Pompano Beach Fatality Sunday April 16th

[VsubT]

Can you elaborate on this?

Just relaying what the guys we picked up told us. It made some sense, given that open circuit divers would have been working pretty hard and burned a bunch of gas on their way down the mooring line. In contrast, the hot drop was pretty easy. Getting their mooring ball off the wreck was not so easy.

Regarding the vessel name changes, my understanding is that the Black Pearl also had a different name prior to another fatality in the inlet years ago.

Lance

 

[doctormike]

Just relaying what the guys we picked up told us. It made some sense, given that open circuit divers would have been working pretty hard and burned a bunch of gas on their way down the mooring line. In contrast, the hot drop was pretty easy. Getting their mooring ball off the wreck was not so easy.

Hmm... still not sure I get it. You are either tied in or a hot drop. The current would be more of an issue if you were tied in, right? And I know from personal experience, working hard on a rebreather is a really bad idea...!

 

[scubadada]

The way I read it was that it was a hot drop on the Lowrance and a ball at the Capt Dan. I guess the 3 divers picked up by the private boat were from the Capt Dan but not sure. The retrieved ball was from the Capt Dan.

@VsubT is this correct?

 

[TravelGas]

Regarding the vessel name changes, my understanding is that the Black Pearl also had a different name prior to another fatality in the inlet years ago.

Lance

Yes, I am aware.

If SFDGQ didn't keep having fatalities, sinking, etc. they wouldn't have to keep changing the names on their vessels. All the above safety issues are bad for business and google searches when someone searches your Vessel name prior to making vacation or diving plans.

 

[VsubT]

The way I read it was that it was a hot drop on the Lowrance and a ball at the Capt Dan. I guess the 3 divers picked up by the private boat were from the Capt Dan but not sure. The retrieved ball was from the Capt Dan.

@VsubT is this correct?

The 3 divers we picked up were from the SFDHQ group on the Captain Dan. They started their dive by descending their mooring line at roughly the same time we descended to the RSB-1.

I’m not aware of any connection to the Lowrance wreck.

@doctormike Apologies if I misunderstood about rebreathers versus open circuit, I’m not a rebreather diver. I do know that you can burn a lot of gas on OC fighting a current though.

Lance

 

[doctormike]

@doctormike Apologies if I misunderstood about rebreathers versus open circuit, I’m not a rebreather diver. I do know that you can burn a lot of gas on OC fighting a current though.

Lance

Oh, absolutely true, but rebreather divers are at a significant risk of CO2 toxicity from exertion, if they overbreathe the scrubber. This has happened to me...

 

[Kay Dee]

.............. The group we picked up described their boat's plan as a mooring ball tie-in by a DM and the incident diver, with the DM surfacing to relay current info to the divers still on deck while the other diver remained below. They said that the DM had restricted the dive to rebreathers only because of the strong current, and that they saw the incident diver ascending away from the line as they descended on the mooring line to begin their dive.

Something seems amiss with this description. If the deceased's dive was a hot drop, how was he seen "ascending away from the line"? How did those divers see anything actually if they were on another wreck (i.e. Captain Dan while the deceased was diving the Lowrance)? Am I missing something here or has something simply been 'lost in translation' (possibly by me )?

 

[VsubT]

Something seems amiss with this description. If the deceased's dive was a hot drop, how was he seen "ascending away from the line"? How did those divers see anything actually if they were on another wreck (i.e. Captain Dan while the deceased was diving the Lowrance)? Am I missing something here or has something simply been 'lost in translation' (possibly by me )?

There are two separate incidents, the original with Joe Citelli, and a second later incident in the same area with the same operator that someone asked a question about upthread. Probably best to read back through about the last 15 posts to get an idea of where the thread changed over to this second incident.

Lance

 

[Pavao]

Something seems amiss with this description. If the deceased's dive was a hot drop, how was he seen "ascending away from the line"? How did those divers see anything actually if they were on another wreck (i.e. Captain Dan while the deceased was diving the Lowrance)? Am I missing something here or has something simply been 'lost in translation' (possibly by me )?

Yeah, lots of confusion, someone should split the thread.

Theres 2 incidents in this thread, originally it started with an incident on April 16th, then a few pages back it started discussing another incident on may 5th.

I’m gonna clear up some confusion Im reading some people are having regarding the second incident, as I understood at least, maybe I’m wrong too.

About May 5th incident:
Boat A was diving wreck A, tied in and had rebreather divers, Boat A had a fatality.
Boat B was diving wreck B, hot dropped.
Boat A radioed Boat B to pick up their remaining divers at wreck A as Boat A had to run in to nearest dock to meet EMS.
Divers from Boat A, now on board Boat B are telling the story as they saw it to people on Boat B (and coast guard/BSO I guess?)
A diver from Boat B is telling the story here on scubaboard

That’s my understanding

 

[Kay Dee]

There are two separate incidents, the original with Joe Citelli, and a second later incident in the same area with the same operator that someone asked a question about upthread. Probably best to read back through about the last 15 posts to get an idea of where the thread changed over to this second incident.

Lance

Thanks Lance (and Pavao). As I suspected, lost in translation....................by me.