docmartin
Contributor
on june 12th i went diving in pompano and ran into a problem. i am still not sure if i did the right thing. what do you think?
this was a very rough day on the ocean with choppy 5ft seas. i went with a dive operator i had not used before. besides me, there was a divemaster in training and the captain of the boat. he wanted to drop us on a wreck, the ancient mariner. currents were strong. i had never dived this site before. the captain had the divemaster drop a cinder block with a line and a buoy over the site. he told us to get to the line as quickly as possible and drop to the bottom before the cinder block would get dragged away from the wreck by the current. we both made our entry and i went straight for the line and started to descend. about 15 ft down i noticed the dm was still floating at the surface and adjusting his gear. when he finally started to descend he was already some 30 feet away from me and the line and being carried farther away by the current. when he was about to disappear at the edge of visibility i had to make a call of either staying with the line and the buoy or joining him. since he apparently had been struggling with his gear i let go of the line and joined him downcurrent. when i reached him i gave him the thumbs up signal to indicate that we should ascend. after all we had missed the wreck site and there was no way we could reach it against the current even if we knew where it was. furthermore, i figured the boat would stay somewhere near the buoy and the wreck whereas we were drifting away quickly and upon surfacing would be hard to see in the 5 ft waves.
the dm, however, possibly hurt in his pride refused to ascend. he showed me his gauge indicating that he had plenty of air and wanted to look for the wreck. this was complete foolishness because of the current that was carrying us farther and farther. however, i did not leave him but kept giving him the ascend sign. only after 15 minutes over a featureless sand bottom did he give in and we ascended. as expected there was no boat to be seen. i was furious at the stupidity. furthermore, my whistle was of no use into the strong wind. i inflated my sausage but had only brought a small one for this florida trip and it kept getting folded over by the strong winds. only from the crest of the waves could i briefly catch glimpses of the boat far away and motoring away from us. the divemaster carried absolutely no surface signaling devices. i had not been lost at sea before and must admit i was getting rather nervous if someone would find us in these swells. there were basically no boats out because of the rough seas. in the end, the boat captain after turning around actually caught a glimpse of my sausage and came to our rescue. i can hardly describe the relief i felt. the dm apologized realizing his mistake and thanked me for staying with him. he would have been in deep s$%^ without any signaling device.
would you have done what i did, i.e. stayed with a buddy that was obviously screwing up and putting himself and you in danger or would you have left him? sorry for the long post but i have been thinking about this a lot and would like some feedback. i do realize that i could have discussed a plan with him in case we missed the wreck but i guess the course of action in such a case was too obvious to me given the current and the seas and he was a dm (in training) after all.
this was a very rough day on the ocean with choppy 5ft seas. i went with a dive operator i had not used before. besides me, there was a divemaster in training and the captain of the boat. he wanted to drop us on a wreck, the ancient mariner. currents were strong. i had never dived this site before. the captain had the divemaster drop a cinder block with a line and a buoy over the site. he told us to get to the line as quickly as possible and drop to the bottom before the cinder block would get dragged away from the wreck by the current. we both made our entry and i went straight for the line and started to descend. about 15 ft down i noticed the dm was still floating at the surface and adjusting his gear. when he finally started to descend he was already some 30 feet away from me and the line and being carried farther away by the current. when he was about to disappear at the edge of visibility i had to make a call of either staying with the line and the buoy or joining him. since he apparently had been struggling with his gear i let go of the line and joined him downcurrent. when i reached him i gave him the thumbs up signal to indicate that we should ascend. after all we had missed the wreck site and there was no way we could reach it against the current even if we knew where it was. furthermore, i figured the boat would stay somewhere near the buoy and the wreck whereas we were drifting away quickly and upon surfacing would be hard to see in the 5 ft waves.
the dm, however, possibly hurt in his pride refused to ascend. he showed me his gauge indicating that he had plenty of air and wanted to look for the wreck. this was complete foolishness because of the current that was carrying us farther and farther. however, i did not leave him but kept giving him the ascend sign. only after 15 minutes over a featureless sand bottom did he give in and we ascended. as expected there was no boat to be seen. i was furious at the stupidity. furthermore, my whistle was of no use into the strong wind. i inflated my sausage but had only brought a small one for this florida trip and it kept getting folded over by the strong winds. only from the crest of the waves could i briefly catch glimpses of the boat far away and motoring away from us. the divemaster carried absolutely no surface signaling devices. i had not been lost at sea before and must admit i was getting rather nervous if someone would find us in these swells. there were basically no boats out because of the rough seas. in the end, the boat captain after turning around actually caught a glimpse of my sausage and came to our rescue. i can hardly describe the relief i felt. the dm apologized realizing his mistake and thanked me for staying with him. he would have been in deep s$%^ without any signaling device.
would you have done what i did, i.e. stayed with a buddy that was obviously screwing up and putting himself and you in danger or would you have left him? sorry for the long post but i have been thinking about this a lot and would like some feedback. i do realize that i could have discussed a plan with him in case we missed the wreck but i guess the course of action in such a case was too obvious to me given the current and the seas and he was a dm (in training) after all.