Suggestions for finding the anchor line.

[kenbert61]

Okay this happened to me last weekend, dove off the coast of North Carolina shallow wreck 60 feet to the sand, 30 feet to the top 400 feet long different levels. I was paired up with a insta buddy and he was the leader a lot more dives then me. Poor dive plan (my fault) and I didn't take good note of where the anchor was attached to the the wreck(my fault). I know I made mistakes on this dive that's why I am seeking constructive advice. Vis was about 20-30 with a little surge. After 35-40 minutes I was down to 1000 and wanted to find the anchor line. I signaled my buddy and He seemed to say okay he had 1500 and I made the hand over hand signal and a thumbs up and he nodded ok and started swimming...well we swam for awhile and I don't know if he understood me or not and I was down to 700 we were still swimming I motioned a couple times and he just kept swimming then we turned around ? That freaked me a bit,I signeled I was going up with about 500 left I left him and he didn't seem to care or know what I was talking about. I was a little spooked but calmed my self and swam at the 18 foot mark for my safety stop, 3 minutes later I was down to 300 and decided to surface. I popped up and was less then 50 feet from the boat. I swam to the tag line and boarded safely. I asked my partner later and his gruff answer was I thought you just wanted to do your own thing.
Okay the number one lesson I learned of course is to only trust myself and no-one else. I have a compass and realize sometimes I can deploy a wreck reel to the anchor, but I haven't done my Nav class yet and still need to buy a wreck reel. I was just looking for some advice To avoid relying on a stranger, thanks in advance.

 

[fnfalman]

This is going to sound really stupid, but here goes: don't stray too far from the anchor point.

Seriously. There are a lot of things to see in a 30-ft radius. More than you can see in a single tank of air. If I were to have any doubt at all, I will not stray far from the anchor line.

Also take an underwater navigation course to help you bolster your knowledge and confidence.

 

[iztok]

Wrecks are mostly easy to navigate with mental picture. I also suggest you get the slates if one exist for the wreck you are diving or pay attention on the boat with dive briefing.

Compass is usually useless on metal wrecks. Your best bet is to pay attention as dive briefing will tell where you are tied off. Then when you are at the wreck where anchor line is tied off you pay attention and look around a bit.

Also when you swim away look back from time to time to see how the wreck looks from other direction.

 

[Blackwood]

How do you find your car in a large crowded parking lot?

In viz that good, I'd likely not use a reel for external survey.

It's key to get your bearings, as natural navigation serves you well.

Take note of how deep the anchor is, what's around it, what side of the wreck it's on (if applicable), etc..

Metal wrecks can throw off your compass, but it should be good enough for you to say "ok it's on the north side of the wreck" or whatever.

 

[fnfalman]

My wreck diving (not wreck penetration diving but just visiting the outside) is limited to a handful of wrecks in SoCal. These wrecks don't have mooring lines or anchor-tie-off lines. The dive boats try to drop anchor on the bottom as close as possible to the wreck and the divers go down the line then swim over to the wrecks. In this case, I shot an azimuth from the line to the wreck and swam toward the wreck. When I get there, I look around to find a way to distinguish this spot from other spots. That way I'll keep my bearing and depth (100-ft with the wreck to my right) then reverse direction, get back to the reference point and reverse my azimuth to get back to the anchor line.

At night, I'd bring a chemlight (chemical light, bendy-shakey thing) and tie it off to the reference point. Heck I even tie a chemlight to the anchor line as well. When I get back to those point, I'd cut the chemlights, stick it in my belt/pocket and go up.

 

[Teamcasa]

... I asked my partner later and his gruff answer was I thought you just wanted to do your own thing.
Okay the number one lesson I learned of course is to only trust myself and no-one else. I have a compass and realize sometimes I can deploy a wreck reel to the anchor, but I haven't done my Nav class yet and still need to buy a wreck reel. I was just looking for some advice To avoid relying on a stranger, thanks in advance.

Spending a little more time talking to your instant buddy before the dive saves a great deal of confusion after the dive.

Practice your compass work on land first. Navigation is a skill that most people can learn, for the rest - it's an art form.

 

[Crush]

Glad you made it back up safely.

Your insta-buddy should have surfaced with you. Did you explicitly discuss what a thumb-up meant while on the boat? I am serious.

Consider adding a DSMB to your kit so that if you can't find the anchor line and need to do a free ascent you will be visible to the boat captain in surge.

 

[TMHeimer]

Lot's of good advice. Other than the basic safety stuff, keeping track of that damn line is the most important thing--easy if you know the site, but can be tricky if your memory sucks like mine. I was on a wreck in S.C. last month and they had run a line from the anchor line around both sides of the wreck then where they connected back up they had one line out to the bow. Made it real easy, but that was a rarity. Good thing to remember is if you can't find the anchor line to do an ascent without it--I've done this several times--not that hard. I was taught you should have 100 PSI in reserve for every 10 feet of depth. Ei. If you're down 90 feet start up with 900 PSI anchor line or not. Then no problem with the safety stop.

 

[Blackwood]

At night, I'd bring a chemlight (chemical light, bendy-shakey thing) and tie it off to the reference point. .

At night or I'm poor viz, I run line from the anchor to the wreck (sometimes that's the only way to find the wreck, let alone return from it). Once there I'll decide whether to tie off and use natural navigation or to continue running line. For a big, intact wreck, I'll often tie off (i.e. leave the reel). For a rubble field (like the FS Loop we dove in night-like conditions last weekend), I'll keep running line the whole time.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

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