OP
It doesn't get a lot nearer than this
- Thread starter BrotherBear
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You should make a report anyway. At least it will be on file, even if it doesn't trigger any sort of investigation, so that a future infraction may be supported by this report.
Lurker here.
But I'll throw in my support for the idea of reporting the incident.
One day the outcome won't be so fortunate. It's best if this type of behaviour is recorded. Especially as you have the boat name.
Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2
But I'll throw in my support for the idea of reporting the incident.
One day the outcome won't be so fortunate. It's best if this type of behaviour is recorded. Especially as you have the boat name.
Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2
Doug - aka "Dogfish"
Registered
I would have descended.
simskiscuba
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Great respect for your thoughtfulness and restraint.
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SeaHorse81
Contributor
Very important, as Quero states, to make this data point available for future reference. If this guy has a pattern of doing this (which sounds likely), then two or three reports will reveal the pattern. If nobody reports it, he'll just keep doing it until he hurts or kills somebody. Even if his intention is merely to frighten rather than maim, he could miscalculate someday and get somebody when he really didn't intend to. If he's not actually trying to harass divers and is just that incompetent at piloting his boat, then that needs to become known as well.
If the driver of a car was doing this to pedestrians, would you report it? How is this any different?
I'm really glad you're both okay. Given the variables you had to deal with, I think you made the best of a truly bad situation.
OP
Doug - aka "Dogfish";6344357:
From my OP
If I had left my nephew to fend for himself this could be a far different thread.
FuzzyNutz
Contributor
To the people who would have descended:
What if you had no more air?
What if you lost your weight belt?
What if you had a blown ear?
What if there was any other thing preventing you to descend?
What if you were in distress and trying to signal the boat to you?
The point I'm trying to make is, I think waving a flag or marker of some sort is a perfectly suitable way of getting a boat's attention. Now wether this close call was intentional or not, we don't know, but who really floats there and wonders if a boat is trying to play whack a mole with divers?
I guarantee if the story were that he had no air to descend, and he was waving just his arms around, we would all be yelling how he should have had a dive flag and/or smb, and start waving them at the boat.
Either the captain of the boat honestly didn't see you, or he's a butthole!
What if you had no more air?
What if you lost your weight belt?
What if you had a blown ear?
What if there was any other thing preventing you to descend?
What if you were in distress and trying to signal the boat to you?
The point I'm trying to make is, I think waving a flag or marker of some sort is a perfectly suitable way of getting a boat's attention. Now wether this close call was intentional or not, we don't know, but who really floats there and wonders if a boat is trying to play whack a mole with divers?
I guarantee if the story were that he had no air to descend, and he was waving just his arms around, we would all be yelling how he should have had a dive flag and/or smb, and start waving them at the boat.
Either the captain of the boat honestly didn't see you, or he's a butthole!
Darnold9999
Contributor
As the operator of a 37 foot power boat lets look at the other side of this.
From more than 100 yards away in the open ocean you are invisible as a diver - even with a dive flag. If I am driving directly toward you odds are I won't see you until you are 20 - 30 yards away (depends on the boat but I don't have a flying bridge so even closer for me) - and that is if I am paying very close attention. Rough water or waves of any kind make it even worse. I have managed to drive over a 20 foot log 16" through that was floating just barely at the surface in relatively calm water. This in an area where floating debris is a constant hazard so I was paying extremely close attention. Didn't see it until it was 10 feet from the boat - too late to do anything but pray to the gods of bent props.
You are very hard to see swimming on the surface. Screaming will have absolutely no effect at all - none - I can't hear you. There is a reason boat horns are very loud. Waving a dive flag - good idea - making white water (swimming hard enough to splash etc.) good idea, unless there is a lot of white water around you. Anything that breaks the pattern in the water. All of this depending on where the sun is - if I am driving toward the sun then you are essentially invisible no matter what you do.
Descending is by far the best option. If he was coming directly for you from that far away just as likely that was his course and he never saw you as that he was aiming for you and was trying to scare you. A boat is not like a car it wanders on course so the amount that you can swim perpendicular to a boat's course from 100 yards away is well within the amount that a boat will track so the fact that it seemed to change course toward you while it indicates that he might have been aiming for you it is not conclusive - could have been just bad luck that the boat tracked that way.
If you are in a place where there is likely to be, or even the possibility of boat traffic - you MUST be able to descend at any time. Otherwise don't dive there. Depending on a boat operator seeing you is a bad idea. It might happen, but it might not, and while it would likely be the operators fault in a boat/diver collision the boat wins every time.
Glad this worked out - as you say it could have been much worse.
From more than 100 yards away in the open ocean you are invisible as a diver - even with a dive flag. If I am driving directly toward you odds are I won't see you until you are 20 - 30 yards away (depends on the boat but I don't have a flying bridge so even closer for me) - and that is if I am paying very close attention. Rough water or waves of any kind make it even worse. I have managed to drive over a 20 foot log 16" through that was floating just barely at the surface in relatively calm water. This in an area where floating debris is a constant hazard so I was paying extremely close attention. Didn't see it until it was 10 feet from the boat - too late to do anything but pray to the gods of bent props.
You are very hard to see swimming on the surface. Screaming will have absolutely no effect at all - none - I can't hear you. There is a reason boat horns are very loud. Waving a dive flag - good idea - making white water (swimming hard enough to splash etc.) good idea, unless there is a lot of white water around you. Anything that breaks the pattern in the water. All of this depending on where the sun is - if I am driving toward the sun then you are essentially invisible no matter what you do.
Descending is by far the best option. If he was coming directly for you from that far away just as likely that was his course and he never saw you as that he was aiming for you and was trying to scare you. A boat is not like a car it wanders on course so the amount that you can swim perpendicular to a boat's course from 100 yards away is well within the amount that a boat will track so the fact that it seemed to change course toward you while it indicates that he might have been aiming for you it is not conclusive - could have been just bad luck that the boat tracked that way.
If you are in a place where there is likely to be, or even the possibility of boat traffic - you MUST be able to descend at any time. Otherwise don't dive there. Depending on a boat operator seeing you is a bad idea. It might happen, but it might not, and while it would likely be the operators fault in a boat/diver collision the boat wins every time.
Glad this worked out - as you say it could have been much worse.
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