Safety Questions for Remote Dive Ops

[Wingy]

I was pondering this question too waiting for a flight at Sorong. There is a sign in the airport window for helicopter callout/charter. Assuming the LOB you were injured on could get to an island where a chopper could land you would then need to be taken back to Sorong and evacuated to Manado which is (correct me please if im wrong anyone) the closest chamber. Even if you were close to an island where a chopper could land it would still be a lot of hours to help.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I can certainly say that my risk tolerance is lower as I age. A few things have happened through the years to bring the reality of not just mortality but deterioration of quality of life injuries may represent.

The death that triggered this thread and discussion was of a young person who was not as fortunate as us and therefor never survived long enough to learn the lessons.

 

[Akimbo]

Example of a well equipped Liveaboard and properly planned & outfitted Dive Expedition Charter:

MV Winward - Bikini Atoll - Lust4Rust Wreck Diving Trips

What a luxury. All the expedition dives I have been on used vessels of opportunity. We had to provide everything from gas supplies, compressors, chambers, spares, and how to get divers in and out of the water. Several projects even required us to arrange for lifting systems, mooring equipment, and a chase boat. Mobilization can be the most difficult part of the project.

 

[Kevrumbo]

What a luxury. All the expedition dives I have been on used vessels of opportunity. We had to provide everything from gas supplies, compressors, chambers, spares, and how to get divers in and out of the water. Several projects even required us to arrange for lifting systems, mooring equipment, and a chase boat. Mobilization can be the most difficult part of the project.

Yes it was "peace of mind" luxury and back-up (the onboard Recompression Chamber):

In-Water Recompression at Bikini Atoll 2013

 

[gypsyjim]

I had this discussion in mind on Sunday at Beneath The Sea, as I visited the booth set up by the op for our April Maldives trip.

It gave me some questions to run past their representative.

Questions beyond those I'd thought to ask when we booked a year ago.

 

[chillyinCanada]

And what answers did you receive, gypsyjim?

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Excellent and how did your find they responded? Did the seem put off? Were you pleased with their answers? Did their answers impact in a positive or negative way your expectations/ comfort level?

 

[gypsyjim]

Well the representative was more of a US agent, and not a hands on employee of Manthiri but he has dived with them. While he could not give me detailed answers as to their emergency plan, he did impress me with his comments on their level of safety and attention to safety concerns. His response did not leave me with the impression that he was just playing salesman.

Myself, I have never asked any of these questions ahead of time, but just read reviews from other divers, avoiding any ops with less than stellar reviews. I usually get a feel for the quality and attention to detail of an op when I arrive at their place of business, which I now realize might now be so effective on a live aboard, where I can not decide to use another op if I am uncomfortable with what I see when I arrive.

After we began this dialog I realized that there must be an awful lot of divers like myself, who are not involved in any way in the medical end of things, who might not even realize that these are important questions to get answered when visiting more remote destinations. Read the reviews when picking a destination or an op, have the better DAN coverage, and pay attention to my own safety before during and after has always been how I have operated, but I do see how there are certainly times that this is NOT going to be enough.

 

[h20_kat]

It is not enough to ask whether an operator has oxygen. It is important to ask how many hours of high concentration oxygen they can supply and find out whether it is enough to get to medical assistance. Also, is it on each boat or if shore diving is it on shore at the dive site. After experiencing DCS with an operator with no emergency plan and insufficient 02 I started asking a lot of questions before choosing an dive op. If they are safety conscious they will happily answer your questions. If they don't, forget them and choose another operator.

 

[NvScubaSteve]

I match the dives I do with the resources that are on hand. For example, we dove in the South Pacific off a little aluminum skiff, left unattended, and with no O2 on board. The proposed dive was within an easy swim of the shoreline, and max proposed depth was about 45 feet, and I thought the risk was acceptable.

I was a little more worried about our trip to the Socorros, where the dives were going to be big walls and known to have current. We bought Nautilus Lifelines in preparation for that trip, dove Nitrox, and kept our depths conservative (my hard deck was 80 feet for the trip). The boat had O2 and a radio, but it wasn't going to help much when we were 24 hours from port.

What are your thoughts on the Nautilus? I'm headed to Tubbataha and have considered getting one of these as a "just in case" back up plan...