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>Yesterday a friend and I decided to dive the wreck of the USS Moody about 8
>miles off San Pedro light at Los Angeles Harbor; we located the stern
>section of the wreck and had a great dive to 141fsw for about 20 minutes.
>I did the deco on 80% O2, but as per the schedule called for on my Monitor
>II; my buddy did his deco per his Phoenix on air.  We both had been diving
>airusing 120 cu. ft. tanks.  Of course he was out of the water before I.

>After a surface interval of 2hrs and 15 min we went on our second and last
>dive of the day to 123fsw on a newly discovered wreck in the same general
>area. I was on Nitrox I (32% O2) for the dive and my buddy was again on
>air.

Just out of curiosity, how was your O2 clock?  A relatively deep air dive, 
with an O2 decomp, followed by a Nitrox I dive close to it's depth limit
would cause me to do some serious calculations on paper, but then I don't do
many Nitrox dives...

>Unlike the first dive the anchor line was close to the wreck but not
>within eyesite from the wreck although the wreck could be spotted from the
>anchor line.  We didn't take a compass reading before leaving the anchor
>line, but it was only a few kick strokes away from the wreck.  Of course we
>couldn't find the anchor line when it was time to return.

>1.  What can one do besides using a reel to make sure that he gets back to
>the anchor line?  Any other methods used frequently.  (Of course a compass
>reading would have also been helpful but it seemed so close)

What's the problem with a reel?  If you had had one, you could have searched
for the nearby anchor line fairly easily as well.

How about an emergency ascent line?  Marry this with a safety reel, and
you could have performed a search for the anchor line from your first deco
stop.

>2.  What choice would you have made?  Would you keep to the deco schedule
>and risk the shipping traffic and current? ( No one else was on the boat to
>see a "diver below" lift bag)

Yikes, once in your situation, it's hard to say.  Tie myself to my buddy 
via our john lines and do a search with one diver on the wreck, and one 
swimming parallel on the wreck?

>The Phoenix seems very liberal however and my all odds my buddy should
>have been "bent".

Perhaps he was, just with no visible symptoms.

Obviously, on this dive you did lots wrong.  Everything from an untended boat
(what made you so sure that the anchor line was even still there, no less the
boat?), to no continuous guideline out (a deco cieling is an overhead
environment).

I have read many scuba accident reports, and divers have died for making fewer
less serious mistakes.  Please, acquire and use reels (if you don't know how
to use them, learn on dry land, and practice, practice, practice).

You have identified most (all?) of your errors, so I won't harp (any more)
on them.  Please, learn from them.

>Harold Gartner

And Harold,
I respect the amount of humility involved in accurately posting what happened.
We have all made poor decisions as well,

craig

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