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I think you would have to be nuts to do an extreme deco dive and not have a chase boat. That would be a real crap shoot. All it has to be is an inflatable with an outboard (and a full tank of gas, right Mike?). The Miss Lindsey out of Virginia Beach, VA has one, which is deployed with 02 on every deep dive. Jim Sender: A.J. Murphy Date: 5/12/99 10:41 PM >Hello Phi, > >Of the three NE dive boats that I have dove from, there have not been any >chase >boats. They are usually towed from behind only on Andrea Doria type >expeditions. >What they tell me would happen is this. I bag is spotted. It would soon >become >apparent if that person is doing a floating deco. I crew member would be >assigned to keep track of the bag, with binoculars if necessary. After all >the >divers are back on board the captain would retrieve the wayward diver. >I'm not answering for Maggie. this is just what I've been told. >Dive safe! > >A.J. > >Phi Le wrote: > >> Maggie, >> >> Thanks for the detail explanation, I just want to make sure I understand >> correctly the NE procedures. >> >> If any diver got drifted away from the wreck for any reason, the diver would >> have no choice but to do drift deco. Is it true that this diver is on >> his/her own then ? No chase boat will be deployed ? >> >> Phi >> >> > ---------- >> > From: Maggie Owens[SMTP:mmowens@pa*.co*] >> > Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 1:20 AM >> > To: Kevin Connell; techdiver@aquanaut.com >> > Subject: Re: Jersey ascent line ??? >> > >> > May I be so bold as to explain why this doesn't work for us here? I guess >> > the conditions topside must be pretty different in the Northwest. >> > >> > Many of the areas where we dive here see heavy shipping traffic. So if you >> > >> > do a drifting deco, there is the chance of being run over by a big ship. >> > Furthermore, conditions are often rough (not that we don't have many days >> > "as smooth as the glaze on a plate"). In heavy or even moderate seas, it >> > can be difficult to spot a diver's lift bag or differentiate a breaking >> > wave from a bag at a distance. In heavy swells, the lift bag can spend a >> > lot of time in the lower part of the swell, making it nearly impossible to >> > >> > spot from the boat. And of course in fog, it is hard to see much of >> > anything. >> > >> > The general practice here is to send a diver in to set and release the >> > hook. As I am not too experienced with either of these procedures (yet), I >> > >> > don't feel qualified to comment on why the wreck can't be hooked securely >> > -- or unhooked) without the assistance of a diver, but it seems like it >> > would be a difficult procedure. >> > >> > In any case, if there are divers on the wreck expecting to come up an >> > anchor line and the boat has gone off to fetch someone whose drifting >> > along, well, things could get kind of hectic, divers coming up all over >> > the >> > place, and the boat trying to pick them up without running anyone over. >> > >> > I think that the dive boats used in the NE tend to be a lot bigger than >> > the >> > boats used in many other areas. Many of our wrecks are more than an hour's >> > >> > ride from the dock. Combined with the often rough conditions, it is >> > obviously not practical to go diving off a small Zodiac here. Perhaps a >> > truly enormous dive boat could bring a Zodiac with it and use it as a >> > chase >> > boat to pick up the drifting divers, but as far as I know this is not a >> > common practice. >> > >> > There was an incident here a couple of years ago (I was on the boat that >> > day) where a diver (who was equipped with a line and bag) decided to do a >> > drifting deco for some reason I never learned. He drifted quite a distance >> > >> > -- about a mile I think -- and was picked up by a sailboat that happened >> > to >> > be passing by when he came up. This happened right around the time that >> > the >> > boat captain was getting ready to ask the Coast Guard to send a >> > helicopter. >> > Incorrect rumors of all kinds about the incident appeared all over the NE >> > dive community within 24 hours, and I think it was the subject of some >> > discussion on this list as well. >> > >> > Hope I've done the matter justice and not mis-stated any important facts. >> > >> > Maggie, who seems to be a northeast-wreck-diving-geek-and-boat-monkee >> > >> -- >> 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'. > ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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