Lost at Sea...........

[fpsndiver]

Um, just so I understand, the extended and retracted flares are the same thing?

The extended and retracted flares are the same thing. The tube pulls out like a LAW missile to give the flare more speed as it exits the barrel. They are very small, I don't even know they are there, and I carry 6 of these and 2 dye markers in a little pouch wire tied to my wing on my harness. A pocket would suffice. Smoke is the next addition, at the urging of some of my Coastee buddies.

 

[rpodos]

Smoke? You gotta be kidding... smoke markers (back in the day in the USMC) are waaaay too big.

I'm adding flares and dye to my kit ASAP, though.

 

[fpsndiver]

Smoke? You gotta be kidding... smoke markers (back in the day in the USMC) are waaaay too big.

I'm adding flares and dye to my kit ASAP, though.

My buddy said that he can get me the smoke the Coastees carry in their inflatable kits...he said the capsules are about the same size as the aerial flares...catch is they are not waterproof.....so here is the next trick.......vaccuum seal them in plastic bags. They shouldn't be ruined by being compressed, as long as they stay dry, they should be okay. You have to understand, that I am now a very paranoid diver, and I have a kid to come home to.........I don't want to die doing this stuff.

I guess PADI and other agencies don't teach this end of it, because they don't want divers to be paranoid about the dangers.....plus, in the perfect world of PADI....there is always an instructor or Divemaster along that will have all this stuff right????

 

[rpodos]

When you find where to buy small smokers, please make sure to post it here.

About PADI, yeah, I agree, but you'd think they'd start covering this at the Rescue or MD level, much less the instructor track, so that the industry as a whole would get more safety conscious. Same for LDS's.

 

[jonix]

thanks for the very valuable lesson.

now if i can only convince the wife of another "last thing i need and i'm done" purchase

 

[Taipeidiver]

Excellent post. I'm glad you and your buddy made it, others have been less fortunate.

Good equipment list too.

Other things for consideration are;

- A wide brimmed hat, or other lightweight head covering. I dive in the tropics (lucky me) and the sun can be fierce. You will suffer sunstroke / sunburn very quickly, especially if you are floating on the water.
- Jonline. You mention tying onto your buddy - which is a really good idea - and one of the easiest ways of doing this is with a jonline. I have the Diverite model which is attached to my harness at all times. Even if you are'nt lost at sea, it's handy if the shot line is crowded and you want go get a little space.
- Sew some reflective panels onto your wetsuit, sometimes referred to as SOLAS panels, they will greatly aid in increasing your visibility.

I am sure there are others.

 

[Charlie99]

It is painful and embarrassing to tell this story, but I do it because I learned a great deal that day. I hope that by sharing the story that others may also learn without experiencing. What caused this incident was entirely of our own making. We basically had to do a free decompression ascent with no anchor line, because our anchor wasn't where we left it.

Thanks for sharing.

From your story it appears that it was an anchored boat dive, with two persons left on the boat. Correct? When and how did they finally figure out that they were drifting?

What happened to your lift bag? Lost it when shooting from depth?

Did you shoot the aerial flares when a boat was in sight, or just blindly?

Although it sound like the GPS got the boat to the right area, how did they actually spot you in the water? Did you see them before they spotted you?

Thanks in advance,

Charlie Allen

 

[DennisW]

Just like everyone else has said. Thanks for the post and thank goodness you and your buddy are ok. I think I'll go looking for some flares and some additional safety equipment. Great ideas.

 

[fpsndiver]

Thanks for sharing.

From your story it appears that it was an anchored boat dive, with two persons left on the boat. Correct? When and how did they finally figure out that they were drifting?

What happened to your lift bag? Lost it when shooting from depth?

Did you shoot the aerial flares when a boat was in sight, or just blindly?

Although it sound like the GPS got the boat to the right area, how did they actually spot you in the water? Did you see them before they spotted you?

We were diving off of a 25 Ft. Grady White Sailfish "Wreck Raider". We had 4 divers on the trip: Me, Jeff Crowder, Scott Corbett, and my brother Mike Tilmon. We were diving 2 up 2 down. The GPS alarm was not set, although the unit is equipped with an alarm that lets you know when you have slipped the numbers. Mike and Scott were on the boat talking, and knew that Jeff and I were going to be down awhile (we had planned..going from memory here, and don't have my log book to tell you the specifics.......a 40 minute dive 2nd of the day, and had about 45 minutes of decompression to do.) About 10 minutes after we were overdue on the surface, they pulled the hook to check for us. They didn't see our bubbles coming up the line, and vis was off the scale that day. They could see 50 down the anchor line, and we weren't on it. They then checked the GPS, and realized that they were way off the wreck...5 miles I believe. They put that mess(anchor and line) on the boat and ran the numbers back to the wreck. The seas and wind picked up while we were down. The current was running perpindicular to the wind that day, so as we were decompressing, the boat was blowing further away, and we were drifting further away. They ran the numbers back to the wreck, and started doing circular search patterns, increasing the diameter of the search. Scott was up on the bow (which was a real rough ride that day), and my brother was driving the boat. While they were probably busy pulling the anchor, we shot flares down current, straight up in the air. We shot them willy nilly as soon as we surfaced in the hopes that the boat was close. We never saw the boat at that point. In hindsight, we should have saved more of the flares until we had visual contact with a boat or aircraft. They found us about 2 miles from the wreck, just before they were getting ready to notify the Coastees. We saw them first, because they were actually running a heading at an angle to us. We tried to shoot the last flare we had, but it malfuctioned (string broke). We blew whistles, waved our safety sausages. Scott spotted us as we crested a wave. Scott said he did not hear the whistles(bought a dive alert the next day) or see the safety sausages. He said that our black suited bodies stood out against the backdrop of the blue water clearly.

The anchor didn't sail, but was dragging bottom enough to keep the bow of the boat into the seas, so that didn't alert Scott and Mike either. They thought everything was kosher. Keep in mind, this was a "run of the mill" done this a thousand times dive. There are no bouys marking the Normannia, so no visual reference that you are drifting, and you are way over the horizon from land. Nothing around but blue sea and flying fish.

I lost my lift bag during the dive. At that time, it was bungied to my right (bottom gas) tank. We did some minor penetration of the wreck that may have knocked it off. I did not have the lift bag when we realized we had an "oh *****" situation occurring. I now carry the lift bag clipped to my harness "butt mounted". I talked to John Chatterton via email about this situation, and he asked me why I didn't shoot my safety sausage...I had a reel and a sausage. I didn't even think about the safety sausage as a surface marker. So he had a lot of suggestions to prevent all this crap too, including setting the GPS alarm. He was really helpful, and picked on me a little, but we deserved it.

Hope that answers the question for you.......

Tom

 

[plsander]

Flares (handheld and shot) and smoke have expiration dates... pay close attention to the dates.

I was at a Sea Scout training earlier this summer and one of the activities was to dispose of a large box of out-of-date signaling equipment. Most of the flares were not that far out of date, but we saw a roughly 50% failure rate for the launched flares. The handheld flares and smoke did a bit better, but several failed to light and were assisted by other flares.

Scouts and Pyrotechnics... Who could ask for more fun. Had the fire department out too (they were there to help with the demos...)