Saw a near miss yesterday at Mukilteo's T-dock (Washington State, USA). There was a substantial tide swing that morning, so a strong westward current made things a little exciting. What follows is largely speculative when it comes to "reasons" but direct observations are my own.
A group of us teaching OW saw a diver with a buoy and SMB floating a substantial distance (perhaps 300 meters?) off shore during the strong ebb current. We speculated that it was a diver seen with a DPV on the beach earlier and that they intended to dive solo to replace a deep marker buoy at the site. They were already down current of the target position for the buoy.
We could make out that he was conscious and could see an occasional obvious kick when the fin left the water. With binoculars, we verified he was OK. After fighting the current for a minute or two, he wisely switched tactics and went perpendicular to it, headed for shore. We tried to make visual contact with the overhead OK signal, but I don't think he saw us.
He was now drifting rapidly westward. We thought he'd make it to the exit at Lighthouse park, so eventually a total of 4 of us went the 600 meters or so to the park to see if we could help him make it the last bit and/or provide first aid on the beach if needed.
By that time he'd let go of the buoy and SMB and it was clear he wouldn't make it back to the beach before the current carried him past the park. If that'd happened, I'm not sure where he'd have ended up, but I'm pretty sure he'd have to hold on until slack and then try to swim to the closest beach since the current was going to take him farther and farther from any shoreline.
Fortunately, there's a boat ramp at the park and a couple of boaters launching. We contacted one who indicated he was also a diver and recognized the emergency. The boater went out and picked up the diver. We could see him walking about on the boat deck, and at that point returned to our class. I figured if he needed aid, emergency services could get to the boat dock very quickly.
I'm not sure we could do anything differently. Given the high current, attempting a surface swim rescue would have just created two victims. (I had gear to do just this, but on the presumption he got himself closer to shore than he did.) I'd offer what I think the diver could have done differently, but would rather hope that somebody here knows the person and can offer their perspective on the incident.
A group of us teaching OW saw a diver with a buoy and SMB floating a substantial distance (perhaps 300 meters?) off shore during the strong ebb current. We speculated that it was a diver seen with a DPV on the beach earlier and that they intended to dive solo to replace a deep marker buoy at the site. They were already down current of the target position for the buoy.
We could make out that he was conscious and could see an occasional obvious kick when the fin left the water. With binoculars, we verified he was OK. After fighting the current for a minute or two, he wisely switched tactics and went perpendicular to it, headed for shore. We tried to make visual contact with the overhead OK signal, but I don't think he saw us.
He was now drifting rapidly westward. We thought he'd make it to the exit at Lighthouse park, so eventually a total of 4 of us went the 600 meters or so to the park to see if we could help him make it the last bit and/or provide first aid on the beach if needed.
By that time he'd let go of the buoy and SMB and it was clear he wouldn't make it back to the beach before the current carried him past the park. If that'd happened, I'm not sure where he'd have ended up, but I'm pretty sure he'd have to hold on until slack and then try to swim to the closest beach since the current was going to take him farther and farther from any shoreline.
Fortunately, there's a boat ramp at the park and a couple of boaters launching. We contacted one who indicated he was also a diver and recognized the emergency. The boater went out and picked up the diver. We could see him walking about on the boat deck, and at that point returned to our class. I figured if he needed aid, emergency services could get to the boat dock very quickly.
I'm not sure we could do anything differently. Given the high current, attempting a surface swim rescue would have just created two victims. (I had gear to do just this, but on the presumption he got himself closer to shore than he did.) I'd offer what I think the diver could have done differently, but would rather hope that somebody here knows the person and can offer their perspective on the incident.
