Safety vs. customer satisfaction

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David Leach

Registered
Messages
15
Reaction score
15
Location
Columbus, IN
# of dives
50 - 99
This happened about a year ago, but I was not on ScubaBoard at that time, so I have never shared it. It's a long story. As an inexperienced vacation diver, I booked a two tank boat dive with a well-known dive operator while in Nassau on a cruise ship.

There were some winds when I arrived at the dive shop and marina. After we loaded up on the dive boat, the captain attempted to maneuver away from the dock and the winds kept pushing him back toward a couple other dive boats, actually making contact and knocking some SCUBA tanks to the deck. It was no big deal, but I have been around boats far longer than I have been diving, and was a little surprised that an experienced captain would have a hard time getting out of a marina he navigates every day. I should have recognized this as the first warning sign that something unusual was happening.

We reached our first dive site, a wreck called Ray of Hope. The dive was fun and uneventful until we began our ascent back up the mooring line. The weather had deteriorated while we were on the bottom and the boat was getting tossed pretty hard. I first saw someone's GoPro drift from above me all the way down to the bottom, followed a minute or so later by a 4 ft section of stainless safety railing. That gave me pause, as I wondered what the heck was happening topside that they were losing pieces of the boat.

As soon as I surfaced, I saw that the winds and wave action had picked up substantially. Everyone handled getting back on the boat, but several got banged up a bit, enough that most of the divers wanted to call the second dive to avoid having the enter the boat again. Unfortunately, a couple divers did want to dive the second site. I overheard two crew members talking... the first asked why they weren't canceling the second dive and the second crew member replied that the captain said as long as anyone wants to dive, they would not cancel. The crew members clearly did not agree, but did not (could not?) override the captain.

We motored through rough seas to the second dive site, with a couple divers now vomiting. When we arrived, the captain tried for a while to locate the mooring line, but could not hold the boat in position long enough and finally declared that there would not be a second dive. Unfortunately, he also notified us that the weather was now too rough to make it back into the marina and they were working out a plan B.

Plan B was that they would call back to the shop and send for a smaller boat to ferry us back in. Unfortunately, the shop determined that the weather would not permit the smaller boat to even get out of the marina, which led to plan C. We would motor up the coast, around a point that offered some protection, and dock at a private neighborhood marina owned by a friend.

Motoring perpendicular to the waves now, we got tossed very badly. SCUBA tanks came loose and crashed across the deck, with divers dodging equipment and the crew scrambling to keep people and equipment safe. The freshwater bucket (trash can) was overturned. The drinking water cooler came loose and fell to the deck. People slid off the benches and got scraped, but no serious injuries. A fire extinguisher came loose and emptied its contents below deck, with white billowing clouds making it appear for a moment that we had an engine fire. We didn't, which is a good thing, since the fire extinguisher was now empty.

Fortunately, the story ends anticlimactically with a very quiet bus ride from the private marina back to the cruise ship. We had cheated death and nobody felt much like talking about it.

I have thought back on this day many times in the last year. It seems like the biggest mistake was delaying the decision to scrap the second dive out of fear that someone might be disappointed or complain. Had we headed back to the marina sooner, perhaps we would have beat the weather. But we will never know.

Even though this write-up is long, I left out lots of details. I am happy to answer questions and learn from others who want to share their experience or recommendations.

Thank you
 
Glad you made it out ok.
A good captain will keep appraised of weather conditions.

Having said that, good weather can go south sometimes sooner and faster than the weather report indicated. We have all seen cases where the weather was supposed to lay down but the front moved quicker than expected and the 2s turned to 5s and 6s or worse. Or when you are lucky the 4s and 5s dropped to 1 or less and you steal one from the weather gods.
Not having the weather forecasts I cannot judge. But clearly in hindsight cthe aptain should have called after dive one.
 
Playing Devil's advocate

@Steve_C was somewhat correct when he said "weather can change". Weather predictions, are just that. A prediction. Weather can change.

A few years ago my wife and I were on a Liveaboard. After the penultimate dive we saw teh conditions starting to deteriorate. We quietly told the crew we wouldn't make the final dive, because we couldn't' be bothered dealing with the surface conditions if they got worse.

The fact is, we would have been diving 3 days later when we got home. We long ago gave up being concerned by dive count - quality over quantity and all that.

The crew a little later (rightly) binned the dive. There was a significant number of divers who were very disappointed that they hadn't achieved the 25 (or whatever) dives they'd signed up for, were really upset. Their first concerns wasn't their safety. No it was they hadn't achieved their allocated dives

Often an Op is caught between a rock and a hard place. I personally don't mind calling a dive, because I'm thick skinned, others not so Customer pressure caqn be a difficult thing to balance. It' not all about profit, it can just be trying to the majority "happy"
 
I worry about this sort of thing. I'm at best minimally qualified to judge the safety of conditions, and tend to defer to the professionals' judgment. But even if I know enough to pass on the second dive, as you did, I could still be stuck out there on that boat, as you were. I would rather dive with an op that isn't afraid to call a dive when conditions warrant it.
 
As a captain and dive master I can say that it's really tough to call a dive when the weather is borderline udivable. Most of the customers I have are not experience sea man to say the least and the dissapointment they feel when you tell them there is no dive quickly turns in to a bad review online and we all know that 10 good ones get overshadowed by 1 bad one. Of course the boat geting wrecked has a worse effect on the company reputation so theres that...
 
As a captain and dive master I can say that it's really tough to call a dive when the weather is borderline udivable. Most of the customers I have are not experience sea man to say the least and the dissapointment they feel when you tell them there is no dive quickly turns in to a bad review online and we all know that 10 good ones get overshadowed by 1 bad one. Of course the boat geting wrecked has a worse effect on the company reputation so theres that...
Based solely on the original post description, I can understand why the boat went out in the first place, but wonder about the advisability of the captain not calling the 2nd dive instead of leaving the attempt up to the divers.
 
Based solely on the original post description, I can understand why the boat went out in the first place, but wonder about the advisability of the captain not calling the 2nd dive instead of leaving the attempt up to the divers.

So looking at the OP number of dives - I would go in water from a boat that some with less than 100 dives would not. The OP has less than 50 or at least that is the profile. Everyone has a different viewpoint, risk factor, experience and judgement for their own safety.
There is no correct answer since we were not there - but based on my own experience size of the waves are not as important as the dominant period. That is where I draw the line for my own comfort... YMMV
 
This happened about a year ago, but I was not on ScubaBoard at that time, so I have never shared it. It's a long story. As an inexperienced vacation diver, I booked a two tank boat dive with a well-known dive operator while in Nassau on a cruise ship.

There were some winds when I arrived at the dive shop and marina. After we loaded up on the dive boat, the captain attempted to maneuver away from the dock and the winds kept pushing him back toward a couple other dive boats, actually making contact and knocking some SCUBA tanks to the deck. It was no big deal, but I have been around boats far longer than I have been diving, and was a little surprised that an experienced captain would have a hard time getting out of a marina he navigates every day. I should have recognized this as the first warning sign that something unusual was happening.

We reached our first dive site, a wreck called Ray of Hope. The dive was fun and uneventful until we began our ascent back up the mooring line. The weather had deteriorated while we were on the bottom and the boat was getting tossed pretty hard. I first saw someone's GoPro drift from above me all the way down to the bottom, followed a minute or so later by a 4 ft section of stainless safety railing. That gave me pause, as I wondered what the heck was happening topside that they were losing pieces of the boat.

As soon as I surfaced, I saw that the winds and wave action had picked up substantially. Everyone handled getting back on the boat, but several got banged up a bit, enough that most of the divers wanted to call the second dive to avoid having the enter the boat again. Unfortunately, a couple divers did want to dive the second site. I overheard two crew members talking... the first asked why they weren't canceling the second dive and the second crew member replied that the captain said as long as anyone wants to dive, they would not cancel. The crew members clearly did not agree, but did not (could not?) override the captain.

We motored through rough seas to the second dive site, with a couple divers now vomiting. When we arrived, the captain tried for a while to locate the mooring line, but could not hold the boat in position long enough and finally declared that there would not be a second dive. Unfortunately, he also notified us that the weather was now too rough to make it back into the marina and they were working out a plan B.

Plan B was that they would call back to the shop and send for a smaller boat to ferry us back in. Unfortunately, the shop determined that the weather would not permit the smaller boat to even get out of the marina, which led to plan C. We would motor up the coast, around a point that offered some protection, and dock at a private neighborhood marina owned by a friend.

Motoring perpendicular to the waves now, we got tossed very badly. SCUBA tanks came loose and crashed across the deck, with divers dodging equipment and the crew scrambling to keep people and equipment safe. The freshwater bucket (trash can) was overturned. The drinking water cooler came loose and fell to the deck. People slid off the benches and got scraped, but no serious injuries. A fire extinguisher came loose and emptied its contents below deck, with white billowing clouds making it appear for a moment that we had an engine fire. We didn't, which is a good thing, since the fire extinguisher was now empty.

Fortunately, the story ends anticlimactically with a very quiet bus ride from the private marina back to the cruise ship. We had cheated death and nobody felt much like talking about it.

I have thought back on this day many times in the last year. It seems like the biggest mistake was delaying the decision to scrap the second dive out of fear that someone might be disappointed or complain. Had we headed back to the marina sooner, perhaps we would have beat the weather. But we will never know.




Even though this write-up is long, I left out lots of details. I am happy to answer questions and learn from others who want to share their experience or recommendations.

Thank you

OMG David. First of all welcome to ScubaBoard.
I'm glad everyone got back on shore alive w/o casualties. Its sickens me what could have happened. It has happened in the past where some boats capsized and people drowned. It is at least good that the captain had plan A, B and C. There is a plan D in most cases. Plan D is the beach the boat. Yes, you basically throttle towards the beach and run aground. Not always possible if terrain (above and below) not allow this. It is a plan of last resort as boat could be totaled.

Glad you are ok.

For me, if the winds are >20 mph, I don't go out. It's personal decision. Also I look at the sea/lake... if the water is confused, meaning the waves come out of multiple directions or the wave come in multiple directions, then I stay onshore. I don't care about the money spent on the trip. I'd rather be comfortable and safe. There will always be another day to dive.
 
So looking at the OP number of dives - I would go in water from a boat that some with less than 100 dives would not. The OP has less than 50 or at least that is the profile. Everyone has a different viewpoint, risk factor, experience and judgement for their own safety.

You are correct that I am a novice diver, and there were a couple divers on the boat that day who were either more experienced or more inclined to take a risk on a second dive. For me, I thought about how much I would like to avoid getting banged up on the ladder and visiting a Bahamian hospital ER. That was enough to tell me I personally didn't need a second dive, though I was willing to sit it out on the boat if others wanted to go back down.
 
though I was willing to sit it out on the boat if others wanted to go back down.
The problem with sitting on a rocking boat in those conditions is that one tends to feed the fish with their stomach contents.
 
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