Reset anchor with diver in water?

[matt_unique]

The captain should have made sure the anchor was set before anyone hit the water. Assuming this was the case, I think he should have picked up the diver. If the boat was about to run aground then communicate intentions with the diver in the water, make sure diver is clear, then move to reset anchor. If moving more than 100' away the diver should have been provided with a Diver Down flag system. As soon as the dive boat was more than 100' away the diver was technically breaking the law (depending upon the specific laws in your area). Obviously not the divers fault so that is why I say it was the captains responsibility to make sure he was set.

--Matt

 

[diver_paula]

Not exactly the same situation but I must say the following was one of the most confusing dives I had been on....

Several years ago my buddy and I were on our first dive ever to an upside down dredge in Lake Michigan. We were stoked because we dive an upright one in Lake Ontario every year and this would give us a better view of some of the mechanisms. We both had longer bottom times on the first wreck of the day and the same happened on this one. Our air was lasting much longer. Anyway, we were alone on the wreck at this point.

When we decided to end the dive we went looking for the upline to the buoy. This was a permanent mooring that the charter boats attached to at the surface. Guess what? No upline! & we had swam past it multiple times and were very well oriented with the wreck at this point. We kept looking for it thinking there's no way one of us let alone two of us are narced at this depth.

Eventually a crewmate scootered up to us and directed us to the NEW location of the permanent mooring. WTF!!!!! He had unbolted the mooring and moved it to a totally different location at a different depth on the wreck.

Like that couldn't have been communicated prior to the dive.

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
Eventually a crewmate scootered up to us and directed us to the NEW location of the permanent mooring. WTF!!!!! He had unbolted the mooring and moved it to a totally different location at a different depth on the wreck.

Like that couldn't have been communicated prior to the dive.

I've seen this happen a few times when we've been in a smaller boat tied to a wreck and a larger boat appears which needs the better mooring point.

Also at some dive sites the dive boats each have their own anchor blocks and some are more protected than others so in choppy conditions the boat will use somebody else's block until the rightful owner appears. In this case you come up the right line to find the wrong boat. Generally somebody will helpfully point you to where your boat is now parked.

 

[diver_paula]

I've seen this happen a few times when we've been in a smaller boat tied to a wreck and a larger boat appears which needs the better mooring point.

Also at some dive sites the dive boats each have their own anchor blocks and some are more protected than others so in choppy conditions the boat will use somebody else's block until the rightful owner appears. In this case you come up the right line to find the wrong boat. Generally somebody will helpfully point you to where your boat is now parked.

Yes, I have had what you mention happen. However, in this case the boat didn't move. The parking spot moved. There was only one mooring. The boat remained attached to the mooring but the mooring was moved to a new location on the wreck.

 

[diverbrian]

Depends on the diver. Many of the boat captains up here use anchors as little as possible due to the fact that they play heck on wooden wrecks if they hook them. Often on the few occasions that they do, they will send a solo diver into the drink to set the hook and then leave a solo diver in the water to pull it if necessary. Also, many of these boats don't provide divemasters and there is only one captain so the diver is a passenger (typically an "off duty" dive professional).

I have actually been asked to find a wreck for the group and shoot a marker so that we could dive it under similar circumstances. We then sent a diver down with a more permanent mooring line once my lift bag was seen.

As someone said if the current is ripping and/or this is a very new diver that we are talking about, it would have been advisable to drop in a dive buddy or pull up the diver first. If this was an experienced diver known to the crew that was acting like they were enjoying the swim, why waste the time? Get the anchor reset and go about life.