Will the boat be there when you surface? And having fun making sure of it.

[djanni]

Will the boat be there when you surface?

How can you be sure? I had heard stories about people being Abandoned at Sea and I always said it'll never happen to me. But it did. Over in Near Misses and Lessons Learned there’s a post about my experience.

Having had that experience I can tell you about a lesson learned. Never assume the dive operator consistently employs safety standards that assure all the divers are onboard before departing.

Neither my wife nor I will ever ***-u-me (assume) that again. We need reliable and consistent safety procedures.

So we have a new 1st question to ask when interviewing a dive operator:
"How do you ensure all divers are onboard before departing?”

Since the abandoned incident we’ve interviewed 13 dive operators and I promise if you’ll ask that question the answers you’ll get will either:
1. Amuse you
2. Amaze you
3. Mortify you
4. Satisfy you

One of those 4 is guaranteed. One of the 1st 3 is the most likely.

Sure it’s easier to keep up with 6 divers than 20 yet people have been left behind when diving from a 6 pack. We need reliable and consistent safety procedures.

My wife and I will never dive with an operator who will not commit to a roll-call. You may not feel that strongly it but if you’ll start asking the question “How do you ensure all divers are onboard” it will send a message to dive operators that there is an increasing awareness that something besides a half hearted head count needs to be done.

You can have a little fun doing it too so write back and tell us what kind of reply you got when you asked the question?

 

[Bill51]

The best way to know the dive boat will be there when you surface is to clip the keys inside your BC before you go over.

 

[BrianS]

Not sure how hard it is to count how many divers you have when you leave dock and then match that same number when you leave to come back?

 

[DeputyDan]

Counts won't work.

Too much moving around especially with 40 + divers on the boat.

 

[Ana]

Counts won't work.

Too much moving around especially with 40 + divers on the boat.

Very true, 40 people moving around is quite a bit. However if you go in a cattle boat you will be treated like cattle, you think the cows gat named before taking to the happy place?.
How about using boats that only handle a reasonable amount of people, more than twelve pair of feet moving around my gear is not healthy for them or for me, and I'm including crew on that number.
Not having a decent way to keep track of the divers is just one of the several bad practices of those boats. Why would anyone patronize them?

 

[CIBDiving]

Counts won't work.

Horse Pucky! you count the dive teams off the boatand you count them back on .
By "count", I really mean Account. Every diver that leaves the boat is marked off a diver roster ( kinda like a in/out board at work) and marked as returned as they come up the ladder.

 

[wreckchick]

I've worked cattle boats and 6-packs. The most effective way for the big boats was to have everyone sound off a number. If we knew that we had non-english speakers or someone was too sick to count off, we would make sure to specifically see those people before departing. That was the final count, I would count tanks on board to see if we had any empty spots where divers were still out, check and make sure I couldn't see any snorkelers that looked like they belonged to our boat and the captain and I both did a quick head count before we did the roll call.

On the 6-pack, I just count to 6 (or whatever) after I've been assured that no one is planning to jump back in and the ladder is pulled up.

Rachel

 

[auberg]

I know this is going to sound stupid, but couldn't a laminated card with a number on it solve the problem? You hand out the numbers before the dive, and they are turned in at the end. If they are not all there, then someone is missing.

Please keep in mind, I'm very new to diving, and haven't done a boat dive yet. It just seems like a simple and cheap way of keeping track, and there isn't a language barrier.

 

[munkispank]

thats a good suggestion auberg, there are a number of similar systems used on some boats with metall tags etc. The biggest argument against this is allowing for them to get lost on the dive etc. But it is definately a way forward- I know a couple of liveaboards do similar things.

 

[jmps]

thats a good suggestion auberg, there are a number of similar systems used on some boats with metall tags etc. The biggest argument against this is allowing for them to get lost on the dive etc. But it is definately a way forward- I know a couple of liveaboards do similar things.

I fly RC aircraft and a system much like this is used to control frequencies. A board has each frequency slotted and while you are using it you either take something or put something in the slot based on the preferred method. Our club requires you to put your AMA (like DAN) card in to prove you have insurance. No card - no fly.