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Diving Bonaire: Penance In Humility
Bonaire Talk: Diving Bonaire: Archives: Archives 1999-2005: Archives - 2001-09-01 to 2002-05-23: Penance In Humility
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Keely on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 2:35 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Right....the silt has settled a little & everyone has had a chance to lick their wounds since the damaging "100 foot plus" thread. Has irrepairable damage been done to egos & relationships or is there a glimmer of hope of reconcilliation?
I reckon that humility is essential for a few of us, if some of the hurting is to be eased.
Sooooo.....Do you have the strength of character to share one of your most embarrassing diving moments with the rest of us?
I expect an "offering" from every participent in Jeans thread. I do not accept that anyone of us can honestly say that they've not had one such moment (if not many). Failure to post one will be seen as weakness in my eyes, whilst those prepared to expose themselves as mere mortals, will be reveered. Of course, I'm primarily targetting those from Jeans thread but "howlers" from anyone will be welcome.
As I have the least to lose, being the subject of almost daily ridicule, I'll start the ball rolling. In fact I'm going to provide two of mine. The first is humourous. The second shows at best, stupidity. But there are good lessons to learn from it.
It was a beautiful Autumnal morning & we were planning to dive the Amberley, a cargo ship which sank a few miles off our Norfolk coast, some 30 years ago. As we launched the RIB (Zodiac to you, maybe?) off the pine tree surrounded beach at Holkham (It was the beach used in The Battle Of Britain film), it just felt great to be alive & we all chattered excitedly (well, some more than most) about the forthcoming dive. We launched the boat, found the wreck which was in about 70 foot of water & chucked the "shot" in. We were a little late & had missed slack water. The bouy attached to the shot line was being dragged under by the current & was planeing in the 2 or 3 knot current of the flat sea like a water skier. We had a 10 second discussion as to whether to abhort the dive or not & unanimously decided that we were "up for it!" Well you do don't you? After all, it was a lovely day & we'd had to get up at 5:00 plus there were all the usual trials & tribulations associated with every RIB dive. Of course we were going to dive!!
Space was at a premium. There were 8 of us on the boat & it could comfortably hold 6. We struggled to kit up & did a hurried Buddy check with the person sitting opposite. I was proudly wearing my newly aquired Diverite harness. On my first dive using it the weeek before, I'd found that the weight of my 2 tanks (12 litre plus a 3 litre pony bottle) had caused the jacket to ride up my body a little when I was diving head down. So, today for the first time, I had attached the crotch strap which was provided with it. In view of the current, Chris, nominated skipper for the day (well, someone has to draw the short straw) took us upstream of the bouy, so that we could roll in & drift back to the shot line to begin our descent. The boat was travelling at about 5 knots as Chris shouted "Go!" to the first four of us. I launched myself backwards, away from the boat & head first towards the water. Something was terribly wrong! Somehow I was still secured to the boat & was surfing along, my reg merrily freeflowing, with just my head & shoulders immersed in the water! I could't free myself! Mercifully Chris stopped the boat & the four who were still aboard dragged me back in with them. Well.....they all had tears of laughter streaming down their faces, but I just wished there was somewhere to hide. Yep, I'd managed to thread the crotch strap under the grab rope that ran around the top of the RIB's inflated tubes which we were sitting on, as I kitted up. My three "buddies" made the dive without me, the other four followed them & I was left to ponder it all with the smirking Chris, who just couldn't wait to get back to the Pub, we all frequented in those days, to tell the story.
There, surely yours can't be worse than that?
I've droned on too long. I'll post the more serious one tomorrow.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 9:39 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Andy....this is very noble of you.(Sir Andy from now on!)..and a wonderful Idea....I cannot remember a "public humiliation" I can share, as I try to keep as low key as possible..(I'm sure if Steve were here he'd have a few about me though)..I guess that is why I like shore diving...no one is around to see my entry and exit blunders....but given this chance, I would like to formally apologize to Niki on this thread from a mental vomit I made to her months back...I'm sure Dave remembers the thread....sometimes I guess we just type faster than we think...our typing teachers would be proud...but I guess it is a good thing that this is a message board and not a live chat....as far as the 100 depth thread I also apologize if I have said anything that has been taken in anyway other than good hearted fun...This board is great...(thanks again to Jake and Linda) and everyone that has contributed they are also the reason it is that way.....we all have alot to say...sometimes good sometimes bad...but that is what makes us all "unique", We (I) have been through alot in the past few months and whether that has anything to do with our high strung comments of late is a possibility. I hope everyone from that thread or previous ones that have left...will stay and continue to add the diversity to this board that makes it wonderful... Thanks for the venting thread Andy.....Have a good day all! Time to clean cages!
:)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Denise L. Kacavas on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 10:46 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

OK, here is just one of my embarrasing dives: My husband, son and I were doing a dive in a cove in Maine, fairly shallow - just planning to carve pumpkins uw as part of a Halloween celebration. As we were just starting out uw I could see that my tank was loose, we opted to climb up onto the rocks on one side of the cove to fix it. MISTAKE... the waves were throwing us on and off the rocks, and with a tank slipping I could not control myself in those conditions. The three of us looked like the three stooges flopping around on the rocks while everybody else was quietly uw blowing bubbles enjoying their pumpkin carving... Lesson learned; be thorough in checking out your gear setup before you enter the water...
And how many of us have actually forgotten our weight belts before jumping in, not me, but somebody with me a couple times - they just don't understand why they kick and kick and just can't go down. And once when about to do a night dive off the Divi pier I looked at my partner to check him out before we stepped off and in and asked "are you ready for me to check you over before we go in?" - reply "yes, let's go", my response "are you rally planning to dive without your mask?"

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cecil Berry on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 10:47 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Andy good idea for a thread, you did promise two stories. I only saw one, cough it up.

On stupid divers tricks, I've never done anything really stupid (it's not because I'm good, it's because I've been lucky and I'm still a newbie). The best I can come up with is the time I went diving without my dive booties. A wiser person would have aborted the dive, well I did have my garage sneakers (an old pair of Nike sneakers that are stored in the garage). Loosen the straps on the fins and off I went. They did work and I got the dive in, the only real issue was having these shoes in salt water, the smell was so bad it would hurt your eyes. Six months later and they still stink.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 11:10 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I think this thread should not include the obvious "stupid diver tricks" (all of which I have personal experience with - they say your experiences make you a better person, so I must really be good now):

- Jumping in with no weight belt (as per Denise)
- Descending with snorkel in mouth instead of reg
- Jumping in without fins
- Jumping in without one's tank valve being opened (e.g. no air)
- Jumping in without having checked your tank pressure
- Descending without priming your dive computer (for those that require this)
- Upon attempting to reboard a boat, handing over your Fins and BCD/Reg/Tank without handing over your weight belt first
- Doing a rollback entry for a drift dive and having your weight belt fall off upon contact with water
- Forgetting to put film (or charged battery) in your camera
- Forgetting to turn on your camera before putting it in the housing (for those that require this)
- Leaving necessary gear on shore / at home / etc.

I think that covers it...

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Peter Cabus on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 1:27 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I've got a "serious" one to share with you guys (and girls).

We were on a liveaboard in Egypt diving Elphinstone reef. This reef is very famous for hammerheads. Everybody was really exited. Instead of using the ribs, we were going to get dropped of by the main boat. "We": 18 divers divided in three groups.

The boat dropped us of, one by one, near the top of the reef (so we thought). We all descended to 40 metres where we were supposed to see the bottom. Keep in mind that none of us had done that reef before.

We went down to 40, no bottom. Down to 50 no bottom. At 55 we could not see a bottom, just hammerheads. We stayed there for a couple of minutes until the sharks dissapeared.

Now, where was that reef? We had been diving in the blue, without an exact entry point and the current was rather strong. I had no clue. To add to the confusion, the three dive instructors (CMAS 2 & 3 stars dive instructors), all wanted to go in different directions. The oldest one (most wise one in this case), indicated to surface. We followed. We surfaced safely and were rather quickly picked up by the ribs. They had started searching for us after they had realised that the current was completely different from what they initially told us AND that they dropped us of too far from the reef.

This is where the really stupid part starts. Some of us, including myself and my girlfriend, decided not to get on the RIB but to continue the dive.

To cut a long story short, we did make it back to the reef but no to the pick up point. We had to surface with almost empty tanks. The waves that really build up while we were down under, slammed us onto the reef before the zodiacs could spot us.

I cannot recommend anybod to crawl with full diving gear, on a mainly firecorral-based reef without gloves (gloves are prohibited in that area) while wearing shorties. It is not a nice experience. We all had nasty cuts and brouses. But luckily for us nothing more seriously happened.

What we learned from this. A LOT.
1. Make sure you check the current first.
2. If the dive does not go as planned: ABORT.
3. Never underestimate current
4. Never underestimate waves
5. Never drop 18 divers at the same time.
6. Take your bearing yourself before you go in the water. Do not rely on the "dive guide" only.
7. Know your dive site.
8. Don't dive in shorties and keep gloves in your BC if you are not allowed to use them.
9. Don't push your dive profile and air reserve to the limit.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linnea Wimberly on Thursday, November 1, 2001 - 2:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I was diving a live-aboard off the great barrier reef and supposedly the current was slack at the time. Normally we jumped in off the stern and swam to the anchor line to follow it down to 50-60 feet to start our dive. My buddy for some reason wanted to jump in and drop down immediately and swim to the reef. Well, there was a strong current running at a right angle to the boat. I have to descend slowly as I don't clear easily. By the time I got to 30 feet my buddy, who normally drops fast, was not in sight and I looked up and couldn't see the boat. I went to the surface and was 150 some feet away from the boat. I tried to swim toward the reef, but was by a cut where the current both pushed me away from the reef and the boat. I had a whistle, but no one could hear me. My buddy finally went to the surface at the anchor line and said "Where's Linnea?". At that time someone went to the top of the boat with binoc's and spotted me and sent the rubber ducky (aka RIB or Zodiac) after me. Turns out my buddy decided to swim on the surface after all and did not let me know. GRRRRRRR. Almost terminal stupidity - partly on my part for letting my buddy talk me into changing procedure and partly on her part for not sticking with the plan. If she had dropped to the bottom which was at 60 feet under the boat in her usual rock-like manner, I would been able to track her bubbles and join her and bottom crawl to the reef on the bottom and then dive against the current along the reef, which should have taken us to the anchor line. Most of my other stories are of the "no or little surf at entry time - kick *ss surf at exit time" type Calif. shore diving.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Friday, November 2, 2001 - 12:23 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

"But it's too soon to tell....Yes it's too soon to say....maybe someday we'll be able to wish you well...but right now...it's just......Tooooooo...Soooooonnnn....to....tellllll.....{sung to the tune of Bonnie Raitts "To soon to tell"
Come on.....we can all go back a notch....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Emily Wedin on Friday, November 2, 2001 - 12:32 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Ok, my first shore dive ever, and in Bonaire at Angel City. I'm a new diver and this was our first shore dive trip. There I was, all worried that our 14 year old daughter would have a hard time and trying to show her how great I was and so I geared up and headed into the water. With my fins on. Needless to say, I ended up on my back in the surf, unable to get up, floundering like an overturned turtle! The little waves and my laughter took all my strength away and my hubby and daughter had to haul me up:)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Keely on Friday, November 2, 2001 - 2:07 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

You alright, Meryl?
Patience Cecil. I said tomorrow, didn't I? Well, tomorrow's come, so here it is....

We were spending a week diving the relatively deep wrecks of the German high seas fleet, which were scuttled, to avoid capture by the Allies, in Scapa Flow, in 1919. (Scapa Flow is off the north eastern tip of Scotland, for the uninitiated).
I was buddied up with Chris. Having dived together regularly, we knew each others kit configuration well & shamefully our buddy checks would consist of little more than ensureing that each others drysuit zip was securely fastened & we hadn't forgotten our "Snappie goody bags" (edible lobsters & crabs are one of the major pluses of diving British waters).
Today, we were diving a battleship in 45 metres, The Markgraf. As we descended the shot line into the darkening gloom the enormous underside of the vessel suddenly came into view beneath us. The vastness of it was simply breathtaking! Despite having lain there for eighty plus years, it was still in extremely good condition, but had rather inconsiderately decided to settle on the sea bed, the wrong way up. There simply wasn't enough time to do the wreck justice & soon we were both into deco. This was no big worry to us as our training includes decompression diving. As the penalty stops began to build, we decided that rather than accumulate more, we would do a free ascent (performing our stops in open water) rather than spend another minute or two at depth returning to the shot line. All went well & we soon found ourselves counting off the required minutes of the compulsory stops in the top four or five metres of water. As any of you who do such diving are well aware...it's an extremely boring time. After the adrenalin rush of the dive, you simply want to get out of the water & talk about the experience, rather than while away what seems an eternity in the blue (well, grey in this case) with only your buddy to look at. With three minutes left to suffer I idly watched the pressure guage of my fifteen litre tank creep onto zero. I wasn't concerned as I had the backup of a full three litre "pony" bottle to switch to when my main tank was spent. I decided to suck it "dry" out of interest to see what the experience was like....would it just slowly become more difficult to breathe from, or would the air supply stop suddenly? It turned out to be the latter. I nonchalently reached for the ponies reg & attempted to take my first breath. Nothing!! I hurriedly swapped regs, thinking that I must have mistakenly got hold of my octopus. Still nothing. Suddenly it was obvious...the ponies valve had not been opened before the start of the dive! It was deep behind my shoulders & I couldn't reach it! Thankfully, Chris, who had been "hanging" a few metres away from me during the stops, saw my distressed state & swam over offering me his spare reg. What bliss...it tasted like nectar!
Now, there are plenty of obvious lessons to be learned from the above catalogue of errors (don'tcha just love the "ue" in catalogue?), but the following are a couple that hadn't occurred to me before.
When you run out of air (as above) suddenly everything is stacked against you. Of course, you can't breathe, but also to compound your problems, you will probably be negatively bouyant, because you've just emptied your lungs of what may literally be your last breath & can't refill them. Being negative, you start to sink & of course you can't inject air into your jacket, because you have none! When Chris rescued me, I had already dropped unknowingly to ten metres because I was preoccupied with finding a working air supply.
In conclusion, the above sorry tale is embarrassing to me in the extreme, but as I'm sure Kelly would be the first to agree...if it helps save just one soul then it's a small price to pay.

Right...now I'm going to give some of you the benefit of the doubt & assume that you don't check these pages on a daily basis but (& it's a very big, "but") if I return from my forthcoming two week trip & there's not been some serious input to this thread from some of you diving "heavyweights" (you know who you are), you're going to feel the cutting edge of my tongue. In other words...you'll be in for some serious verbal abuse.
You've been warned!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Walt III on Friday, November 2, 2001 - 8:14 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

OK Andy I have been thinking about this for a day so here goes.

After sorting through my adventures I have come up with the normal:

Jump in without tank turned on
Exchange snorkel for snorkel and descend
Look at air integrated computer 15 minutes into dive and realize it's now time to surface and turn it on
Jump off boat put on one fin and start looking for the other yes it's spiraling down to the bottom

I have avoided some of the other more common problems with careful gear selection:

Always use weight integrated BCD
Never buy a wrist computer have it on a hose
Load camera and check batteries the night before. Do this before Happy Hour!
Only buy top end housings with ALL controls accessible from the outside

The best I guess was while my buddy was getting back on the boat in Cozumel back in 1982 remember those old fishing boats they used for dive boats. All day trips with a BBQ lunch on San Francisco beach before the hotels were built there. Well climbing up the long tall ladder that bows out around the curvature of the hull "kinda like mountain climbing" she dropped her weight belt. No problem I'll just drop down after it I'm not going to pay for a new belt and lead. Down I go. At about 80 feet my Reg. kind of drags when I inhale. I check my pressure gauge and realize that on this dive I did take the tank down to 300 psi before surfacing now I have it down to 100 to 150 psi. Old Sherwoods don't breath so well below about 150 psi. Oh well time to forget about the dropped weight belt and remember how that emergency swimming ascent works. All this after an 80-ft dive for 40 minutes yes we lived by Navy tables back then. Survived obviously, did have to have some "large quantities" of decompression juice when we got back to the dock. Slept well that night and woke up with a better understanding of what my life was worth. A little more than the $20 lost weight belt.

Andy BTW it's possible you will have Jason on one side and me on the other during your stay. Very scarry thought.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kelly on Friday, November 2, 2001 - 9:22 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

"Andy BTW it's possible you will have Jason on one side and me on the other during your stay. Very scarry thought."

Scarry!?!??!!? The very thought of those guyz together (Andy too) makes most of Bonaire (sea critters included) plan their vacation NOW !!!!!! ;-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Friday, November 2, 2001 - 12:21 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Andy...thanks I'm fine...I was light-heartingly trying to make a point (bad one by the sound of your reply) that not many people were responding to this thread .....but after your last comment I'm sure this board will be buzzing...(I guess everyone knows now I can't carry a tune! more humility!)..

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Keely on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 2:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well...what a happy coincidence neighbours. I trust it's ok to call you neighbours?
An English rose between two thorns, eh? But it gets even better...amongst the rag-tag bunch of social misfits that I'm dragging along with me next week, will be my English neighbour!
I will contact Bert immediately & ask him to start work converting the under used Toucan Dive Shop on site, into a surgery/confessional chamber, so that it's ready for our imminent arrival.
If we could just attract Dave, Anony & the Jakartan, lean, mean, sandwich machine, we'd have a full appointments book for the forseeable future.
But enough of these distractions. Things aren't moving along quickly enough here for my liking &
I see little embarrassment in many of the posts above. You can all become spineless Anonys if it helps...but for Lord's sake, show a little guts & post something!
By the way...Jason (Cap'n Current) is your son, right, Kelly??

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kelly on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 9:25 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Andy, Jason is my baby brother who suckered me into diving many long years ago when I was happy motorcycle trash. He lured me with stories of awesome wrecks in clear blue waters, adoring tall leggy blonds, and warm tropical nites in paradise.

So if he told me all this, you can assume he will tell you tall tales too :-)

I am honored a number of my certifcation cards bear his signature.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Emily Wedin on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 12:14 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I dont know, Andy, I was pretty derned humiliated, pink fins flappin' in the air:)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 12:53 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Emily...just noticed your picture..what a beautiful bird...is he yours? if so maybe in another thread you can tell me about him...always wondered about the toucans!...Sorry Andy...my head is still bowed and I'm typing on my knee's getting ready for that confessional your constructing..

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Keely on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 1:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I'm impressed Kelly...a definite hint of humility there.
Sorry Emily, fair point. Incidentally I don't think Merlyl's going to be too pleased with you if she notices the way you're pinning that poor birds beak to the plate with your thumb, in your profile pic!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kelly on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 4:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Andy you cause me to repeat myself...., I am what I am. Humility has little to do with it, understanding ones abilities is more to my point. If you dive with Walt and Jason you may very well find your "humility", and they can't hold a candle to Mary.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 7:33 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Walt,

Interesting set of 'do's'. Two questions:

Does your 'weight-integrated BC' have a crotch strap? The one I used for 25 years from the mid-60's did and it was the great thing for stabilizing the BC and tanks.

Why not a wrist computer?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Walt III on Saturday, November 3, 2001 - 8:19 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I could leave a wrist computer anywhere, ON THE BOAT, IN THE RINSE TANK, AT THE BAR, IN MY ROOM, you get the picture! Just about any place other than where it belongs on my wrist while diving!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Keely on Sunday, November 4, 2001 - 2:07 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Now, don't go & spoil it Kelly. ;-)

Must dash...I've got a plane to catch. Looking forward to meeting you all there.

Walt......I just rang Amsterdam airport to order the crate of Duty Free Single Malt, but they told me that they've had "a run" on it & only have a couple of "miniatures" left. However, all is not lost as they still had plenty of Coke & Ginger Ale, so I'll bring them instead, OK?

Don't fret!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Emily Wedin on Sunday, November 4, 2001 - 6:04 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Meryl, I wish he was my bird! Just a friend I met on a day trip at a little restaurant/grass-hut resort called Clarissa Falls in Belize:)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Sunday, November 4, 2001 - 8:39 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Walt,

That's fair. The reason I have used a wrist mount since the SOS came out is that I know everything that has happened to my 'life preserver'--no one on a boat has dropped a tank on it, etc. Have managed to have mine with me for dives so far--knock on wood!!! It would be bad to have to abort a planned dive because of a forhotten DC, worse to dive with one damaged but seeming to work. Same for other gauges except SPG. The wonders of having a choice!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Monday, November 5, 2001 - 3:13 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Walt,

Finally remembered another reason I like a wrist mount DC over a console: most time diving is spent in a horizontal position (at least for me) and the console is lower than me. Thus the DC calculates for a deeper dive than I actually do. I know it is a small bit deeper if the console is restrained properly but why build in an inaccuracy, even on the conservative side???

Another safety cosideraton is that the wrist mount is much more likely to stay with me in case of an DCS incident and be available for a check on my dives.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Monday, November 5, 2001 - 9:23 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Glen,

All the reasons you gave are why some people (myself among them) dive with two computers - one on the wrist (my Suunto Mosquito, which doubles as a watch) and one off the high pressure port on my reg :-)

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dave Scott on Monday, November 5, 2001 - 11:09 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Good morning everybody. Good topic Andy. I have to say though, re. your first post here, I can’t understand why just having a rib secured to your arse would have caused you any problems, I’ve calculated that at your desired target depth, the rib would be but the size of a ping pong ball. As to the outboard, I just know with all those tanks and other stuff you dive with, you have a lift bag, so seems like it should have been no problem. As a bonus, you have your boat secured to you whilst you dive, cuz we all know that gettin back to where the boat was is a bad thing which is the hook for my contribution.

I’m pecking this out in word to paste later and I haven’t read the board in a day or so(pesky clients), so I don’t know how this will fit; and I sure don’t want to add any topics that make people foam up. With that said my tale took some thought, I’ve done a bunch of dives so I have many that could have done better, sometimes much better and a few dozen or so that shouldn’t have been done at all. This is one, let see it combines solo diving, deep air diving, an unattended platform(boat), in bad weather in a somewhat remote area. In short, its the kind of diving that begs for a catastrophic event. Its the kind of diving I enjoy however except for the bad weather.

Don’t try this at home; unless of course you want to.

Off Carysfort reef in a July, off a 17’ whaler I did the outside reef, which is very nice. No other boats, even better from my warped perspective. The weather was typical, some scattered squalls, 3’seas with the seasonal 10-15knot E wind. Carysfort is somewhat off the beaten path of the cow boats in Key Largo, if you get the chance you should dive it, its one of the best reefs left in the upper Keys. Things looked OK but not great, it looked like I had about an hour before some rain might hit. I dropped the hook and rolled in. When you do this kind of diving its nice to get back to your anchor which preferably is still attached to the boat. I keep my line fresh, use twice the anchor for the size boat and play out 3:1 scope, I hand set the anchor then clip onto the rode with a 500 foot reel. Off into the current I went and played out the cord. I wedged the reel into some rock and hung out within 60’ or so of the reel at about 90fsw. Nice dive. Time to go. I’m at the reel and the thing is stuck bad with plenty of tension, the line is moving away from the reef to the southeast, after some precious minutes of trying to get the thing free, it goes slack. Bummer.

The boat has broken anchor and I’m at 90 feet with a computer that just went into deco. So first things first- get to the surface real slow which took about 12 minutes in a 3-4 knot surface current, I’m way north of where the anchor was and I surface in the middle of a squall which came from the north, I’m drifting north, the boat with the bimini top up is being blown south east, so what do you do...off I go. To cut to the quick, after about a mile into this swim the storm passed, I came out of my BC and was able to get up out of the water enough on the top of the swell to just see the top of the bimini, I let the BC go and did about another two or three miles to the boat. I thought I was going to have a stroke or at least a cow. The gps recorded about four miles of drift.

The weather cleared, the wind dropped off and the sea turned to a mill pond. I anchored up back at the outside reef, after a surface interval of about 4 hours, which was mostly sleep, the second dive was much more relaxing.

Of course, worse than boat being missing from anchor is having the boat present at anchor, which is another story, but I thought I would break you in easy.

Back to work, hope all are safe, healthy and happy.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jean Frechina on Monday, November 5, 2001 - 1:05 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

"Salut tout le monde"
Dave. haha even Emily, can you explain why you are a beautiful dog who speaks like a dentist ??
Andy. good idea.this thread fetches a lot.
Jake. Can i speak about my experience ? ok. one day i have jumped in without my head. Fortunately, with my head on board, i can breath and see my mistake..hahah (french humor)...rmrmm...
Well... i go to sleep.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Emily Wedin on Monday, November 5, 2001 - 4:43 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

??ok...now I'm confused......No, jean, I cant explain...tell me why???

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem on Monday, November 5, 2001 - 9:39 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Ah, the old 'chronometers at sea for months' problem: when two DC's differ significantly, which is right?? I know what you would do, you would follow the most conservative--ok and good for a dive. But you don't know which is accurate, so what about the next dive???

After chronometers came in and before radio aids to navigation were available around the world (let alone satnav), ships carried three chronometers for that very reason. If one differed from the other two, the two were assumed to still be 'on time'. Accurate knowledge of position is very useful to ships (for charting new things and controlled finding of known shores) and that depended on knowing the time at Greenwich, England, from which point all the star tables were calculated.

So how many DC's do you carry? All alike, for absolute consistency?? All travelling at the same depth?? With one device, you trust it; with three, you go with two which have the same answer.

I do no-deco dives so I don't have a deco ceiling and one DC is fine. For tec diving, ???? Is there any history of actual failure statistics for current DC's?? I expect they are rather reliable.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:25 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Emily...look at Dave's profile picture....That should explain the dog....Jean Im not sure where the dentist thing comes in ....and where Emily is connected....but typing instead of talking does leave out alot of accent on sentence content. But we are all at least contributing to this topic which Andy has abandoned for swimming with the fishes.....I think he still is expecting more "visitors" to this thread.who had comments from the previous one..before he returns....Remember he did expect everyone from that thread to participate in this one....no matter how small the humility....Think of what he will wear if we don't!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 8:25 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Here is one from an acquaintance, Michael deGruy. He does nature based films for companies like National Geography and IMAX.

The story goes that he and a film crew were diving in the Pacific filming an underwater IMAX segment. They had just entered the water for a dive and began their descent. They looked up and it appeared that their liveaboard type boat was getting closer rather than further away. They checked their gauges and confirmed that they were still descending which meant the boat was sinking. The boat captain did manage to get off a call for help before the boat went under but about $75,000 worth of camera and film gear went to the bottom.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jake Richter - NetTech on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 10:43 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Glen,

Both my wrist computer and gauge computer are Suunto's (Mosquito and Cobra respectively) and use the same tissue models. So far I've yet to see a difference in the readings, perhaps because my wrist is usually at about the same level along a horizontal plane as the console computer clipped to my BC.

Jake

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Denise L. Kacavas on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 12:58 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Linda, the boat sinking is one I would not expect to hear from many people!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jean Frechina on Tuesday, November 6, 2001 - 1:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Jake,
there are two big powerful computers on my desktop to work hardly with complicated job (mmrrmm...)
Well, i never see their clock indicating same time !!!
Oo°(;){)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Emily Wedin on Wednesday, November 7, 2001 - 6:29 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Three more days 'till I have a weeks opportunity to add to this thread:)

ps: call me Em:) Emily is soooo formal

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Wednesday, November 7, 2001 - 12:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Em...will do...thats my daughters name too!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dave Scott on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 11:32 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hello gang, back at the home base. Looks like the board changed since the 100' thing.
Lets see, sir Andy is still in bon, Barry has left for what looks for good and we have Jean.
Jean, I shall continue in dentist speak.

Meryl, have a great time on your trip.

Barry, the comments in the previous thread speak for themselves.

I for one, want the hear some more pearls of wisdom and pasture pearls too.

Regardless, its your duty, we need the intel from Jarkata.

Sir Andy is it now then? I'll bet Andys next post deals with a flooded cam :)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 11:58 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

DAVE! you finally surfaced... was getting a tad worried....thought it was the Andy withdrawl....Thanks for the kind words....We really need to get Barry back...any suggestions....We miss ya Barry.....do I have to beg? Andy will not be pleased with the follow up here so we better "bunker down" for his homecoming.....I'm sure he expected more gut stories.....but Hey.....he abandoned us!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Meryl Virga on Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 12:10 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I do have a good story...not a scuba one but "stupid" none the less....I like the paranoid fool I am....suckered into this terrorist frenzy...ordered gas masks for the family....Well when they finally arrived we got 2 instead of 4 and their whole order was screwed up... we paid by check and they charged an AMEX card..which we dont have...plus 185 dollars for 2nd day air! Masks arrived 6 weeks after purchase order went in....anyway.....next day I took them out of the nice little khacky bags they came in and sat on my bed and opened them and started windexing them cause they seemed a little dirty...Well my sister call and asked what I was doing and I said...just sitting here cleaning my new gas masks....She asked why I would be cleaning them...and I told her well...they have all this white dusty stuff all inside....(mind you I have already put this on my head to check the fit..) but they were all nicely scrubbed by the time she called...She than began to say..."Mer...think of what you are saying...you are sitting on your bed with Gas masks that you shouldnt have in the first place....but you are not alarmed that you are cleaning "white Powder out of the insides of them.." Well urban reality...(or stupidity hit) and I had to hang up as I totally stripped down...and stripped the room and threw everying out on the porch...after an Hour shower...washing of everying in the room....walls...curtains....blah blah blah.... I got a hold of the company who told me it was normal packing material...but he would ask his "superior" just in case..... As Steve was leaving that morning for a golf game he said "would you get rid of those things...! people are gonna think your weird....well...I held back from calling Hazmat....didnt think he could handle that.....we have seemed to make it through the week and have been having fun looking like underground moles.....I'm sure this has to win the prize for best Humility story....or should it read Stupidity.....( more Steve material...)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andy Keely on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 7:07 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Well, over three weeks have passed since I threatened a verbal lashing to non-contributing diving heavyweights on this thread. Somehow I just don't have the stomach for it anymore & I'm going to close things with just a last couple of weak passing shots......
Barry it saddens me immensly that you don't have the strength of character to eat humble pie & admit you've been an ass**le. I'm going to miss reading your input as much as I know you would have enjoyed writing it.
Finally Kelly. I came so close to meeting you on the evening of Friday 16th when you were dining with Jason in the restaraunt next to me, by the Town pier. Jason ignores me (possibly unintentionally) everytime he meets me, so there was no fear of my cover being blown. I eventually plucked up the courage to announce myself & was edging towards your table, when to my horror I noticed that you were sporting an earring!
Well.....Mum had warned me many times about speaking to strange men, so I hurriedly returned to my seat & counted my blessings at this narrow escape. But seriously...I wish you well & hope your ear heals up real soon.
Enough. The end!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde Lee on Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - 4:29 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Sir Andy, don't close the thread yet...I just discovered it yesterday! Meryl, good story (I won't tell anyone I promise)...after the first anthrax deal our CEO wanted to hire a temp to open the mail so it would be "screened" before we got it! Poor temp!

I don't really have a good story (yet) but I have seen a couple of really stupid things...last year we were diving the YUKON (on it's side in 100ft water) in wreck alley outside San Diego. It was late October and the water was about 60 degrees. There were about 15 of us on the boat, and on the way to the wreck the DM did his usual briefing, they use steel tanks on this boat, and so he asked everyone who was using one of their tanks to adjust for the weight if they ususally had aluminums...getting geared up and I was waiting for Michael to finish painting his wetsuit on (he has to get a new one now, that one "shrunk")...anyway, this young lady was gearing up, she had a 3 mil suit with a nylon hood, hair sticking out the back and all. I thought, geez...she must be really warm blooded cause that water is 60 at the surface, and about 55-57 at the bottom! She gets to the gate and steps off, well, the DM suddenly jumps in after her, hat, shorts, glasses, shoes and all...next thing i hear is he is screaming to the captain for "help please!" They procede to drag her around to the back step, and drag her up onto the platform...dm is cussing furiously at this point about how much weight she has on...on the boat, her eyes are as big as quarters...she didn't compensate for the steel tank so had too much weight, AND didn't have her inflater hose hooked up on her bc...thus no air in her bc...so when she stepped off the boat, she sank like a rock...she stayed out while her partner went ahead and made the dive. by the time the second dive came around, the dm took off his hat, shoes, shirt, and stood behind her at the gate with a most discusted look on his face...

One more quick one...diving in So Ca the swells are usually pretty big. when you are on a boat, EVERYONE knows that you don't set your tank up on the outer edge of the boat, cause it ain't gonna stay there...but this guy did it anyway and "plop" over went his bc (wt integtrated), reg, and tank over the side! Anchor was at 140 feet and a kind gentlman offered to go and search for it...unbelievably he found it 15 minutes later...sorry i don't have any of my own at this point, but i am sure at some point i will have one to tell!

 


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