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> From: "Don Burke" <donburke56@ne*.ne*> > > If I'm hooked to a wreck, I must have seen it and seeing > my depth guage is > unlikely to be a problem. > I don't understand this? How are you attached to the bottom? > Is not the reel in your hand and the bag on the surface > & you reel slowly up to the surface, completing stops as > required, with your buddy a few feet away doing the same? That would be on a "Jersey line" or one of the variations on that theme. I don't use them. I was running through the options. > | The real reason for the markings is to measure horizontal > distances on or > | near the bottom. In this neck of the woods (Norfolk, VA > area), sorting > | through debris fields at much less than 100 feet in about > 15 foot vis is > | quite common. I'd really like a decent system to figure > out how far off the > | tie-in I am. > > Why have you got to get back to the tie-in? What do you do > if the tide turns & you can't get back to the > tie-in? Getting back to the tie-in is secondary to knowing the distance a particular object is from that known reference. See above. To answer your first question, that is where the boat is. For the second question, I ascend. Screw the line, that's what a knife is for. Actually, I don't like not coming up the same line as everyone else so I get familiar with what the current is likely to do. > don't you use 1/3rds as the distance limit? How about if I find four interesting objects about 150 feet off the wreck on various bearings? With less than 20 feet of vis and any current at all, that can get pretty complicated. In any case, I don't remember the last time I made a dive where gas pressure was useful for navigation. I may never have made one. The cavers may do it all the time. > I can't see myself using such a system. Why no support > divers? > > My buddy is the support diver. Now I _really_ don't like it. One of the things I want is a "gofer", not someone on the same profile as I am. > Using the yellow bag is just > one option, in the situation that the O2 has failed. > I could also do one of the following: > carry on the 50% & adjust the stop times. > wait for buddy to finish their 20' stop then use their O2. I still prefer support divers. > | As far as the scenario of drifting, lost, blind, low on > gas with a deco > | obligation, no support divers, lost buddy, and a bum depth > guage goes, (or a > | combination of three or four of these things) perhaps the > gene pool would be > | better off if I didn't survive a dive I planned so well. > If I survived, the > | boat would probably get hit by a meteor anyway. :) > > > I was questioning the validity of putting marks on the line, > or worst still, introducing a failure point (adding knots > which *could* jam a reel). I was referring to the total buildup of redundancy in this thread. See my reference to "Chicken Little" factors. > We have been diving the DSMB/reel system in the UK for > years. We don't seem to have the incidents that you guys > have with deep wreck diving in cold tidal waters. Independent doubles were used for years. Longevity doesn't make something a good idea. Didn't you _just_ lose three people wreck diving in the Firth of Forth? The incidents rarely happen on dives with a proper structure. In Chowdhury's "The Last Dive", it is pretty clear some tech trips are just an overequipped version of a 30 foot reef dive in the Bahamas. That's what kills people. Most of the incidents are solo and most of the rest are a single buddy team on independent ops. > There again, we don't send people down the line, solo, to > tie a line to the wreck Only a few of the tech boats over here do that. They get away with it most of the time. :) (our skippers are able to single > handedly 'shot' the wreck & recover it again after the dive) All the captains I have gone with can hook a wreck with someone on the bow to tend the anchor. I've never seen a boat over about 25 feet where the captain can set an anchor for safe diving by himself. I've had anchors slip too many times to bet my life on one. They often take a chunk of wreck with them. > We also avoid ladders - preferring hydraulic lifts, to save > stress on exiting the water That must be a heck of a boat. If I'm too heavy for the ladder, I tie off some stuff and get it later. If the boat is about to leave, there are plenty of people standing around to help since they want to go to. The stuff can sit on the deck while I get a little breather. Don NetZero Platinum No Banner Ads and Unlimited Access Sign Up Today - Only $9.95 per month! http://www.netzero.net -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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