How does a diver get left behind?

[Cali_diver]

You know I think being blown off a site is different than getting left behind. In most cases the dive boats are aware and looking for the divers. I take this question to be how does a boat forget or get mislead enough to leave a site completely without a diver... I have seen it "almost" happen twice this year on 2 different liveaboards. Both instances involved crew who were diving solo. One had a camera and the other was just enjoying mantas.

My buddy and I were the last 2 customers on the site which had quite a bit of current so the safety stop was in the blue. As we began our safety stop I saw our DM/guide hunkered behind a bommie watching mantas and he saw us. (We lost him during the dive after 15 min) After our safety stop we popped up and the tender took us back to the boat. Twice I said he was still out there and they just nodded. The tenders go back and forth so I figured they would go back. When we got back to the boat I took my gear off and kept my eye on the dive site. Eventually I saw his head pop up with no tender in site. I walk back to where the tenders were and they were already hoisting them up. I told them again that he was still in the water and they just looked at me like I was crazy. After a bit of hand pointing and repeating myself they figured it out. He was just getting picked up by another boat's tender when they got to him.

This was his first cruise with this crew so they were not used to him and most guides come back with their customers. This guy was in it for himself not his customers so I think it was easy for them to assume everyone was back on board.

The other was not with customers and off taking pictures solo, I can't remember how long it took for someone to figure it out.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

well if we are telling stories.. this is an old one...
The upgrade messed up some of the text..

Planktonic Diver

 

[nolatom]

Wouldn't the surest way to not be left behind, to make yourself "unforgettable"??

Tell awful jokes to everyone.
Advise everyone on the dive deck that you prefer to be addressed as "Jack Cousteau".
Brag about your Doria dives while clamping your tank onto your BC backwards..


no one will forget you!
though they will wish they could....

More seriously, almost all my liveaboard dives have been on Frank's boat. They have always logged you in as you climb up on the stern, and do a "welfare check " of every diver, personally, about 15 minutes after everyone's back aboard..

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

How does a diver go missing? How do they get left behind or how do they drift from the dive site? Certainly no captain sets out that day to lose a diver. I don't remember a single day in 18 years that I said to myself "I think I'll see how it is to leave a diver at the dive site today." None of my divemasters or deckhands ever said "That diver is such an a$$hole I think we should just leave them here."

I got left behind once, diving off of Quadra Island in the Georgia Straits between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The diving's incredible up there, and most of the dive sites are quite current-intensive. I was solo diving, and surfaced only to realize our boat had left. I drifted for about 20 minutes before being picked up by a passing recreational boater, who brought me to the dock where my dive boat was tied up. It was a short walk back to the dive lodge. I'm fairly certain the boat captain did it on purpose ... I'd given him some grief earlier in the day for watching me swim against current for 20 minutes rather than coming to pick me up (he claimed he was waiting for me to give him an "OK" signal, like he'd instructed us to). Fortunately, that *******'s no longer in business ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Dived in Bali, and got caught in a current at the tip of an island, by the time we surfaced we were some 500 m away from our boat and on the other side of the island. I had a diver alert plus. Set it off and although our dive boat did not hear it, another on our side of the island did and he realised what had happened and let our dive boat know, so he chased us in the strong current and caught us up.

Nusa Penida, by any chance? Something similar happened to me and my ex there back in 2001 ... came up on the wrong side of the island and the dive boat never saw us surface. We drifted for a while, hailed a passing fishing boat. They went around the island and told our boat, who was holding station waiting for us to surface, that their divers were headed out to sea. They came and got us ... by the time they picked us up we could barely see the island we'd been diving at ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kelemvor]

Mermaid0Sea and I surfaced to our ride driving away in Key Largo on a night dive once. The Silent World IV. It was a frightening feeling. I fired up my nautilus lifeline and couldn't raise them. I figured I'd give it a little time before hitting the red panic button. He came back for us within 10 minutes. There was another buddy pair on the boat and it turned out they got off the site and into some current and were going out to sea. The captain had gone to rescue them. Scary, but in retrospect I'm confident he did the right thing. The lifeline didn't raise him because the captain admitted he'd turned his radio all the way down so he could communicate with the other divers in the water.

I was on the Narcosis with Captain Dan this Sunday at Riviera Beach. It was the first "large" boat I can ever recall being on that did no roll calls. Neither before nor after the dives. Nobody was lost, but the roll call procedure is so common that I've come to expect it. I noticed immediately when we left the dock and they hadn't checked to see who was on the boat for sure. There was a list we put our names on, and waivers of course. I guess they figured the waiver was good enough. Otherwise it was a good trip. Liked the hands, don't think I actually met the captain.

Wookie, I don't understand what you mean by "the only thing that works is the captain." You state you don't like roll calls or dan tags. How does the captain know all the divers are onboard if not through one of those methods?

 

[Peter69_56]

Nusa Penida, by any chance? Something similar happened to me and my ex there back in 2001 ... came up on the wrong side of the island and the dive boat never saw us surface. We drifted for a while, hailed a passing fishing boat. They went around the island and told our boat, who was holding station waiting for us to surface, that their divers were headed out to sea. They came and got us ... by the time they picked us up we could barely see the island we'd been diving at ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Funnily enough yes.

 

[scubadada]

....Wookie, I don't understand what you mean by "the only thing that works is the captain." You state you don't like roll calls or dan tags. How does the captain know all the divers are onboard if not through one of those methods?

Several of us have described the system used on the Spree. You are logged off the dive deck when you jump (literally, it's a pretty good drop). You are logged back in by the DM when you come back aboard and your dive time and depth are recorded after you personally give them to the DM. Frank comes by a little later and asks how you feel and how was your dive. He does this with each diver, face to face. The logging in and out by the DM is among the few most thorough I've encountered. The extra check by the captain makes this the most complete diver tracking I've undergone. No roll calls, no diver tags, personal attention by two separate individuals.

At Ocean Frontiers, on the East End of Grand Cayman, the DM logs each diver back in by recording their dive time and depth. On the Jupiter Dive Center boats, the captain personally conducts the roll call and requires a direct response from each diver. The Spree is the only boat I've been on that does both, with an even more detailed interaction with the captain.

Frank, have you ever picked up a problem with a diver by conducting your brief post-dive debrief? Seems like a diver might divulge to you that they weren't feeling perfect after a dive

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Logging the dive time and return air pressure of each diver is pretty common on boats up our way ... particularly those that go out to some of the more remote areas. Leaves little room for misidentification ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[scubadada]

Logging the dive time and return air pressure of each diver is pretty common on boats up our way ... particularly those that go out to some of the more remote areas. Leaves little room for misidentification ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I think having the DM personally logging some combination of dive time, depth, return pressure, is probably the single most effective way to make sure everyone is back. Frank has a good point about the Captain being ultimately responsible, each Captain must decide on what satisfies that