What was the right thing to do in this situation??

[watboy]

One thing not clear to me, was the DM part of your dive team? Because if he was, even if there was no current and you knew where the reef was, you still had a problem when he didn't show up at the rally point. You got a missing teammate to worry about now and should not be continuing the dive.

I've had bad wreck days before at the Harddeep in the Gulf of Thailand. She sits in 30 meters of water in a channel, currents get very strong and visibility is generally poor. I've dove there about 40x now, one day I was on a charter with my buddy. As usual the [Annoying stereotype nationality that shows poor boat etiquette], hogged the dive deck with their advance students forcing me and my buddy to get in last. We descend the line, which is anchored to some concrete blocks just off the bow. Usually you can spot the bow before you spot the pilings on the ocean floor, but this time we saw nothing. Its not unusually for the blocks to move a few meters, but the Thai navy usually moves it closer to the wreck. We took our heading and went out 15 meters and couldn't find the wreck. Having lost sight of the buoy line, we head back, tie off a spool and start a search pattern. We found the wreck 25 meters away in 1 meter vis. We're already 15minutes into a planned 20min bottom time, so we abort and go back to the buoy line and ascend. We surface and our boat is gone, off in the distance picking up divers in the gulf of thailand. We found out later that half the other divers never found the wreck and were carried out to sea, the other half found the wreck, but had no way to get back to the line and were blown off the wreck. Don't be afraid to abort a dive.

 

[String]

Once the decision is made to abort its quite easy - let go of the line, send a DSMB up while drifting, ascend, safety stop, wait for boat to collect you. No sense fighting a current or hanging around like a flag - DSMBs are mandatory boat diving equipment in most places for a good reason!

 

[Phil_C]

+1 on right action - I know I can be a bit of a control freak but if I didn't know where the reef was, knew the dive plan had gone to c**k because the DM and other divers had not arrived as planned then I would not set off on my own. I would be concerned something had gone wrong topside and that was why no-one else had arrived on the wreck. I would be aborting and heading up to find out why. Discretion is definately the better part of valour - P

 

[Centrals]

When my buddy and I jumped in, we could feel that the current was pushing us out, the opposite of what the DM told us and the current is very strong. He threw us a line and towed us to the mooring buoys. He told us to descent while holding the mooring line (this is where the wreck is) and wait for him coz he will join us shortly. While descending to abt 15m we could still feel the strong current coz we were flying like superman but we continued down to the wreck. When we were at the wreck (24.3M) I checked my air and it showed 150 bar. Down below the water was calm. And so we waited for abt 10 mins but nobody came. My buddy suggested we swim to the reef but I refuse coz both of us dont know where the reef is.

So I call off the dive and both of us head up the mooring line to the buoy knowing very well that the monster current is waiting for us. When we reach the buoy we were still atb 10 to 15 feet from the surface. I used my SMB and attached the cave line to the submerge buoy and head for the surface. The boat pick us up when they spotted us.

The ONLY sensible thing to do and you executed it perfectly.
I would have done the same.

 

[drl]

Sounds to me like you did the sensible thing. Good job keeping your head in what must have been a scary situation.

 

[farsidefan1]

I agree, good job. Plan your dive then dive your plan. It sounds so easy but every plan should have a plan "B" and plan "C" option. Plan B is minor modifications you can communicate and agree upon with your buddy depending upon what you find. Plan "C" is ABORT. Mixture of plan B and C is perfectly acceptable and appears to be the course of action you and your buddy took. You got a look at the wreck then wisely aborted. It would have been VERY foolish to go wandering around looking for a reef which could have been anywhere (I agree with an earlier poster that you should have ascertained where the reef was in relation to the wreck as part of the dive briefing. Always ask questions). Searching around with that current waiting for you would have disqualified you for any attaboys You done good. 2 attaboys granted.

 

[blueaqua]

Sounds to me like you did the sensible thing. Good job keeping your head in what must have been a scary situation.

Yes...it was bloody scary....

 

[blueaqua]

I agree, good job. Plan your dive then dive your plan. It sounds so easy but every plan should have a plan "B" and plan "C" option. Plan B is minor modifications you can communicate and agree upon with your buddy depending upon what you find. Plan "C" is ABORT. Mixture of plan B and C is perfectly acceptable and appears to be the course of action you and your buddy took. You got a look at the wreck then wisely aborted. It would have been VERY foolish to go wandering around looking for a reef which could have been anywhere (I agree with an earlier poster that you should have ascertained where the reef was in relation to the wreck as part of the dive briefing. Always ask questions). Searching around with that current waiting for you would have disqualified you for any attaboys You done good. 2 attaboys granted.

Hahaha...thanks for the attaboys....been a long time since I last heard it. Cheers