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Wrolf asks: >What is in practice done in Britain? How are conditions different, and how >do they affect the procedures? As far as the East Coast of England is concerned, conditions are very similar to what Wrolf describes, although visibility is sometimes worse than 2m. Diving in less than 1m is not much fun and I usually abort the dive if it's that bad. Some differences: We generally grapple into the wreck . The line is buoyed and the boat tied to it, so that the buoy can be dropped if divers need to be picked up or we are about to be run over by the Felixstowe-Zebrugge ferry :-) Depths off the east coast are not usually much greater than 30m so long decompression times are not really the order of the day. Usually we get 1 hour slack tide and 6 divers to the boat, so 2 of the three pairs are limited to 30 minute dives maximum - one pair always stays in the boat as safety cover. We do not encourage divers to routinely plan dives which involve long decompression stops. There is also a great reliance on divers to monitor their buddy's air consumption and make sure that they have enough air for any decompression stops that are planned. This is after all sport diving and most members would rather have a longer dive at a shallower safer depth. In the past we have not routinely provided spare sets of air for decompression - this is changing as the club becomes more safety-conscious. I don't know how widespread the practise of providing spare sets in the UK is, I can only speak from my limited experience of diving with one club. On the plus side, we always carry Oxygen and VHF radio, and the East Coast has excellent access to helicopters and recompression chambers because of the proximity of the north sea gas fields. Not an excuse I know. Divers carry reels and make the decision about anchoring them to the line when they get to the bottom. Sometimes it can be decided on the surface that a free ascent is OK - usually when conditions are very calm and the weather shows no sign of breaking. Divers carry delayed SMBs (Surface Marker Buoys) as has been described earlier. Some divers also carry lights, horns and/or flares. It is quite often possible to ascend up a lobster pot line to avoid a free ascent. Using a lifting bag for a delayed SMB is unusual, often because they have often been sent to the surface already with portholes, bells, telegraphs etc. 1/2 a :-), but because the east coast is fairly undived there is quite a lot of stuff to find. I can't comment on breaker lines since I don't use them. Regards Pete
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