Key Largo-Rainbow Reef dives

[T.C.]

The boat crew knew that there were a number of people on board that were on the boat Friday, not just our three divers either.

This is why I prefer smaller boats and smaller operations. They don't set a schedule and listen to the divers.

Ah are you suggesting we should periodically surface to check the boat's location? Those DM's have the group zig-zagging around and I defy anyone to know their location without great familiarity with the area.

That is an option, the other is rough dead-reckoning; knowing the rough direction and layout of the site, and how you plan to dive it- not how the group plans to dive it.

Remember, one of the key points of dive planning is navigation of the site.

I think our DM was newish at the job and got lost.

That's why I don't follow divemasters. My buddy and I will go the opposite direction. Sure, you may miss one or two things they see, but I think it's more fun to find the cool stuff myself. And you'll see cool things they won't. Go slow, look close, and look in the nooks and crannies. You'll be amazed at the cool stuff you see.

My suggestion would be to tell them that you're going to do your own thing on a certain site. Being lead around by a DM is easy, but it doesn't develop your skills. You've got some experience, so you can build on that. You can navigate, and you know how keep track of where you are. You don't have to go far, just push the limits of your comfort zone (don't go outside it). The Keys are great for practicing your nav skills, because if you get lost, you're only 30 feet down. It's easy to swim up for a position check.

Hope this helps. Enjoy the rest of your dives!

 

[agesilaus]

Absolutely I would surface and keep an eye on the boat if diving with our group alone. Especially since vis was maybe 50 ft max and I would not trust my navigation in those conditions. But Rainbow Reef doesn't give you the option to dive without their DM tho I guess they may call them guides. Popping up to the surface would lose the group.

 

[drrich2]

If you're not responsible for your own location, your're at the mercy of someone else. With direct access to the surface from such shallow depths, surfacing pressure is not so important. I would suggest you become self sufficient in your navigation and gas management. as it should be.

Although a common sentiment on this forum, I find reality for a great number of divers is very different. A few thoughts:

1.) When I take a tour on land, such as a bus tour during a stop from a cruise, I don't buy a map and carefully plot everywhere we're going. When I dive a strange reef I may never see again, I also don't do so. I'm a reader more so than a listener; I try to listen to & learn from dive boat briefings. And the way I learn evidently is such that my retention from this is really low. Yet boat trip locations are often determined on the fly.

2.) Like many people, I don't multi-task well. Short of a very simple reciprocal course, it would be hard to me to enjoy the reef while navigating. Judging from how in PADI AOW they have someone accompany the diver doing the navigation skill, or at least we did when I took it, I'd say that's pretty common, and we'd rather everybody stayed off the coral.

3.) Many people are lousy at navigation. Land, sea, underwater, and if they took up flying they might be bad at it there, too. Such that even with reading and practice, they will not with reasonable time and effort reach a point where effective navigation is not an onerous burden, if not a screw up waiting to happen.

4.) Many divers mainly dive on vacation and are rusty enough with the basics, much less trying to remember whether to add or subtract 90 degrees to make a turn in the right direction on a square profile, and then trying to do the math in their heads (some people aren't good at doing math in their heads).

5.) As for natural navigation, I've seen people talk about making a note of some 'distinctive' underwater feature, like a unique coral or sponge. To some of us, although nothing looks unique in a way that can be effectively recalled in a useful way over maybe 10 minutes. I've tried this; it does not happen, unless the 'feature' is highly unnatural (e.g.: a huge chain laying across the bottom).

There's no shame in paying a taxi driver or tour guide to show you around a strange city without navigating it yourself.

And I don't think there's any shame in paying a guide to show a vacationer around a reef so he can just have fun seeing the coral, fish, etc...

That said, pack an SMB. If you really want to 'go nuclear' about getting lost, I guess you could get a Nautilus.

Richard.

P.S.: You do have to watch your own gas. Everyone can take the same route, but won't have the same SAC.

 

[WheelsUSN]

Absolutely I would surface and keep an eye on the boat if diving with our group alone. Especially since vis was maybe 50 ft max and I would not trust my navigation in those conditions. But Rainbow Reef doesn't give you the option to dive without their DM tho I guess they may call them guides. Popping up to the surface would lose the group.

Rainbow Reef definitely gives you the option of diving without the DM/guide. The guide is provided free of charge but you do not have to use their services. I have made many dives with them, if it was a new site to me then I followed the guide, if I was familiar with the site then my buddy and I did our own dive.

 

[T.C.]

But Rainbow Reef doesn't give you the option to dive without their DM tho I guess they may call them guides. Popping up to the surface would lose the group.

Then run away. Don't walk, run.

Anyone who doesn't give you an option to dive your own plan is making up stupid rules for useless reasons. As you've seen, DMs are not infallible, and requiring you to trust them/follow them is foolish.

Yet another reason that there are better operations in the Keys. Sorry you had to experience this one.

 

[kelemvor]

Now to our last dive, I was whining about duplicating Fire Coral but actually except for the swim thru we did not see the same stuff.

I dove with Rainbow Reef for four days last year. Good dives but they went to winch hole every single morning. We did Fire Coral on one of the dives. I guess these guys are creatures of habit.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Rainbow Reef definitely gives you the option of diving without the DM/guide. The guide is provided free of charge but you do not have to use their services. I have made many dives with them, if it was a new site to me then I followed the guide, if I was familiar with the site then my buddy and I did our own dive.

Agreed. I only dove with them once, and my buddy and I went off on our own. Granted it had been some years since we'd been on the site (Molasses Reef, both dives), but we both knew it well. Even then I had to pop up once or twice to get a fix on the boat, but in water that shallow it's not an issue. The only thing they said boo about was when we came up "late" on the first dive - their policy at least on that trip was that everybody had to be back on the boat an hour after the first person splashed. Well, given it was a cattle run and there was a class onboard it was 15 minutes from the time the first person jumped until we got in. I used to be able to squeeze a 120-minute dive in on Molasses with a single 80 (granted, we were moving very slowly and sipping our air then), so I felt a little gypped.

Overall my impression is that like most of the large-capacity ("cattle boat") ops in Key Largo, your mileage may vary. The average sightseer would not have an issue with them, and maybe their deeper wreck trips aren't run the same. Personally, I agree with T.C. and would rather sign on with an op that does smaller charters.

 

[agesilaus]

Absolutely I would surface and keep an eye on the boat if diving with our group alone. Especially since vis was maybe 50 ft max and I would not trust my navigation in those conditions. But Rainbow Reef doesn't give you the option to dive without their DM tho I guess they may call them guides. Popping up to the surface would lose the group.

Well on the first dive after we entered the water and while we were waiting for the group to form up, I dropped down to about 10 feet and was looking around. The guide/dm quickly came down and ordered me up until the group was formed. I guess I could have told her no, but since my wife was nervous this being her first ocean dive (we live in spring country) I went along. My only other ocean dives were a couple off a West Palm boat where the dm is non-optional unless you want to try to link up with the moving dive boat yourself.

BK

 

[oly5050user]

Rainbow Reef definitely gives you the option of diving without the DM/guide. The guide is provided free of charge but you do not have to use their services. I have made many dives with them, if it was a new site to me then I followed the guide, if I was familiar with the site then my buddy and I did our own dive.

Absolutely they give you an option..but perhaps they felt the skill level of the divers was such that being guided is a safety concern. Running so low on air on such shallow dives reinforces why they had to stay with a DM on such a simple dive .

 

[T.C.]

Well on the first dive after we entered the water and while we were waiting for the group to form up, I dropped down to about 10 feet and was looking around. The guide/dm quickly came down and ordered me up until the group was formed.

Well, doesn't sound like they wanted to give you an option. That behavior is absolutely inexcusable. You're a certified diver; not a sheep to be lead around and controlled.