was a blast for me. Like winter camping without the travel. I also had enough extra to reach out to some neighbors.

In the water though, there is not as much room for all the bulky emergency stuff I keep around the house. And in the water, if you find your self in trouble, the decisions you make will much more likely result in life or death. So, let's change this discussion up a bit. You are standing in the mack daddy of all dive shops. They carry every piece of dive gear known to man. Now that we have talked about the above disaster dive, how would dress yourself and your 3 other buddies before this fateful dive to give them the best chance of survival. Take into account both scenarios of staying put and being adrift of swimming in the open ocean.

FRED HAVE YOU POSTED OR CAN YOU POST A MORE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU AND YOUR GROUP ABOUT THE TIME YOU WERE IN THE WATER BEFORE THE RESCUE? WOULD BE INTERESTED TO HEAR FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE HAD A SIMILIAR EXPERIENCE.

Thanks,
Leah

 

[FredT]

Thanks for all the replies. I hope to hear more. On land, I am very prepared for the sort of disasters or inconveniences that I will likely face. Last year we had an ice storm and I lost power and my central heat for a week. Within 15 minutes of loosing power, I had several light sources, 2 different sources of alternative heat, 4 alternative methods of cooking, plenty of water, food, extra fuel for my heat, and extra batteries to power lights, radio, and fans to more efficiently circulate the alternative heat. It was a blast for me. Like winter camping without the travel. I also had enough extra to reach out to some neighbors.

We had Katrina. It still ain't over. With luck I'll get into my house within 2 years of landfall. Most won't, and many won't for a decade. Living in the wreckage for the first 3 months before any emergency housing arrived with no power, stores, or police was interesting to say the least. Lessons learned there are posted on this board elsewhere. Hurricane drills, and 5 "small" 'canes up to a strong class 3, while my kids were growing up have provided them with a full set of social breakdown tools. My daughter provided safe shelter for about 30 relatively clueless folks during the NE blackout, and my son did the same in central MS After Katrina dropped his house on him, blocked all roads and killed power there for nearly a month. Planning ahead works well.

FRED HAVE YOU POSTED OR CAN YOU POST A MORE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU AND YOUR GROUP ABOUT THE TIME YOU WERE IN THE WATER BEFORE THE RESCUE? WOULD BE INTERESTED TO HEAR FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE HAD A SIMILIAR EXPERIENCE.

Thanks,
Leah

The "rescue" in the first case was well north of where we went into the water, after about 8 hours swimming. Your legs no longer work, and the lifeguard hassles you for pulling yourself up the beach with a knife. So much for "rescue". We started 1/2 mile south of Atlantic Ave in Pompano. Got caught in the out bound loop of an eddy at the outermost point in the planned dive. We ended up being just able to see the elevator boxes on the taller condos before the offshore loop stopped and we started drifting north, then began the long swim in. We finally hit the beach about a mile north of the Deerfield Pier. Thank God for FAC seas.

NEVER swim against a current over about 1/3 knot for self rescue. Cross current is fine.


The second issue we had a boat stolen while diving on Molasses Reef. We'd been in the water almost 2 hours before we got back to the anchor, with the mooring line laying on the bottom. We had anchored north of the light so swimming south into the current to it was out of the question. We dropped all unnecessary gear at the hook, and started the long swim northwest. We finally clawed our way clear of the mangroves just down keys from the card sound ferry landing about 10 hours later and hitched back to where we had rented the boat. The "gentlemen" who had taken it were having an "interesting heated discussion" with the Monroe County Sheriffs Department, Fla Marine Patrol, and a couple of Coasties when we walked up. Seems these fools had tried to put the boat on a trailer at the same marina where we rented it and the boat owner took exception. The Coasties and Marine Patrol were quite happy to see us, although they wouldn't let us talk to the cretins, although that may have had something to do with my mood and the BFK on my leg. The County boys were disappointed their capitol murder charges went away but cheered up quickly once they figured out they still had an attempted murder charge to deal with. We never had to go to court on that one so I guess they pled on grand theft charge and the state dropped the rest.

As for rescue, in both cases it was save ourselves or die. We didn't like the second choice.

FT