What do you do when the anchor line breaks free?

[doctormike]

Tie ins have a few weaknesses, the grapple doesn’t always fall in the perfect spot and you may not have the slack to move. Skippers believing the anchor is tied in will haul the slack putting more strain on the tie. When the tie goes the anchor has no hope of grabbing the wreck the second time unless there’s a large piece of wreckage in the path of the grapple.

I didn't see it, but apparently whatever piece of the wreck that the tie in was attached to gave way.

 

[Celt]

Feel free to discard this comment as I'm fairly new to this kinda diving but I've been on this boat a few times and I've never seen a grapple. They tie in with a diver wrapping some pretty thick chain half a dozen times around a part of the wreck.

The diver (who's part of the crew) then sends up a plastic bottle to let the skipper know it's tied in.

Boatman drops the anchor or grapple to hold the boat and first diver down ties in.

 

[doctormike]

In Southern California, we rarely "hard tie" into wrecks unless there is a permanent morning ball (e.g., the HMCS Yukon in San Diego). Especially on deep wrecks, we use down lines.

The "benefit" of the downline is that it is easy to deploy (and even easier than a tie-in to retrieve). The downside is that it is not guaranteed to be on the wreck and, in very heavy current, it can move off the wreck (we had this happen a week ago on a 250 fsw deep airplane wreck).

It also requires the divers to be fast and proficient on getting into the water and to not pull the line off the wreck on the way down.

If I follow your description correctly, I do have one question: how did you retrieve your SMB which was (presumably) hard tied into the wreck? Did another diver go back down and retrieve the line?

- brett

No, and that's the point that another poster made and I responded to - the option of looping the line so that you can retreive it from the surface.

We surfaced on the SMB, the crew threw us a line and pulled us in to the ladder. Then once everyone was on board, a crew member went in and got the two SMB (just detached them from the lines). They didn't go down and clean up the wreck. Yes, that does leave cave line (and possibliy a reel or spool) on the wreck. One of the advantages of Sisal is that it degrades, unlike cave line.

 

[doctormike]

Boatman drops the anchor or grapple to hold the boat and first diver down ties in.

Not here. Once over the wreck, they throw in a line with a chain on one end and a tuna ball at the other end. Diver goes down that line, moves the chain to the wreck and ties it in. There are other approaches (stern anchor, etc..), but this is what this boat does.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Gotta say, I was surprised about that myself! You can see I got a little sloppy at points on the ascent... Left the bottom at minute 36, cleared at minute 59.

30/70, setpoint 1.3 on the bottom.

View attachment 801473

The old NAUI air tables call for 14 minutes of deco for 30 minutes at 120 feet. I guess things have become ultra-conservative.

 

[Celt]

I didn't see it, but apparently whatever piece of the wreck that the tie in was attached to gave way.

You’d be amazed what I’ve seen people tie to, they’re anxious to get tied in and are reluctant to move so tie in to rubbish.

 

[doctormike]

The old NAUI air tables call for 14 minutes of deco for 30 minutes at 120 feet. I guess things have become ultra-conservative.

I guess it would be more accurate to say a 23 minute ASCENT, since you count deco time from the first stop.

I wrote it that way to put it in the context of the teaching point for a general audience - meaning that without the upline, I would have drifted for 23 minutes.

I hit the first stop at minute 41, so more like 18 minutes of actual deco. I could reword that, I guess.

Here's multi deco. My ascent was not very pretty, so maybe a minute or two more...

 

[Celt]

Not here. Once over the wreck, they throw in a line with a chain on one end and a tuna ball at the other end. Diver goes down that line, moves the chain to the wreck and ties it in. There are other approaches (stern anchor, etc..), but this is what this boat does.

Okay, ye tie in the shot. And the boat picks it up. How is the shot released with the boat on it.

 

[doctormike]

Okay, ye tie in the shot. And the boat picks it up. How is the shot released with the boat on it.

One crew member ties in, another one pulls it (they untie it and ascend on the tuna ball)

 

[lukeb]

We surfaced on the SMB, the crew threw us a line and pulled us in to the ladder. Then once everyone was on board, a crew member went in and got the two SMB (just detached them from the lines). They didn't go down and clean up the wreck. Yes, that does leave cave line (and possibliy a reel or spool) on the wreck. One of the advantages of Sisal is that it degrades, unlike cave line.

Did you and / or your buddy tie off to the wreck thinking you would lose your reel / spool in the process? I am just wondering if you had more of a 'this is an emergency' mindset so the reel doesn't matter, or if you were not expecting the crews to cut your lines from the SMBs after you surfaced.

With the cost of a good reel nowadays being around $150 I was wondering how you thought the the reel / line situation would play out. Obviously if you were treating it as an emergency I totally understand treating the reel as expendable.