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hanaway@ga*.ne* wrote: >I'd been with someone else, it would have been two of us lost. I'd like to >hear thoughts on what "I'm over here" gear people carry to deal with similar >situations. Extra gear doesn't seem like overkill anymore. TIA, Tom I was misplaced on a drift dive a few years ago with 7 other divers, all experienced but none carrying any type of signaling device (apart from one pair of light green fins, slates and those plastic whistles on your BC, I had a cylume stick). I wrote about the whole thing in Sport Diving at the beginning of last year (for Aust. divers) and the rescue made it onto the channel 9 news (first item, must have been a slow news day :). We were eventually found by Air-sea rescue after drifting about 10 nautical miles in the East Australia current. Rather than going into detail here if you are interested I can email you a copy of the article I wrote, rather long I'm amazed Sport Diving published it!! Anyway now I carry a safety sausage on all dives and usually a cylume stick and torch. In the article I talked about some options for signaling devices and have since had discussions with people on either this list or SCUBA-L (I can't remember which) on the topic, I've also recieved material and comments from people who read my article. Flares, whistles, EPIRB type beakons have been mentioned already on this thread. From memory the beacons I have read about (namely the SEA-MARSHALL personal locator beacon, UK) have limited range and are probably unsuitable for instigating a search (insufficient signal strength to bounce a signal off the sattelite) they can, however, be located by searching aircraft from a reasonable distance. As long as people know you are lost everything is fine. Something that hasn't been mentioned sofar is floating flourescent dyes (such as SEAMARK by Paynes Wessix, Aus.) which mark your position with a brightly coloured slick on the surface of the water. This only lasts for a short time so obviously you would want to release the dye when an aircraft was near-by. Hope this helps, Simon Rules of Brachian Ultra Cricket: "...When a player scores a hit on another player he must immediately run away and apologise from a safe distance. Apologies should be sincere, concise and, for maximum clarity and impact, delivered through a megaphone..." - from "Life the Universe and Everything" (I think) by Douglas Adams ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Simon L Hartley o o Oo o Associate Lecturer oo o o Faculty of Resource Science and Management o oo _____ o oo Southern Cross University o (_/-\_) oo P.O. Box 157 ===(S) o Lismore NSW, Australia 2480 Ph: (066) 203 251 or (61 66) 203 251 Fax:(066) 212 669 E-mail: shartley@sc*.ed*.au* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.scu.edu.au/ressci/staff/shartley.html
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