What to do when your dive boat sinks?

[TMHeimer]

Yes, thanks. This is what I meant. I wouldn't go looking for my camera or my drybag with iphone in it. I'd want my gear - fins, sausage and all - to help me stay safer longer. I like the idea of grabbing the rig and throwing it overboard (making sure there's air in the BC first) if there's not enough time to don it all.

Funny - have credit cards for a PADI wreck specialty! LOL!

Yeah, throwing the whole rig overboard with BC well inflated is another thought, depending on where it is on board, assuming it's together, and you have enough time to sufficiently orally inflate. You can always don it in the water. Fins then become even more important, as most know how difficult it is to get anywhere when on scuba before you put fins on.
This is so funny---Many years ago I went to a site next to a park but had left my fins back in the trailer 40 miles away. I actually walked across the parking lot, beach and was a foot in the water before realizing I had no fins. What the Hell was I going to do--a "walking" dive??? Fortunately the lifeguards at the beach area had a spare pair to lend.

 

[txgoose]

Fins then become even more important, as most know how difficult it is to get anywhere when on scuba before you put fins on.

Which brings up another thought. If the tank was on the BCS, but empty, we could ditch the tanks if we intended to swim. I'd leave them on if we were only going to float and they were positively buoyant. If the tank was on but not hooked up to the reg, and assuming the regs didn't slip away when the kit was tossed in, we could finish hooking it up on the surface.

 

[TMHeimer]

Which brings up another thought. If the tank was on the BCS, but empty, we could ditch the tanks if we intended to swim. I'd leave them on if we were only going to float and they were positively buoyant. If the tank was on but not hooked up to the reg, and assuming the regs didn't slip away when the kit was tossed in, we could finish hooking it up on the surface.

Agree. Any of that works as long as it all floats.

 

[Russjstewart]

I imagine, but have never tested, that a bouyant tank would be pushing you face forward into the water which would not be my preferred option.
In any more developed country I would prefer one of the boats foam filled PFD1, it isn't going to go flat, it should keep you floating face up, should have a whistle, and probably a waterproof strobe, that will flash all night.

Having said that I have been on boats in Asia and the South Pacific, that looked they the pfd were not to be trusted

 

[John Bantin]

Once, in the Solomon Islands, our tinnie dive boat started to sink so we got into the water, went down and raised it, bailed it, climbed back in, and continued our journey. On my first sea dive after certifying, I went to 100', into a cave, saw a shark and passed the dive boat on the top of the reef during the ascent. Waited with other divers by the reef while our dive guide swam home for another boat. That's diving! I've written a lifetime of such experiences in a book: Amazing Diving Stories.

 

[Saniflush]

If it's a day trip and if there is time I am throwing my BC overboard and donning in the water. I usually already have my wetsuit on.
I contemplated the boat sinking when I was on a liveaboard last fall and always slept with a full set of clothes handy with passports and the like in my personal dry box that I could grab in an emergency.

 

[John Bantin]

When I was a dive guide on a liveaboard, we ran aground so often, I slept on top of the saloon table. No need to dress - it was the southern Sudan and Eritrea!

 

[Neilwood]

Depends on circumstances.

If it is an urgent "all hands on deck abandon ship" sinking I might try to grab my BCD and fins. That will make staying on the surface a lot easier. Passport etc can all be replaced and I have insurance for everything else (copies on my email so as long as, once rescued, I can get to a computer, which is pretty much guaranteed anywhere in the world these days) so a few emails/calls and I would be ok. Even if my BCD had an "empty" tank, it would still have some air/nitrox available so would be better than nothing if the seas got up.

If it were longer, I would try to grab a few things like wetsuit/drysuit, gloves, hood & driving license (plastic card type here so would be good for identification to officialdom on rescue) as well as passport & phone (assuming I had a way of keeping them dry) as that would make the next step easier but I wouldn't take too much as I don't want weighted down.

 

[John Bantin]

Having no passport in a country like Egypt or Indonesia can mean going to Cairo or Jakarta to the consulate to get it replaced - not very convenient! Sensible liveaboard skippers keep all the passports in a watertight floating container in the wheelhouse.

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

It is also advisable to stay near the boat if possible, easier to see a sunk boat than a person in the ocean. The boat should also have an EPRB (it is international law for passenger vessels) that makes finding the sunk boat easy(er).