Rick Inman:
Hey Rick. The other night we had the same conditions plus fog and we were under the ice pulling a truck up from 60 feet.
Ron
Weather or Not to Dive
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Hey Rick. The other night we had the same conditions plus fog and we were under the ice pulling a truck up from 60 feet.
Ron
Lightning, seas over about 3' (I use a Navy wave-prediction model to check before going) or FOG (vis under about 1/4 mile - not for me, but for all the idiots running at 30+ knots in the fog with no radar!) will call it for me.
wetvet
Guest
Ok, I assume I'm an idiot, but can someone explain to me why lightning is dangerous in diving in salt water?
I don't understand electricity that well, but I understood that it takes the most direct route to ground that it can....so that it encounters the least resistance. This is how workers can work on live power lines after they hook a suitable ground cable to it (on the correct side, I assume).
If Im in the water, the salinity is .09%, which is the same as the salinity of body fluids...therefore lightning would rather hit water than me, since it has to go through my tissues, which have more resistance. If Im on a boat which is metal, the electricity will go through the metal, which conducts electricity better than me, and if Im on a fiberglass boat, it is a great insulater, and lightning wont hit us, because we are not grounded.
Is the risk only at the exact moment when I am getting out of the boat, and my tanks can act as a connecter to the water? Or what am I missing?
Have fun pickin me apart
Wetvet
I don't understand electricity that well, but I understood that it takes the most direct route to ground that it can....so that it encounters the least resistance. This is how workers can work on live power lines after they hook a suitable ground cable to it (on the correct side, I assume).
If Im in the water, the salinity is .09%, which is the same as the salinity of body fluids...therefore lightning would rather hit water than me, since it has to go through my tissues, which have more resistance. If Im on a boat which is metal, the electricity will go through the metal, which conducts electricity better than me, and if Im on a fiberglass boat, it is a great insulater, and lightning wont hit us, because we are not grounded.
Is the risk only at the exact moment when I am getting out of the boat, and my tanks can act as a connecter to the water? Or what am I missing?
Have fun pickin me apart
Wetvet
What's dangerous is the gradient in the water - the field strength.
Its MUCH more dangerous in fresh water than salt (due to lower conductivity) but its not safe in salt either.
Plus, the boat could get hit. That would be bad, as a strike on the boat, even if it doesn't hole it (and sometimes it does!) almost always destroys every electronic device on board - often including the engine controls, if they're not fully mechanical, and almost always the radio and nav equipment.
A sailboat in my marina was hit last summer (three down from me - yikes!) and suffered over $25,000 worth of damage. His tall mast may have prevented ME from getting struck though, so perhaps "thank yous" are in order
Its MUCH more dangerous in fresh water than salt (due to lower conductivity) but its not safe in salt either.
Plus, the boat could get hit. That would be bad, as a strike on the boat, even if it doesn't hole it (and sometimes it does!) almost always destroys every electronic device on board - often including the engine controls, if they're not fully mechanical, and almost always the radio and nav equipment.
A sailboat in my marina was hit last summer (three down from me - yikes!) and suffered over $25,000 worth of damage. His tall mast may have prevented ME from getting struck though, so perhaps "thank yous" are in order
OP
I can add conditions like roads that even a 4 x4 would be questionable. I had to call a dive to Eagles Nest because my van don't work well in wet sugar sand. The outside temp was OK.
busted
Guest
I think you have to decide if you can safely enter and exit the water. Also, it depends on how experienced the divers are.
Rick Inman:
Well, guess I'm just a W.W.W...Ron Brandt:
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