Divers rescued from Gulf

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The captain of the dive boat noticed they were FORTY MINUTES LATE?

Not 30?

Not 20?

Not 10?

FORTY?
 
It isn't like these part time dive boat captains understand what a probable run time is, and they don't teach divemasters to supervise dives any more, they teach them to assist classes. (I don't know what boat, who the Captain is, or if there was a divemaster) I'm seeing a disturbing trend towards fishing boats taking divers to fill in on slow charter days, taking them for less money than they would pay for a 2 tank on a real dive boat, and the captain has no idea what he doesn't know, and isn't insured to cover divers anyway. And, he has no divemaster to advise him because if he were paying a DM, then hed be right back at charging for a normal 2 tank.

See the recent fatality on the USS Mohawk in Lee County, FL.
 
It's not like the media has ever gotten it wrong before... I'll wait just one or two minutes before castigating the captain based on single media account. People are also commenting on the article calling for the DM's head saying he (?) should have kept the group together; I mean, rly?

Main thing is, the good news is the divers are safe!

---------- Post added June 29th, 2015 at 07:56 AM ----------

Fair enough - my post was written while you were writing yours but posted a minute after yours (IOW, it was not a response to your post.) I'm used to the NC charter approach where the DM does not supervise dives. That is different than fishing boats taking divers out without having the capacity to support them or an understanding of diving. I did not realize that was an issue, thanks for bringing it up.

My main point was that one short media account doesn't tell much of the story. Would be interesting to find out the rest of the story - hopefully we get to.

It isn't like these part time dive boat captains understand what a probable run time is, and they don't teach divemasters to supervise dives any more, they teach them to assist classes. (I don't know what boat, who the Captain is, or if there was a divemaster) I'm seeing a disturbing trend towards fishing boats taking divers to fill in on slow charter days, taking them for less money than they would pay for a 2 tank on a real dive boat, and the captain has no idea what he doesn't know, and isn't insured to cover divers anyway. And, he has no divemaster to advise him because if he were paying a DM, then hed be right back at charging for a normal 2 tank.

See the recent fatality on the USS Mohawk in Lee County, FL.
 
Frank's link is a CG press release. If the Coasties press release says "noticed missing after 40 minutes" then that's probably what the captain told them.

Consider that if they were 40 min overdue that probably means that every other diver who entered the water for that dive was back on the boat - for some time - before anyone noticed two divers were missing. Consider also that if conditions were such that the two ended up 6 miles away... the captain should have been even more vigilant.

I know that on the boat I crewed on we'd be checking the run time chart as people were due back and would have "noticed" someone missing the minute they were late. We would check to see if they were under the boat or on the up line. We would start asking other divers who exited the water recently if they saw the two missing divers during their dive, especially towards the end of their dives.

By 5-10 minutes late, if we didn't see two sets of bubbles on/near the line we'd be looking for bubbles elsewhere as well as scanning the surface for them.

At 10 min we'd probably put divers in the water looking for them.

I'm not sure exactly when we might notify the CG of overdue divers, but I can guarantee it wouldn't take 40 min to "notice" two divers were missing.
 
Frank's link is a CG press release. If the Coasties press release says "noticed missing after 40 minutes" then that's probably what the captain told them.

Consider that if they were 40 min overdue that probably means that every other diver who entered the water for that dive was back on the boat - for some time - before anyone noticed two divers were missing. Consider also that if conditions were such that the two ended up 6 miles away... the captain should have been even more vigilant.

I know that on the boat I crewed on we'd be checking the run time chart as people were due back and would have "noticed" someone missing the minute they were late. We would check to see if they were under the boat or on the up line. We would start asking other divers who exited the water recently if they saw the two missing divers during their dive, especially towards the end of their dives.

By 5-10 minutes late, if we didn't see two sets of bubbles on/near the line we'd be looking for bubbles elsewhere as well as scanning the surface for them.

At 10 min we'd probably put divers in the water looking for them.

I'm not sure exactly when we might notify the CG of overdue divers, but I can guarantee it wouldn't take 40 min to "notice" two divers were missing.


It looks like the "40 minutes" included a search by the boat before the CG was called out: they were 40 minutes overdue and could not be found.
 
Glad to see both divers were found 'OK' no matter what the length of time........
 
It looks like the "40 minutes" included a search by the boat before the CG was called out: they were 40 minutes overdue and could not be found.

Likely true, and who expects divers to move 6 miles in 3 hours, that's a 2 knot current. I have launched divers on the Wilkes Barre before in that kind of current, and had them stretched out over 6 miles, but even in 40 minutes, that's over a mile away. If they had an expected run time of 40 minutes to an hour, then the boat searched for an additional 40 minutes, and there is any kind of chop, you'd never see a diver from a 26 foot cat a mile (or even 200 yards) away.

My new rule (after that incident on the Wilkes Barre) is that if the current pulls 3 tuna balls underwater, you don't put a 4th tuna ball on, you call the dive and find someplace easier to dive....
 
I'm not sure exactly when we might notify the CG of overdue divers, but I can guarantee it wouldn't take 40 min to "notice" two divers were missing.

Sounds like the boat knew they were missing earlier, was doing it's own search unsuccessfully, and called the USCG after 40 min. What is actually going on in the boat and what a paper prints may be, and usually is, quite different. Reporting is now about the drama, not the facts.



Bob
--------------------------------
“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.”
― Mark Twain
 
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