This dive definitely put me closer to the edge of my comfort zone than I liked -- which is why I thumbed it after about 15 minutes of blowing through my gas. It also is an example of how communication UW can be tricky -- I knew the anchor was in about 85 feet of water which is why I had no desire to try to go find it (would use up too much gas I thought).
I thought Lynne meant we lost the anchor line at 65 feet (which was where it got into the kelp and we, in fact, did lose it as did another team) and that she wanted to swim out and drift down at 65 feet to try to "catch" the anchor line. I didn't want to do that because I thought we were already downstream of it and thus drifting wouldn't be a good idea -- hence the thumb and direct ascent.
While I may be an "experienced diver" this dive was on the outskirts of my experience. We do a lot of dives in current (and I've done many dives in current) but always with a live boat, not one that is anchored. I was very pleased to see the boat send out the skiff to pick us up because it was a long way to swim! This just proves, again, that "experienced divers" who are diving in unusual (for them) circumstances, are also "un-experienced." However, having experience in other situations did help us make the right decisions in this one -- ONCE we had determined we were NOT supposed to be in the water this time.
[Speaking of swimming -- we were in some wind (20-25 knots) with chop and waves (as described) and honestly, I can't come up with a way that a snorkel would have been better than just laying on my back and going up/down with the waves.]
Oh, and yes, we had decided NOT to use the scoots because the prediction for the next dive made them "mandatory" and we wanted to save the batteries. Wrong Call!
I thought Lynne meant we lost the anchor line at 65 feet (which was where it got into the kelp and we, in fact, did lose it as did another team) and that she wanted to swim out and drift down at 65 feet to try to "catch" the anchor line. I didn't want to do that because I thought we were already downstream of it and thus drifting wouldn't be a good idea -- hence the thumb and direct ascent.
While I may be an "experienced diver" this dive was on the outskirts of my experience. We do a lot of dives in current (and I've done many dives in current) but always with a live boat, not one that is anchored. I was very pleased to see the boat send out the skiff to pick us up because it was a long way to swim! This just proves, again, that "experienced divers" who are diving in unusual (for them) circumstances, are also "un-experienced." However, having experience in other situations did help us make the right decisions in this one -- ONCE we had determined we were NOT supposed to be in the water this time.
[Speaking of swimming -- we were in some wind (20-25 knots) with chop and waves (as described) and honestly, I can't come up with a way that a snorkel would have been better than just laying on my back and going up/down with the waves.]
Oh, and yes, we had decided NOT to use the scoots because the prediction for the next dive made them "mandatory" and we wanted to save the batteries. Wrong Call!
