OP
alohagal
Contributor
As for the boat incident. I was the last one to surface on this particular dive. DM had to go up before anyone on the dive...he was close to deco. Name was Norman...very young...I would guess around 23 y.o.
The dive boat was not visible anywhere from down below. No boats were visible. I did my 3 minute safety stop. And kept an eye out on the surface. I kept eyeing my sausage...with no reel on it...thinking, wow, I really could use a reel for this thing right now. I didn't want to surface knowing a boat could be in the area at any given moment. While I was contemplating my ascent sure enough a speed boat comes whizzing by on top. So, I am acutely aware of boats while 18 feet below.
I begin a very slow ascent, arms outstretched overhead, doing the circle thing as I go up. I hit the surface and wave my hands as far up in the air to let any boats in the area know I am there. I see what I think is my boat in the distance. I am about to turn around to look for other boats and all of a sudden I hear a huge roar and see a ton of bubbles and realize a boat just went over me. It must have veered at the last minute. Because I really didn't feel a bang on my head. But, just as quickly there are props churning the water and bubbles completely obscuring my view. The darn boat is now reversing to see the carnage of the diver they just ran over and proceed to run over me again! Now I am frightened. Really frightened. And mad!
When they finally stop the boat, the captain and about 10 other people are looking at me in the water asking me if I am okay as I glare at them through my mask. I then signal with both of my hands the OKAY sign (gimp right hand more of the finger gesture) and I do it with such vigor that it felt like I was flipping them off. I guess they were freaked out and got on the CB radio to let the boats in the area know what just happened and that they needed to retrieve their diver. (I found this out later from a diver on my boat, who didn't really understand spanish but got the gist of what was going on due to squawking over the radio, and my announcement of what occurred)
I quickly grab my neon yellow sausage and hold it up in the air. Didn't have time to try and inflate it. My dive boat comes and gets me. No one says a word. Someone asks me how my dive was and I just say non-chalantly "Well, it was good...except I just got ran over by a big dive boat. Other than that, it was a nice dive."
The dive boat that ran me over was HUGE. Maybe that was what prevented me from being mince meat. I debated for several days whether to write about this on scuba board. Seemed the theme of the trip was "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." I'm telling you though, when it comes to diving, sheet happens and it happens fast!
Sheesh.
The dive boat was not visible anywhere from down below. No boats were visible. I did my 3 minute safety stop. And kept an eye out on the surface. I kept eyeing my sausage...with no reel on it...thinking, wow, I really could use a reel for this thing right now. I didn't want to surface knowing a boat could be in the area at any given moment. While I was contemplating my ascent sure enough a speed boat comes whizzing by on top. So, I am acutely aware of boats while 18 feet below.
I begin a very slow ascent, arms outstretched overhead, doing the circle thing as I go up. I hit the surface and wave my hands as far up in the air to let any boats in the area know I am there. I see what I think is my boat in the distance. I am about to turn around to look for other boats and all of a sudden I hear a huge roar and see a ton of bubbles and realize a boat just went over me. It must have veered at the last minute. Because I really didn't feel a bang on my head. But, just as quickly there are props churning the water and bubbles completely obscuring my view. The darn boat is now reversing to see the carnage of the diver they just ran over and proceed to run over me again! Now I am frightened. Really frightened. And mad!
When they finally stop the boat, the captain and about 10 other people are looking at me in the water asking me if I am okay as I glare at them through my mask. I then signal with both of my hands the OKAY sign (gimp right hand more of the finger gesture) and I do it with such vigor that it felt like I was flipping them off. I guess they were freaked out and got on the CB radio to let the boats in the area know what just happened and that they needed to retrieve their diver. (I found this out later from a diver on my boat, who didn't really understand spanish but got the gist of what was going on due to squawking over the radio, and my announcement of what occurred)
I quickly grab my neon yellow sausage and hold it up in the air. Didn't have time to try and inflate it. My dive boat comes and gets me. No one says a word. Someone asks me how my dive was and I just say non-chalantly "Well, it was good...except I just got ran over by a big dive boat. Other than that, it was a nice dive."
The dive boat that ran me over was HUGE. Maybe that was what prevented me from being mince meat. I debated for several days whether to write about this on scuba board. Seemed the theme of the trip was "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." I'm telling you though, when it comes to diving, sheet happens and it happens fast!
Sheesh.
