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Jammer writes: > Ken Wrote: > > >Your tanks should be marked so that both YOU AND YOUR BUDDY know what > >is in the tanks. ANYONE CAN MAKE A MISTAKE. Mistakes kill. If you > >screw up and are breathing the wrong gas at depth (50/50 at 110', > >wait, that's a bail out gas so it's ok :-), if your tanks are marked > >properly, there is a chance your buddy can notice it, see it, and > >save your life. > > > >Please don't try to tell me that you never make mistakes. > > > I'm going to have to think this one over (A slow process). > > Do your tanks have stickers that your buddy can read if he looks, or are > we talking about something your buddy can read from eight feet away, > hanging on a deco line in high surge? Your back is bottom mix. Nothing else. This way you know what's on your back. Stage bottles should be marked on two sides of the tank with 3" high letters running up the side of the tank. The primary information should be the MOD, so anyone, no matter how smart (or not), can figure out if you shouldn't be breathing it or not. I put a long strip of duct tape on either side of my stage bottles that say "110'" (for example) in 3" letters. If I'm feeling perky I may put the EANx down too (for my reference later on). Most important is the depth however because at 114' (or in a nice surge) I don't want to have to do the math to see whether or not EANx 31.9% has a ppO2 > 1.4 or not. This way from either side of the tank a buddy can read it, determin if you're breathing the wrong thing or not, and from a good distance. For tanks you have dedicated to one task (O2 for example) you could spray paint the MOD on the sides. > If the former, the tanks were marked in such a way that the buddy who was > on the trip with me could have identified them, she knew what the marks > were, where they were, and could have separated the mixes correctly. It's > conceivable that she could have done so underwater, but it would have > been quite an effort, the mixes were written in grease pencil on the neck > of the tanks. In this case, there was only one mix involved, no > switching. I see your point about switching mixes, and will have to think > that over before I switch mixes. I have heard a story about a guy who was doing a mix dive. He was accidently breathing the wrong mix on the way down. His buddy looked over, read the side of his tank, saw "190'" written on the side, knew they were at 210', and made him stop right then and there, drop the tank, and switch to the right mix. The diver didn't know he was on the wrong mix at the time. Now whether or not this story is BS or not, I don't know. However, if it is true, the diver who this happened to is quite an experienced explorer who has probably several hundred gas dives in the 300' range under his belt. If he can make a simple mistake like that, I'm sure anyone else could too. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ken Sallot kens@uf*.ed* (904) 392-2007 CIRCA http://grove.ufl.edu/~ken -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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