Readers Poll: Boat is sinking. Don SCUBA or Life Vest?

[AfterDark]

As long as we are considering scenarios, what if the vessel sinks or catches fire during your dive?

Tie my wreck reel to the "new" wreck surface and hope for help.

 

[Rich Keller]

I would take the gear, even if it is not set up it would be in a bag that will float. I would leave behind the tank but I would take the weight belt, attach it to my reel and send it to the bottom as an anchor. I would also make use of any extra life jackets and put them in and attach them to the bag when it was empty to make a small raft.

---------- Post added July 25th, 2014 at 06:49 PM ----------

find a corner of the boat near no one, and wait until the last sec to pop off

This would not be a good idea. When the boat goes down it will create suction at the surface in the immediate area that could drag you down with it even if you are wearing a life jacket or BC. This would be stronger with a larger boat but even a small boat going down fast could do the same thing.

 

[tom.bresee]

Awww good point. I think I was imagining in those last few seconds may want to grab something I missed, but probably better to get away from boat ...

 

[danvolker]

With the recent sinking of a dive boat here on Maui, the question came up of whether it was smarter to put on your dive gear or use the life jacket. There are good arguments for either answer so I thought it would be fun to se how you guys think. Please participate in this poll and share your thoughts. In a life and death situation there are usually some options. Some are better than others. Sometimes you get lucky. The desired outcome is survival with minimal or no injury or loss of property. So what would you do?

I would NEVER consider leaving my dive gear, and donning a life vest. This is a behavior need for people with poor snorkel skills and poor endurance--it is essentially determining that you will be helpless, and in need of saving by boaters or the coast guard.

I would ideally still be in my wetsuit, and would need only to grab mask, fins and snorkel.....and if I had a minute to prepare, I'd be grabbing my big camera also--as it could be useful in a curious shark scenario if the in-water swim lasted into the night, or long enough to draw curious fish.

With a wetsuit, mask and snorkel, swimming 2 miles is incredibly easy...and swimming 10 miles would be easy as long as we paced ourselves.....
If the tide or current is pushing in the wrong direction to reach shore, and is too strong to beat, the mask and snorkel concept still affords you effortless drifting, and the ability to SEE what is under you, and to have the ability to react to situations you may encounter--versus the life vest wearer that is helpless by choice.

In this situation, I would ignore the captain and crew, as having no authority, and zero knowledge about what would be best for Sandra, myself, and any buddies we were with. We would be polite to them, but the crew would find it impossible to assert their nonsensical view of the need for us to wear life vests.... However....on most dive boats I have been on, I do feel that the Captain and crew would expect that many divers would desire to wear mask and snorkels, they'd expect this to be a superior solution, and the only reason the advice to don life vest would come out of their mouths, would be to follow the rules imposed by the Coast Guard, that they must say this in the event of a sinking.

 

[Rhone Man]

Interesting epsitle to this thread:

On Friday after I was at my parent's house and we got a phone call from my brother. His boat had broken down on the way to Anegada, one of the outer islands of the British Virgin Islands, and someone had "borrowed" his toolbox, so he was stuck. Could my Dad run out in his boat and offer assistance. My Dad and I head down to the dock, jump in my Dad's boat and head out. As we are heading out the fan belt on the starboard engine of my Dad's boat goes, alarms go off, rubber smoke everywhere. So we limp back to port on the other engine. Now it is getting dark. Rough weather out there. Not good. Last option we have is our small runaround skiff we use for diving and water skiing. Not a great option - he is a long way out, but we decide if we are going to go we have to now. As we are throwing tools and emergency flares (you never know) into the skiff, I see my big yellow dive bag with all my gear in it, and I think, what the hell, and throw it into the skiff as well.

So we make the run out, and we are about 8 miles off land rolling around in open sea, looking for my brother in his last reported position. We know we are in the same area but the light is failing, the waves are big. We can't see him and he can't see us. Suddenly an idea hits me. I take my big orange SMB, shove the backup light inside it, inflate it, and lash it as high up as I can reach on the radio antennae with shock cord. I radio my brother:

"Can you see a big glowing orange tube anywhere on your horizon?"

"What are you, nuts? Why would there be a ... oh yes, I see it, on a bearing of 210!"

SMB is not a standard part of marine rescue equipment, but the short moral of my story is that there is a lot of useful stuff in a dive bag to have in an emergency. That, and make sure to check you have your tools onboard before you do a deepwater crossing.