No roll call on a dive boat?

[Codyjp]

I went on a dive boat over the weekend and it was the first boat I have been on that never once did a single roll call check. They did check people in by number when we went in and out of the water but that was all. They also seemed pretty proud of the fact that the could 'remember' your number. I am definitely not comfortable with that.

all the othe boats i have ever been on gathered EVERYBODY on deck and did a roll call with visual confirmation on everybody before bringing up the anchor.

Am I out of line for being bothered by this? is this normal procedure on some boats? is it safe?

 

[Teamcasa]

For me, it depends on the number of people on the boat. If there is only 4 -10 divers, I'll assume they know when all are aboard. If there are more, I would like a roll call.

Dave

 

[in_cavediver]

I second the number of divers thread. I tend to dive from 6 packs so roll call is not really needed.

 

[Codyjp]

the boat had 32 divers on it.

 

[cadiver67]

Howdy,

I was on the Cee Ray to Catalina Island this past week and was a little surprised by how laid back it was.

No one checked us off as going in the water. No OK signs given at all.
I think only on the 1st out of the 3 dives did someone check us back on the boat, I guess the guy was good with faces, who knows?

They did do a roll call after the second dive before we moved to another spot - That was Good - but they did not do a roll call after that - not even when we pulled anchor to go home.

I really don't think they were watching out for us - on the last dive there was a good current going - and it was a bit hard to get back to the boat - they did not let out a current line - I guess they didn't notice.

 

[b1draper]

I've been on a few 6 packs and there arn't roll calls. However, I've also been on boats where there were 15-20 people and there wasn't a roll call all they did was mark it down on a clip board. Which reminds me of the movie OpenWater. So I always make sure that I'm one of the first in the water and one of the first out of the water. I also make sure that I have all of the signaling gear that would be needed to signal a whale to my location, one of these days I'm going to get an EPIRB.

When I'm in that situation I try to make sure that I keep an eye on the rest of the divers.

I think charters should collect a divers C-Card before every dive and then after the dive hand it back as a way of visually confirming that a diver is back on the boat. If when it's time to leave the DM still has cards in his hand then someone is missing.

 

[markr]

If they end with the same number of people as they start with does it really make a difference as to how they keep track of the divers?
Was there the possibility of picking up a diver that hadn't started out on the boat (e.g.-multiple boats in the area) ?

 

[Codyjp]

that is a good point mark. I am not sure though that they would be able to get a good count just by looking around since it was an 85' boat with people spread out a lot. there wasn't much of a chance of picking up extra divers though

 

[fishb0y]

Yeah Cody, I would agree with you that a roll call should have been made. While I worry about #1 when I'm diving, it's nice to know that someone would be looking for me even on a cattleboat like the one you were on.

 

[nereas]

Silent roll calls and counts are fairly common. I too prefer a verbal roll call, but even those are not fool proof, because someone can have a similar name or may answer for you believing you are here. A numbering system, with an identification token that you must wear, together with a control box for the tokens, is the most reliable method.