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We found a lost diver in a high current area like this one time. We were about to give up due to the hopelessness of the situation (11 days had passed since he was lost and we had played the current scenarios out) when we followed a pod of whales out for a quick visit. Two of us with scooters decided to drop down from this point and head perpendicular to the current back to the initial loss point and start one last search from there. We found his body almost immediatly. I mention this experience because it shows that the current may not allways control the search. His body was past the loss point perpendicular to the current and had not flowed with it. Aparently he had been separated from his buddies and continued swimming on the same bearing near the bottom until he met his demise (a cluster on many levels) and being grossly overweighted he sank straight down and stayed put. There is a strong chance they should be able to find the heavy guy. (this part doesn't apply to the WPB discussion so you can ignore it if you wish) Although this is sad and disturbing I'll give some of the other details we found. This was an overweight, heavy smoking, new OW diver (7th logged dive) diving an advanced site. He was wearing a grossly overweighted belt (55+lbs) with suspenders his dive shop suggested he wear (suicide straps) since his belly kept the belt from staying on and he was in a simple ScubaPro rental BC (15lb? lift) with a loose inflator/bladder connection. This guy should have never been in the water and the gear he rented completed the death sentance. It was preventable on many levels - a cluster in the truest sense of the term. His health should have prevented him from the training, his gear was dangerous in design and configuration, his choice of dive site was poor, and the BC he rented was in dangerous condition. I believe a lawsuit is pending. At 08:09 AM 1/19/98 -0500, Karen Flynn wrote: >G, > >Have never dove in the WPB area but I am very familiar with the Gulf >Stream currents in the Hatteras area -- and after a week in/under water >we'd be expecting the lost divers/bodies would get drug up by a fishing >boat in New England some place. Do you all really hold out any hope of >finding these guys in the WPB area or anywhere in the state of FLA?? > >Karen > >G Irvine wrote: >> (snip) we are rigged and ready with two of our own boats - the Grateful Diver and the Twister, several teams, multi scooters and >battery packs, tons of gas and rebreathers, all the toys, the safety >crews, the chaseboats and the strongest divers in Ft Lauderdale, and we >will give it our best shot the first day we get a good weather forcast. >> > >-- >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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