Safety Sausage Question

[RSL]

Ok a newbie diver here (only 10 dives under my belt)..... I wass told by some of my dive friends to get a safety sausage, so I did. but I am looking for some more experinced advise to answer a couple of questions. 1. Can it/should it double as an assent line and/or a safety stop line? 2. If it/can should also be used as a safet stop line is just attaching a piece of rope about 20 feet long and tieing a knot at 5 feet ok, or do I need to attach a finer reel or something to it to anchor it to the bottom???

 

[RSL]

I ment 15 feet not 5... opps

 

[octotat]

It sounds like you may be confusing a safety sausage with a safety stop or deco stop buoy. A safety sausage is a long tube you inflate on the surface to signal your position more effectively. It keeps other boats from running over you, and alerts your dive boat as to your presence. It would also help rescuers to locate you if you drifted away. That being said, I do inflate my safety sausage before I ascend and hold it up over my head as I come to the surface, alerting any boats that might be rocketing towards me. A safety stop buoy is like a little lift bag that you inflate with your reg or octo, it sits on top with a 15 foot rope hanging down that would allow you a safety stop, alerting boats to your location, and giving you a 15 foot reference point. I carry both but have never had to use the bouy.

Adding to the confusion, some divers will use a reel with a lift bag to serve the same purpose, especially for tech diving where the need signficant deco times in the water column. Don't worry about that for now since you are new to diving and have a long way to go before you get into all that (if you ever do).

Good luck and stay safe, it's good to see you are thinking these things through and getting info!

 

[CJ Waid]

Sausage isn't safe, it has a lot of cholesterol and saturated fat.

 

[TSandM]

Markers come in two varieties -- There are those which are simply open at one end, and are designed to be inflated and used only at the surface, and those which are partially or completely closed, and are designed for inflation and deployment at depth.

The closed ones can be inflated and used at the surface, too, of course.

Most of us who use deployable SMBs attach them to a spool. It's hard to keep a piece of line or rope orderly underwater, unless it's rolled up on something. When you shoot a bag at depth, the line up to the surface can indeed be used as an ascent reference, although it's not an accurate way to measure depth, particularly if there's surface current or wind.

There are some tricks (and some risks) to deploying SMBs at depth, and it's a good idea to find somebody who knows how it's done to take you through it. There's some buoyancy control involved, and some safety concerns about avoiding getting caught in the line and dragged upward.

 

[RSL]

so a sausage can be used as an smb but not vice versa?

 

[Rainer]

to an extent a sausage could be used as an smb (just have to worry about it exploding), but it works much better the other way around!

 

[Carribeandiver]

This may not answer any of your questions but I will attest to the value of a safety sausage and compliment you on your good sense to get one.
Recently, I was on a live-aboard dive trip in the Bahamas. I am a pretty new diver and although I had done Gulf/Ocean dives before, this was my experience with drift diving, night diving and diving with noticable current.
We rarely descended on the anchor or mooring line and even more rarely ascended on the anchor/mooring line. I had to learn navagation on the fly and learn free ascents on the fly. In retrospect, I got lucky and came up close to the boat each time except for once. That one time I was down current and about 150 yards behind the stern in relatively small swells. Still, I could only see the boat when I was on the crest of the swells and assumed the boat could only see me when I was on the crest. I had no safety sausage and the whistle that came with my BC seemed pretty inadequate. I raised my arm and finally took off my hi viz yellow fin to hold up. The boat saw me in the first couple of minutes but while I waited that 3-5 minutes for the dingy to come get me, I had visions of the Open Water movie and fear about drifting off into the abyss.
My first day back, I ordered 2 safety tubes and guarantee I wont be without one again.
As for a safety stop tool, I say nah, that wont work because while you are hanging on, current is going to cause you to drift without you noticing it. Use your depth gauge, dont depend on a tool but rather depend on neutral buoyancy.

 

[Debay777]

I would say that in a pinch that yes, it could be used as a surface marker. Its definately safer than ascending into a busy boat channel without having anything. If you really wanted to you could roll up a 20 foot piece of small rope or cord and use it to mark your safety stop, but like mentioned before surface conditions can make it difficult. the sausage is meant to be waived in the air or partial submerged and clipped to your bc so that it can remain upright while you have to use your arms and hands. just inflating it and letting it ascend does not guarantee that it will stand upright when it surfaces. You would have to keep it partial submerged by pulling on it. that alone creates problems like: are you pulling it down or you up, how much of the sausage is submerged - is it even visible, you have to be partialy negatively buoyant to keep from ascending and to keep the sausage in the water deep enough to hold it upright, and did you fill it up tight at depth so that it will pop when it reaches 1 ATMOS. like mentioned before, find some experienced people to work you through it in the water, and dont try to skimp on equipment. I tried, it doesnt work.

 

[Orlando Eric]

One of the Easiest setups for what you describe is a orally inflated model with a "jump" reel. This is a hand wound spool with around 50' of line on it. After you achieve your safety stop you take out the spool / sausage. Clip on the line and making certain all is clear you puff in some air and off it goes.

As to blowing a SMB at depth with a reel. This is VERY tricky buisness. I have heard stories of divers getting tangled into the line and taking a scary ride. I have never gotten tangled but early on I did get a jammed reel and watch my entire Kit and Kaboodle free ascend without me.

As I slowly made my way up I thought, well good thing I bought that $100.00 Reel and $50.00 SMB. That is THREE boat rides! I did meet up with it again at the surface by luck.

I would say for sure get a sausage to be seen on the surface. If you want to play with the spool get one of those. Just be careful, and the spool is the easiest way to go... almost jamb proof.