I was on what should have been a "benign" dive in the Caribbean. No current. Easy dive with the supposedly best shop on the island--one which I had been diving with many times before. There was even a 2nd group off of the same boat at the same site which included my best friend doing her OW with her instructor. None of us lost sight of the DM (or instructor). None of us lost sight of each other.
The boat broke anchor while the acting captain was asleep & the boat drifted far away. He hadn't marked our position & then couldn't find us. When he called into the shop to begin the SAR, no one knew where we were. At one point, we saw one of the boats searching for us. We all had SMBs (some big/some small), whistles, & mirrors which we used to try & get the boat's attention. But the boat didn't see us & left.
I vividly remember floating there in terror while we all continued to frantically wave SMBs no one saw, flash mirror signals no one caught, blow whistles no one heard.
I also remember when the waves began to get bigger as a storm started to come in making the chances of us being found even less likely.
When we were saved an hour & a half later, that's when I changed my mind about what safety gear was needed. It's not just your life we're talking about, but even the time you are lost at sea & the absolute fright/horror you feel as you start to think you might not be found. 90 minutes sounds like nothing, but when you begin realizing that every minute that ticks away makes it less & less likely you'll be found then those minutes begin to feel like hours.
The acting captain was surely at fault, but that supposedly great dive shop was as well for allowing someone to take that acting captain position & for allowing the dive to happen when the weather was set to turn. I knew a storm was supposed to come in, but thought it was set for the next day. The fairly calm seas when we splashed in seemed to also support that idea. The dive shop who had access to weather reports would have known differently & should have been able to predict the big waves we saw towards the end. (The acting captain didn't fall into his role until the boat was already underway so at the very least, the original captain should have also been held responsible. Side note: I found out later that other dive shops with fewer glowing reviews had cancelled their dives for that day.)
I'm personally here to say that SMBs, whistles, & mirrors are not enough if you are an open ocean diver whether you dive solo, with a buddy, or with a DM...or whether you dive with well-rated shops you know in popular areas or dive with unknown shops off-the-beaten path.
I write for a major scuba diving publication & did some intensive research after I was lost at sea. The vast majority of the diver lost-at-sea scenarios are not publicized by dive shops & the media rarely finds out. What happened with me certainly wasn't publicized; instead, it was minimized. The dive shop fired the acting captain blaming everything on him & then hushed everything up. Nothing was reported outside of the dive shop! These things happen more often than most know.
Spending a bit of money to lessen any time lost at sea and/or upping your chances of being found alive is money well spent in my mind unless you only dive in rivers, lakes, quarries, or caves. If you're an ocean diver, it's your prerogative if you think this additional safety gear isn't worth the cost, but I really hope you are never in a situation to realize you could be wrong.
(Tagging a few folks who either tagged me or mentioned that additional safety gear wasn't needed:
@bada3003,
@Johnoly,
@Dan_T,
@boulderjohn, [USER=416742]@Storker)[/USER]