Stone
Contributor
Saturday, 3 May
It was getting dark over the coast, but we figured we had time for one more dive. The wind had died, and the anchor chain was just laying in a pile on the bottom (about 80 ft). I set the anchor by hand and we made a circuit around the barge. When I got back to the anchor, the line had shifted 180 degrees and was hung up on a barge cleat (obviously, we dropped anchor in the middle of a wind shift). We called the dive, but my wife had found a bed of flounder, and was happily using her spear shaft as a pokey pole. My third buddy went to retrieve my wife about the same time the anchor chain started up the side of the barge. I held the chain on the barge cleat until my buddies showed up. I knew the weather was threatening, and should have tied the anchor off to the barge. If the wind would have shifted 90 degrees instead of 180 degrees, we might have been following a furrow in the sand to find the boat.
Sunday, 4 May
After a great dive at about 85 ft, I left my gun on the reef so I could move the anchor away from the rocks. At this time I had about 1000 psi. I signed for my wife to get my gun, but she thought I was telling her to go back to the reef and shoot something. When she came back to the anchor without my gun, I sprinted back to the reef to get it. By now, my SAC is way up from filling my BC, swimming with an anchor, and retrieving my gun. When we got to the safety stop, I was down to about 200 psi. We hadnt gone into the yellow, so I could have blown off the safety stop if necessary, but Candy always has 500 psi more than I do at the end of a dive, so I borrowed some air from her. Even though it was about as routine as a dive can get, the high activity at the very end of the dive used up every bit of my safety margin in a couple of minutes.
It was getting dark over the coast, but we figured we had time for one more dive. The wind had died, and the anchor chain was just laying in a pile on the bottom (about 80 ft). I set the anchor by hand and we made a circuit around the barge. When I got back to the anchor, the line had shifted 180 degrees and was hung up on a barge cleat (obviously, we dropped anchor in the middle of a wind shift). We called the dive, but my wife had found a bed of flounder, and was happily using her spear shaft as a pokey pole. My third buddy went to retrieve my wife about the same time the anchor chain started up the side of the barge. I held the chain on the barge cleat until my buddies showed up. I knew the weather was threatening, and should have tied the anchor off to the barge. If the wind would have shifted 90 degrees instead of 180 degrees, we might have been following a furrow in the sand to find the boat.
Sunday, 4 May
After a great dive at about 85 ft, I left my gun on the reef so I could move the anchor away from the rocks. At this time I had about 1000 psi. I signed for my wife to get my gun, but she thought I was telling her to go back to the reef and shoot something. When she came back to the anchor without my gun, I sprinted back to the reef to get it. By now, my SAC is way up from filling my BC, swimming with an anchor, and retrieving my gun. When we got to the safety stop, I was down to about 200 psi. We hadnt gone into the yellow, so I could have blown off the safety stop if necessary, but Candy always has 500 psi more than I do at the end of a dive, so I borrowed some air from her. Even though it was about as routine as a dive can get, the high activity at the very end of the dive used up every bit of my safety margin in a couple of minutes.