What else could I have done?

[Gdaaym8z]

I am posting this now to get opinions on what I could have done differently in this situation. I am not going to mention names or exact location as I would like to keep this more or less confidential (yeah I see the irony with this on the internet).

Anyway, on a recent dive trip I was booked on a boat as a single diver and there were a few groups on board. One of the groups was from my local area and were doing their deep dive certifications (or so I thought) so I was kind of hanging with their group, above and below the surface. Our first dive was on a wreck at about 90 fsw. The plan was for everyone to descend together down the mooring line and once at the wreck, we would stay in two groups. Some of the divers were doing their first salt water ocean dives and were very slow on decent. I backed away from the line and dropped below them and got to the tie-off on the wreck and waited. After a minute or so some of the divers were finally down. The first group arrived and left to explore the wreck and the second group was showing up. There was about 3’ of vis and conditions sucked. The group I was going to dive with had six people, four had made it to the wreck and everyone gave their OK signals and poof took a couple kicks and were gone like ghosts. I was ready to trail and looked up the mooring line and there was still one person coming down. I waited a few seconds and he made it to the wreck, I signaled to him to see if he was OK, he gave me an OK and of course the rest of the group were well away at this point. We signaled each other that we would buddy up.

I signaled to him that we should stay right around the mooring because the vis was so bad. We stayed right there for a couple of minutes and then ventured a little bit further away, keeping the hull in view. After a few more feet, he starts descending further and within a second all I can see are his bubbles, I descended about ten more feet, to 100’ and can still only see his bubbles. Now I know that the sand is only at about 110 so he can’t go much further down but I am trying to keep the hull in view as well as his bubbles. I start waving my light back and forth, trying to signal him to come back up, after about a minute of me staying over his bubbles he finally comes back up and I have lost sight of the hull while trying to keep with him and his bubbles. I turned us back toward the mooring line on the reciprocal from where we started but in just this short minute or minute and a half, we have lost the ship.

After another minute of looking for it, I thumb the dive and we start a free ascent. I have 2000 psi left at this point. I signaled him for his air pressure and he seemed to be focused on his computer and didn’t give a response, when I did get a response from him it was a simple OK. We ascended to 18 fsw and did a 5 minute stop. There were decent currents this day and the whole stop I am wondering how far we are drifting from the boat while doing this free ascent, I could hear divers splashing into the water and knew that there was another boat moored on one of the other lines going to the wreck, so I knew we couldn’t be too far from one boat or the other. After the safety stop, we made it to the surface and luckily we were only about 40 yards from the boat.

When we got to the surface I asked him what he was doing when he went deeper, he told me that he just dropped down and was waiting for me to follow. We made a short surface swim to the boat and boarded. I ended up with a little over 1600 psi left and while at the ladder at the back of the boat I asked him how he was on air, his reply was, “I’m good, I’ve got 400.” My gut wrenched at this. I really don’t think he realized that at that depth, another minute and he would have experienced and AAO situation on our ascent. The more I think about this the more it bothers me that I wasn’t able to communicate with him how much air he had left at any given point during the dive. I had given him the standard “how much air do you have” signals and he didn’t reply, I even tried to look at his computer during the safety stop but was unable to read it due to the vis, even with my light. I got the OK signal from him, what was I supposed to think, he was telling me he was OK, I’m glad that he turned out to be OK. I just keep thinking of how this COULD have ended up. I didn’t say anything to him and have let this fester for days now.

Should I have asked him if he realized how close to really bad situation we had come. Should I have talked to him about why? I really don’t thing he knew how fast he was sucking down the air. I was honestly thinking to myself when we were at depth, am I willing to go deeper to get him if he didn’t come back up to me. Terrible thoughts to have….ever. What should I / could I have done differently?

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Yukon? (I'm psychic...)

 

[vladimir]

so I was kind of hanging with their group, above and below the surface.

Did you have an actual buddy? Did your buddy know that he was your buddy? It doesn't sound like it.

What should I / could I have done differently?

A lot of your difficulties were caused by trying to communicate underwater what should have been communicated pre-dive. A proper pre-dive discussion with a pre-determined buddy, rather than an ad-hoc plan communicated underwater with a pick-up buddy at 90' is what you should have done differently.

 

[RJP]

What should I / could I have done differently?

Your main problem was that you were missing two key items when you entered the water:

1. A buddy
2. A dive plan

"One of the groups was from my local area...so I was kind of hanging with their group, above and below the surface."



I don't mean to be brusque here (that's not true, I do mean to be brusque here) but what kind of nonsense is that? What does it mean to "kind of hang around" with someone below the surface?

"The group I was going to dive with had six people..."

In diving, a group of two people is called "a buddy pair" and a group of three people is called "a team" but a group of 6 people? That's called a cluster f***.

"The plan was for everyone to descend together and once at the wreck, we would stay in two groups."

That's not a plan. It's merely a general agreement to split up into two separate cluster f***s.

What about your training/experience? Your profile doesn't mention any kind of wreck training. Diving in 3ft of viz with current, with no buddy, no plan, no training, no wreck reel, no SMB?

What could/should you have done differently? Stayed in bed!

or not sure which.

Good news is that you managed to give Darwin the slip for one more day. Next time, don't enter the water without:

1. A specific, identified buddy with whom you have developed and agreed to...
2. A specific, identified plan which includes agreement on depths, run-times, turn pressures, hand signals, etc and...
3. Proper training, experience, and gear to execute that plan safely

 

[Bubbletrubble]

A few thoughts:

• First of all, rather than keeping things "confidential," I think you meant to say "anonymous."
• OMG. You lost the entire wreck! For shame! (Just kidding. It happens to the best of us.)
• Establish buddy pairs before the dive (either while on the surface or preferably on the boat).
• With not-so-stellar vis, it's unreasonable to keep a large, 6-person group together. My circle of dive friends understands that in a large group, buddies stay together. If the 2- or 3-man buddy teams become separated (with buddies still together), that's no big deal...the dive continues on. If buddies within a team get separated, then "lost buddy" protocol should be followed. I mention all of this because it's almost irrelevant which way the rest of the group went. With 3 ft vis, it's no fun doing a 6-person conga line anyway.
• At a depth of 100 fsw in dark, cold water, it's entirely possible that some of your buddy's irregular behavior could be attributed to nitrogen narcosis. Focusing too much on a simple task like reading one's computer is one manifestation of narcosis. Answering an air check (how much gas left?) with an "OK" sign is another indication that he probably wasn't thinking clearly.
• Inexperienced divers do weird things. Your buddy sounds like he had very few dives under his belt and wasn't very situationally aware. That's to be expected. If the Yukon dive was this guy's first open ocean dive, well, let me say that someone (trip planner or instructor?) could have done a much better job of selecting a dive site. La Jolla Shores is nearby, free to dive, has fairly straightforward topography, and is deep enough for a deep dive class if you swim out in the proper direction (away from the beach). The Yukon is inappropriate for a diver to do as his first open ocean dive. It's deep, typically dark, currents can be a problem, and one cannot follow a shallower contour to get back to shore (practically speaking). La Jolla Shores would have been a much better choice IMO.
• It's amazing how one's respiration rate can quicken when doing a blue water ascent at an unfamiliar site. I'm not surprised that your buddy blew through his air.
• Someone needs to talk to your buddy about gas management.
• Regarding what you could have done, once you had agreed to buddy up with him, it was wrong for you to let him get out of your view. Watching someone's bubbles from above (even if it was his fault that he descended too far) is not the same as being close enough to help him if he has any issues. If he's not being responsive to your attempts to communicate, you need to get him to ascend to a shallower depth where he's not narc'ed out of his gourd.
• As for what you could tell your buddy in a post-dive briefing, I think a horrible way to go about things is to be in-your-face confrontational. Perhaps a better, more diplomatic approach would be to start off the conversation by telling him how you felt about it. Tell him that you felt "really uncomfortable" with how things went down. Apologize to him for not being clearer about pre-dive buddy assignments, dive plan, gas checks, and communicating underwater. After all, you are the more experienced diver in the buddy team, right? If your buddy has half a brain, he will realize that he was equally responsible for those issues. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that he would offer his own apology. This is a much more constructive way to have a discussion about these matters than blaming him for everything. Who knows? This could be a very important learning experience for him. It may impress upon him the importance for developing better buddy skills among other things.
• I think you are right to feel uncomfortable regarding the thought of abandoning your buddy when he was below you and out of visual contact. That kind of thinking might be acceptable in cave diving or deep technical diving, but we're talking about your buddy 10'-15' below you and well within recreational depths on a sandy bottom. In the scenario you described, you really wouldn't be assuming that much personal risk to go down and get him.
• In a separated buddy scenario like you describe, I'd shoot a very quick compass bearing to the wreck (or some landmark) before hunting down my buddy. Once buddy contact is re-established, you can re-trace your steps or "figure out" where the wreck/landmark is. Embrace your inner homing pigeon.
• When the current is ripping on one side of the Yukon, it's usually pretty calm on the other side.
• Good job. You didn't panic. No one was hurt.

 

[Misa]

Beside all the good advices you`ve got so far do the AOWD course and learn to navigate with the compass.

Compass is very useful u/w when you need to establish directions. You know your buddy went deeper and somehow you had to check your buddy's SPGwhen he answered just OK at your air check signal. Just grab his SPG and check for yourself. Anyway you did good imo considering the other negative factors.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

What about your training/experience? Your profile doesn't mention any kind of wreck training. Diving in 3ft of viz with current, with no buddy, no plan, no training, no wreck reel, no SMB?

@RJP: Diving a wreck does not necessarily imply penetration. I don't have formal wreck training, but I can appreciate wrecks from the outside. And, FWIW, I don't typically carry a wreck reel with me. Maybe I'm just reckless.

Vis can be very unpredictable at the Yukon, so I can't fault the captain/crew/instructor/OP for the poor vis conditions. The vis is what it is. I've done that particular wreck when the vis was 50+ ft and when the vis was only 3-5 ft. There's a lot of neat stuff to see on the wreck (nudibranchs, painted greenlings, corynactis, kelpfish, etc.) even when the vis is crappy, so I'd still do the dive with 3 ft vis...but then again I'm comfortable in those conditions at a familiar site.

 

[Grover48]

The Yukon and the Ruby E both had poor viz on Sat. Sunday it was 40' and many had canceled for the day. Only 7 divers on Sun.

In working with a class, you were at a disadvantage as far as a buddy goes. A solid hook up on the boat to establish rule would have helped. When getting a buddy under water because someone thumbed a dive is sometimes a crap shoot. Perhaps a few notes on your slate would have made a difference instead of a couple of hand signals. It is obvious your buddy wanted to go to the sand rather than explore the upper part of the wreck. His air consumption and attitude toward the low air situation indicate to me he lacked experience. He wanted to bag the deepest depth he could on that dive.

Diving in poor viz is a fact of life. You make the best of it or thumb the dive. Simple. This time you did not get a good buddy for a dive. Sounds like he did though.

 

[RJP]

@RJP: Diving a wreck does not necessarily imply penetration. I don't have formal wreck training, but I can appreciate wrecks from the outside. And, FWIW, I don't typically carry a wreck reel with me. Maybe I'm just reckless.

Not saying that wreck training is required to cruise the outside of the wreck, nor that a wreck reel is needed on most non-penetration dives. However...

Someone WITH wreck training would have HAD a wreck reel with them, and when they found 3' of viz would have run a line, not lost the wreck, gotten back to the anchor line, and ascended on it no problem. Had they NOT gotten back to the anchor line they would have also had an SMB and sent it up when they realized they had lost the up-line. They would have then ascended on that line, no problem. Also, someone with wreck training would have had a greater appreciation for having - and sticking with - a plan and their buddy.

So, you're right, the OP didn't NEED wreck training...but he sure could have USED it.

 

[BabyDuck]

first off, everything ended fine so please don't think things being said are bashing you. just about everyone has done most or all of these things, and things usually end up messy but ok, and you kept your head and now want some critique - the sign of a diver who can improve. just wanted to get that out there & give you some pats on the back for keeping your wits.

I had given him the standard “how much air do you have” signals

you know what? there isn't one.

yep, unless signals are *agreed on beforehand*, there aren't agreed-on signs unless you're diving with gue/utd/cave trained folks and know those or diving with people who trained with *your* instructor. and maybe these folks did, but still, there aren't any standard 'how much gas do you have?' signals. even worse, there sure aren't any standard ways to report the number. there are several threads on that, so see if you can find one. i was fairly new & diving with someone really new once & had *no idea* what they were trying to tell me about their gas.

yet another thing that must always be hashed out beforehand!