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Tom, While in Fiji this last year, I knew we were going to dive live boat in some strong currents, so I brought along one of those "dive alert" thingies that go on your inflator hose. I took some serious shit for doing so, since those devices are commonly associated with "weenie" divers. I had occasion to use that damn thing at least four times during the trip, when I surfaced, and found the boat (an 85 footer) looking like a dot on the horizon. Those alerts are really loud (just try testing one on the dive deck with a bunch of people around you). Well, each time, the boat heard my plaintive cry, and came to get me. I may have looked like a weenie out there in 3 ft. seas, but I was a happy weenie sitting on board the boat afterward... Of course, in the Solomons, seven of us surfaced after a very long deep dive to find that the kid on the panga had decided to go fishing around an island about a mile away, and had fallen asleep in the process. We were left stranded, and had to swim 400 yards to a nearby atoll to wait for him to wake up. No dive alert or sausage would have helped us there. We were all going to take turns kicking his ass when he finally arrived, but the divemaster was a local and said that he would take care of him for us later... Nothing would have helped any of us there. In the Galapagos, a boat load of dentists from Chicago (really, they were...) lost 3 people about and hour and a half before sunset. We saw them on their dive (one dive master for 18 divers, can you believe it?). Underwater, the dive master was more concerned about my partner, John, who was about 140' deep and issuing forth no bubbles (he was on a re-breather). We helped join the search for the missing divers who were adrift in 4 foot seas in water temperature of about 60 degrees. They found them just before sunset THREE MILES away from their point of entry. Needless to say, if those folks had had some kind of signaling device with them, they would have been working with better odds. Fortunately, the captain of their ship read the current correctly, and eventually located them by using his panga's as outriggers from the main ship (also, the divers were at least smart enough to stick together). I don't care if it is flares, dive alerts, sausages, or a portable Jet-Ski - if it makes you feel safer, but look like a weenie - go ahead and look like a weenie. I personally like to keep my weenie alive... Just my two cents worth... Kevin HeyyDude
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