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Raimo - how do you explain them taking you out diving:)? Raimo4252 wrote: > > I have dived the wahoo many times, and consistantly use the wahoo for training > dives with students and instructors. I have never witnessed the wahoo or its > crew operate in an unsafe fashion. Just my two cents. Raimo. > > << will....... worse safety record compared to who ? YOU ? > > this summer you may have heard the sailboat calling us when matt > ore did a 50 minute drifting decompression after his second dive of the > day . the dive was on the hilton castle about 90ish feet deep . matt > sent up no lift bag , was solo diving and ended up quite a way down > current (mild current ) . > drifting decos are not the normal method in the northeast , > occasionally someone may send up a lift bag and tie it off on the > wreckage if they can not find the anchor line or even just drift with a > bag on the surface > ... there is a good chance that if you do a drifting decompression > with no bag , safety sausage or other indicator that you will drift away > and the dive boat will not see you . next stop... england .... Very > dangerous > I commonly dive (taking turns with an other captain ) and spend > two to three hours under water , some bottom times are over an hour. > Many( most ) of my crew and customers do long dives like this too. so > there was no reason to assume that there was a problem when matt was > underwater for two hours. If he had tied a line off everything would have > been normal ( had a reel ). I even somtimes shoot a bag and hang on a > reel so my neophite customes wont kick the heck out of me , or drag me > off my depth on the way down for their second dive or when they do their > safety stop . > we have a" sign in sheet " like all the other dive boats here in > the northeast , and we check each individual person out so we can be > certain that everyone is back before we leave the wreck . just like > every one else here in the north east ( by the way the coast guard > requires you to check people on and off the boat even if they are going > onto land or on a dock )However we do not check air pressures( except to > be sure air is turned on ) , enforce no deco limit diving ( hypocrisy > every one knows we do extended range trips ),or force people to dive > together that don't want to . we just ask everyone to plan on being back > aboard at a specific time so we can get back to the dock in time for > ......fills , other charters , etc. > Matt had not exceeded the "be back aboard " time and other people > were still diving so there was no reason to suspect trouble . I think we > had about thirty divers that day ( a little crowded) > I think it is unreasonable to berate me or any captain for this. > If divers insist on sneaking away under water . The only control i have > over people is not to take them diving if they insist on unsafe practices > ...I cant tie a rope on each diver and winch him up when times up . > The other incident i think you are making reference to is the sal > nobel incident . This happened many years ago . We have taken steps to > make sure it cant happen again This is what i recall about the incident. > He kind of snuck aboard . we had two groups, three or four > people in each group. A light load for the wahoo . we went to my > favorite wreck the oregon , 80 to 128 feet deep .we stayed there for two > dives . since we don't take walk-on's sal claimed to be part of one of > the groups , each of which provided its own dive master. > several things went wrong to cause the incident to be able to > occur . 1) one person did not sign in ( this threw off the total count > ) 2) we asked each dive master if all of their group was aboard ( sal > was not in ether group ) 3) we did a" head count" instead of individually > speaking to each person and checking his name off ( the count was off ) > 4) sal did not return before the departure time , did not return to the > anchor line to decompress and did not send up a bag. He tied a line to > the bottom and decompressed with up tension on his line .( it got quite > choppy so we did not see bubbles ) SO we left .....about 40 minutes after > we asked everyone to be back . and sal got left in the ocean > ......fortunately a sport fisherman picked him up shortly after he surfaced > ... > What we did to make sure this never happens again is to ALWAYS > speak to each person and check them off our own sign in sheet . never > use a head count as a departure count , never take the word of the > instructor or dive master of a group that all there people are back, > Double check the sign in sheet count with separate crew counting to be > sure we have everyone . > I think the wahoo's safety record is very good , considering the > exposure we have . The thousands of divers we take each season , in > challenging conditions the open real ocean , not shallow calm clear > caribbean waters one mile off the beach. 99% of all the dives are in 110 > feet of cold water or greater. > > It is easy for people to be highly vocal critics if they do not > understand the scale of the operation . I conduct more man-dives in one > weekend than most small charterboats do in a season . William conduct > 10,000 man-dives in similar water and let's see your record of > incidents. >> > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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