I like that!spatman wrote: you don't know what you don't know. keep learning.
How about, "You can't pretend to know, what you don't know. keep learning."
When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
How about, "You can't pretend to know, what you don't know. keep learning."
Hi, my name is Keith, and I'm a Dive Addict!
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
When Joe and I were told about a two tanker off of the Mark V for $55, we jumped at the chance. We were excited as ever as we both got off work, and headed to the marina. Neither of us knew where the boat was, and we were driving all around the shipping yards until I got a hold of Penelope to get directions. WE WERE EXCITED!
The plan was we were going out to the Omar and the Vertical barges over by Shilshole. We were both gathering as much information as we could about the site, but at different times, by different people. Knowing Joe isn’t the best at navigation, I made sure that he had a good site briefing by some of the crew, and the other divers on board. It was my intent to have him navigate the site and essentially lead the dive. We geared up and got in the water, excited to dive a new site. We had heard that there was line there, which ran in a triangular pattern, and we were also told that it was possible to follow the line from point A to point A on one dive. As we descended down to a huge rock, we could see two divers kicking off to our right. We swam around the rock looking for the line we would use to navigate by. At some point, Joe looked at me and shrugged. That was my cue to take over the dive, Joe was lost. I remembered hearing a number during the dive briefing, so using my compass I took a bearing and swam away from the rock. After a few minutes, the Omar came into sight!
For those of you that have been to the Omar, you’ll understand why we spent so much time there. That is a cool wreck. We must have swum around it two or three times. After awhile, two other divers joined us there, and almost simultaneously the four of us left the Omar following the line in the direction of the vertical barge. On the way, we checked each others gas, and considering the idea that we could see all three points on one cylinder we were still within our usable amount of gas. We spent some time swimming along one side of the barge, and I urged Joe to get off the bottom so we could conserve gas, and see what was along the top of the structure. The next time I checked my SPG, I realized that I had less than 1000 psi in my 119. It was time to go. In fact, we should have gone earlier, but I wasn’t too worried yet. Swimming along the line, heading back to the Omar I was closely monitoring my gas and watching it diminish by the minute. I signaled Joe to ascend some. It seemed to take a lot longer to get to the Omar from the Barge than it did to get to the Barge from the Omar and I started getting anxious. We ascend just a little bit higher, but now it’s tough to see the line we’re following. My gas is getting down into the hundreds and my anxiety is building. Still no Omar, as we ascend again. We’re somewhere around 60fsw at this point and the line is practically invisible.
From this point on, our stories may differ, but I was on the verge of panic and not very clear minded. I’m sure Joe will fill any necessary gaps. We've managed to ascend to about 30' and I signal to Joe that I’ve gotten dangerously low on air, and we’re going to shoot a bag, and ascend. So far still no real problems other than that I’m getting low on air, we’re in mid water somewhere between the Barge and the Omar, and I’m extremely anxious. Joe and I’ve practiced shooting this huge SMB before, and managed it without too much difficulty. I hold the spool, he fills the bag, and voila! Well, as I was getting it all together, I dropped the spool. So here we are, mid water, and there’s the spool unraveling itself below me. Joe dives down after it. I go up. He comes up. I go down. Our buoyancy sucks and we're bouncing around between 30' where we started, and 70' near the bottom, and now there’s loose line everywhere. Were task loading ourselves, I’m low on air and anxious, and things are adding up. Some of the line, hooks up on the bolt snap of my primary regulator. I can’t get it off so I quickly switch to my backup so I can fix it. Joe is maybe 20' above me and has his hands full trying to clean things up from the dropped spool, but he sees me switch and the way he describes it was that he’s never seen me move that fast underwater, and thought I was having a REAL problem. I am, but it’s manageable. I’m very stressed and breathing hard and finally, I realize that I’m down to the last few hundred psi that I can get out of this tank. I jettison the SMB, and for a minute, Joe thinks he can hang on to it, and fix everything. Once he realizes what I did, he does the same with the reel, and we watch it drift away. I show Joe my gas, and I’m working hard on controlling my breathing, and my buoyancy. We have to go Up! Joe gets a hold of me, which was comforting under the circumstances, and we manage to ascend slowly to the surface. According to my SPG I had less than 200 psi. As soon as we hit the surface, I’m apologizing. I would have expected Joe to be pissed that I screwed things up so bad. He wouldn’t hear any of it. One thing I learned, was how calm my buddy could be during a stressful situation. But then, it just depends on the day. We’ve shared that responsibility equally from time to time.
Attached is the true lessons learned, drawn from a few ESB's and whole lotta reflection:
Nakkin Notes
1. No dive plan when diving from a boat
2. Reliance on one or the other “going along for the ride” w/o getting any info/knowledge for yourself
3. Not applying knowledge. You know what you should do and how to do it, why are you not planning your dive? Air consumption? Rock Bottom? Turn PSI?
4. We need scooters to be safer. (I think this was Joe's idea, not mine)
5. Skills =Practice everyday basics! Launch SMB’s, OOA, buoyancy, Task Loading, Gas mgmt, Mid water
6. Arrogance. Joe is an arrogant bastard and Chris don’t like it. (Not sure how this applies, but we were drinking)
7. Recognize the approach of panic
8. Dive Plan requirements-time, depth, leader
The plan was we were going out to the Omar and the Vertical barges over by Shilshole. We were both gathering as much information as we could about the site, but at different times, by different people. Knowing Joe isn’t the best at navigation, I made sure that he had a good site briefing by some of the crew, and the other divers on board. It was my intent to have him navigate the site and essentially lead the dive. We geared up and got in the water, excited to dive a new site. We had heard that there was line there, which ran in a triangular pattern, and we were also told that it was possible to follow the line from point A to point A on one dive. As we descended down to a huge rock, we could see two divers kicking off to our right. We swam around the rock looking for the line we would use to navigate by. At some point, Joe looked at me and shrugged. That was my cue to take over the dive, Joe was lost. I remembered hearing a number during the dive briefing, so using my compass I took a bearing and swam away from the rock. After a few minutes, the Omar came into sight!
For those of you that have been to the Omar, you’ll understand why we spent so much time there. That is a cool wreck. We must have swum around it two or three times. After awhile, two other divers joined us there, and almost simultaneously the four of us left the Omar following the line in the direction of the vertical barge. On the way, we checked each others gas, and considering the idea that we could see all three points on one cylinder we were still within our usable amount of gas. We spent some time swimming along one side of the barge, and I urged Joe to get off the bottom so we could conserve gas, and see what was along the top of the structure. The next time I checked my SPG, I realized that I had less than 1000 psi in my 119. It was time to go. In fact, we should have gone earlier, but I wasn’t too worried yet. Swimming along the line, heading back to the Omar I was closely monitoring my gas and watching it diminish by the minute. I signaled Joe to ascend some. It seemed to take a lot longer to get to the Omar from the Barge than it did to get to the Barge from the Omar and I started getting anxious. We ascend just a little bit higher, but now it’s tough to see the line we’re following. My gas is getting down into the hundreds and my anxiety is building. Still no Omar, as we ascend again. We’re somewhere around 60fsw at this point and the line is practically invisible.
From this point on, our stories may differ, but I was on the verge of panic and not very clear minded. I’m sure Joe will fill any necessary gaps. We've managed to ascend to about 30' and I signal to Joe that I’ve gotten dangerously low on air, and we’re going to shoot a bag, and ascend. So far still no real problems other than that I’m getting low on air, we’re in mid water somewhere between the Barge and the Omar, and I’m extremely anxious. Joe and I’ve practiced shooting this huge SMB before, and managed it without too much difficulty. I hold the spool, he fills the bag, and voila! Well, as I was getting it all together, I dropped the spool. So here we are, mid water, and there’s the spool unraveling itself below me. Joe dives down after it. I go up. He comes up. I go down. Our buoyancy sucks and we're bouncing around between 30' where we started, and 70' near the bottom, and now there’s loose line everywhere. Were task loading ourselves, I’m low on air and anxious, and things are adding up. Some of the line, hooks up on the bolt snap of my primary regulator. I can’t get it off so I quickly switch to my backup so I can fix it. Joe is maybe 20' above me and has his hands full trying to clean things up from the dropped spool, but he sees me switch and the way he describes it was that he’s never seen me move that fast underwater, and thought I was having a REAL problem. I am, but it’s manageable. I’m very stressed and breathing hard and finally, I realize that I’m down to the last few hundred psi that I can get out of this tank. I jettison the SMB, and for a minute, Joe thinks he can hang on to it, and fix everything. Once he realizes what I did, he does the same with the reel, and we watch it drift away. I show Joe my gas, and I’m working hard on controlling my breathing, and my buoyancy. We have to go Up! Joe gets a hold of me, which was comforting under the circumstances, and we manage to ascend slowly to the surface. According to my SPG I had less than 200 psi. As soon as we hit the surface, I’m apologizing. I would have expected Joe to be pissed that I screwed things up so bad. He wouldn’t hear any of it. One thing I learned, was how calm my buddy could be during a stressful situation. But then, it just depends on the day. We’ve shared that responsibility equally from time to time.
Attached is the true lessons learned, drawn from a few ESB's and whole lotta reflection:
Fishstiq wrote:I think most of you have heard the story of Chris and I diving the Omar, when Chris nearly killed us both..... Anyway, about a week after that dive, we dove Mukilteo then went to the Bzz Inn for post-dive beers and bs. After a couple, we started discussing the omar dive, got a pen and a napkin from a waitress, and made some notes of the wisdom being imparted to us by Red Hook ESB. I came across said napkin today while spring cleaning, had a chuckle, and decided it might be fun to share with "our crew".
1. No dive plan when diving from a boat
2. Reliance on one or the other “going along for the ride” w/o getting any info/knowledge for yourself
3. Not applying knowledge. You know what you should do and how to do it, why are you not planning your dive? Air consumption? Rock Bottom? Turn PSI?
4. We need scooters to be safer. (I think this was Joe's idea, not mine)
5. Skills =Practice everyday basics! Launch SMB’s, OOA, buoyancy, Task Loading, Gas mgmt, Mid water
6. Arrogance. Joe is an arrogant bastard and Chris don’t like it. (Not sure how this applies, but we were drinking)
7. Recognize the approach of panic
8. Dive Plan requirements-time, depth, leader
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
I found a reel and SMB hung up at the barges over by Shilshole not too long ago.Pez7378 wrote:....I jettison the SMB, and for a minute, Joe thinks he can hang on to it, and fix everything. Once he realizes what I did, he does the same with the reel, and we watch it drift away....
There was a note on it that said:
"Chris, What happened? I waited and waited, but finally had to leave. Hope everything works out....'Joe' ".
...I like going to the chamber.. They have great food there, and awsome live music "H20doctor"
Check out the VIDEOS!
Check out the VIDEOS!
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
mz53480 wrote:I found a reel and SMB hung up at the barges over by Shilshole not too long ago.Pez7378 wrote:....I jettison the SMB, and for a minute, Joe thinks he can hang on to it, and fix everything. Once he realizes what I did, he does the same with the reel, and we watch it drift away....
There was a note on it that said:
"Chris, What happened? I waited and waited, but finally had to leave. Hope everything works out....'Joe' ".
Good stuff Chris! Thanks for that one!
I remember my first dive at Day Island, We entered the water about 30 minutes later than planned and thought it would be okay. When the current hit us, every thing went horizontal (Kelp and whatever else was floating in the water) My first reaction was, Lets Surface now!
. My calmer dive buddy, shhok his head "No!" lets go on the bottom, back to the entry." we wre able to stop a couple of times by hanging on to big rocks and catching our breath and continued in. Thanks Tom, for you quick thinking , Again. 
Lesson learned:
If you are at a current sensitive dive site, where you need to splash at a certain time for slack,
and you get caught up in conversation or take to long to gear up. Seriously, reconsidder the dive plan or don't dive it at all.
Hi, my name is Keith, and I'm a Dive Addict!
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pensacoladiver
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 1350
- Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:00 pm
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
I think it was my 3rd time out in the boat up here in this cold water, current intensive place!!! My buddy and I decided to dive PT Wilson Reef, just around the corner of PT Townsend in the Straight. I checked the tides and there was only about 6 inches of water exchange that day. Little did I know that 6 inches in the Straights can mean BIG trouble.
My wife was not up here yet, so we dove a dead boat. Need I say more.
Things were great in the 60 feet of water. Towards the end, I noticed some current and we both had no idea where the anchor was. Free ascent and upon surface, we notice the boat is about 100 yards away. Kinda far, but no big deal as I can swim that in a few minutes.
15 minutes later, after some VERY hard swimming, I am still probably 60 yards away. I was worried that the boat was slipping anchor and heading away from us. I kept saying that to my buddy, who would reply "Chad, that shit don't matter if it is or it ain't, we gotta get to it, but we are getting set"
I was seriously paniked. It was one of those days where the current was going out but the wind was blowing in and the weather was turning bad. After about another 10 minutes of furious swimming, I was spent and we decided to turn 90 degrees and swim to shore (about half a mile).
We made it and were right between PT Townsend and a park to the west. Long walk either way. We walked to the park and got a ride back to the marina. I managed to talk a guy with a sailboat to give me a ride out in his Zodiac. Of course, I was not used to heading out that way and couldn't see the boat when we exited the marina... panic sets in again. It was actually around the second corner, right where I left it.
Slept like a baby that night and have thought about it many times since. I think if I would have gave my buddy my weights and bailout bottle, I could have made it to the boat.. who knows.
What I have learned is, the is NO substitute for a live boat. I am VERY selective on which dives I will do a dead boat with.
My wife was not up here yet, so we dove a dead boat. Need I say more.
Things were great in the 60 feet of water. Towards the end, I noticed some current and we both had no idea where the anchor was. Free ascent and upon surface, we notice the boat is about 100 yards away. Kinda far, but no big deal as I can swim that in a few minutes.
15 minutes later, after some VERY hard swimming, I am still probably 60 yards away. I was worried that the boat was slipping anchor and heading away from us. I kept saying that to my buddy, who would reply "Chad, that shit don't matter if it is or it ain't, we gotta get to it, but we are getting set"
I was seriously paniked. It was one of those days where the current was going out but the wind was blowing in and the weather was turning bad. After about another 10 minutes of furious swimming, I was spent and we decided to turn 90 degrees and swim to shore (about half a mile).
We made it and were right between PT Townsend and a park to the west. Long walk either way. We walked to the park and got a ride back to the marina. I managed to talk a guy with a sailboat to give me a ride out in his Zodiac. Of course, I was not used to heading out that way and couldn't see the boat when we exited the marina... panic sets in again. It was actually around the second corner, right where I left it.
Slept like a baby that night and have thought about it many times since. I think if I would have gave my buddy my weights and bailout bottle, I could have made it to the boat.. who knows.
What I have learned is, the is NO substitute for a live boat. I am VERY selective on which dives I will do a dead boat with.
Last edited by pensacoladiver on Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
Thank you for that story, pensacolaracer. Diving off an unattended boat scares me in almost all circumstances, even the benign ones. I did a dive off our boat at the Bainbridge rock fingers, which is a current-insensitive site with mooring buoys. We moored, but my husband was boat tending for us. My buddy and I encountered very strong currents (probably wind-driven) that gave us a difficult dive, and caused me to fail to find the buoy line for ascent. We did a free ascent on a bag, but surfaced at least 150 feet from the boat. Luckily, Peter had been feeding out a current line, watching our bubbles, and we didn't have a long kick against the wind and current to pick up the line and get a tow in. Had we been alone, it would have been a much more stressful experience.
Current is powerful, and not our friend.
Current is powerful, and not our friend.
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
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pensacoladiver
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 1350
- Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:00 pm
Re: When good dives go BAD! Lessons Learned?
I take extra precautions now when the wife is tending the boat for us while on the anchor. The last thing I want is for her to have to haul in 100 feet of anchor line (more like 200 feet when we are diving Possession Point Ferry) while my buddy and I are getting swept down current.
If there is any chance of current at all and we are on the hook, I will pay the end of the anchor line out through the pulpit, bring it back over the deck and attach a larrge orange float ball to it.
If we get sucked away, all she has to do is untie the anchor, toss the ball over the side, and back away from the site slowly. the line will pay out through the pulpit and hang on the ball while she comes to pick us up.
It's a little extra work to get set up, but will be well worth it WHEN she finally has to come pick us up off the hook.
I have to give her credit through. when we are in the San Juans, we always dive a live boat (just too close to rocks to anchor) and she does GREAT with knowing where we are at all times and being right close to us when we surface.
If there is any chance of current at all and we are on the hook, I will pay the end of the anchor line out through the pulpit, bring it back over the deck and attach a larrge orange float ball to it.
If we get sucked away, all she has to do is untie the anchor, toss the ball over the side, and back away from the site slowly. the line will pay out through the pulpit and hang on the ball while she comes to pick us up.
It's a little extra work to get set up, but will be well worth it WHEN she finally has to come pick us up off the hook.
I have to give her credit through. when we are in the San Juans, we always dive a live boat (just too close to rocks to anchor) and she does GREAT with knowing where we are at all times and being right close to us when we surface.