dumb dumb dumb (long)

Everyone warns about getting complacent. Today it was my turn to get caught out on a stupid mistake. It's a nice example of what can happen so I'll post it and endure the punishment.

The plan was to make a 30m (100ft) dive on EAN32. We do these dives without the computer and plan everything ahead of time to keep in practice for diving on the North Sea. I usually dive these with two friends of mine who are also dive masters. We alternate preparing the planning and leading the dive and today it was my turn.

Todays plan (in the rough) was to descend to 30m along a wall that extends to 45m to spend 25 min or so at 30m and then ascend to 15 for 10 and 5 for min 5 and stop. On air it's a little over the NDL's but on EAN32 it's well within the boundaries and it's a nice simulation of what you get on North Sea wrecks. We planned a 25% air reserve.

The site we chose, however, was very busy. An entire club of divers from Belgium showed up. About 50 divers. I talked to them for a few minutes thinking if they were diving shallow then we wouldn't have much interference from them but they were planning on diving anything from 15 to 40 metres in pairs, not groups.

So my buddies and I decided to go elsewhere. We drove to another site about 5km futher away. This site goes to 40m so our 30m dive could still go ahead. We were getting pretty close to slack tide because we had changed locations so we dressed up and got in the water in a hurry. We would use the same planning just the site was different.

Site #2 is known for very light currents, even outside of slack, so we weren't worried. We would swim into the current for the first part of the dive at 30m, then turn and ascend along the sloping shoreline to 15 meters and drift back. The bottom at this site is V shaped and you need to ascend along the shoreline because it borders on a very busy shipping lane and ascending in the shipping lane is pretty much suicide. Visibility was about 3 metres on the surface. That's about average here.

So there we went. Off to 30 meters. The current was a little stronger than I we had anticipated but it was still relatively easy to swim into it. Aftre about 15 minutes, the current really started to pick up. The tide had changed and although this site wasn't known for strong currents we were getting them today. I started wondering if I should turn the dive at about 15 min. A little indecision and not wanting to look like a pansy put us at about 18 min before I called it. At that point we were at 28metres. We turned, I check depth still 28 metres (90-odd ft) but the current was really picking up. looked around and I couldn't see the sloping side of the shoreline anymore. The viz had been reduced by the silt flying off the bottom. Checked depth again. 31.5 metres.


We were getting flushed into the middle of the shipping lane.

I knew what was happening but none of us could hump into it. Quick look at my buddies. Everyone ok. One "OK", one "too deep". Check depth. still 31.5 metres no progress towards the shore. Current still picking up. I've never seen the current do this before but I hear about them. But this always happens to other people. Right?

Time 20 min. Meanwhile we've reached 32 metres. Still not getting anywhere. We need to leave the bottom. 20 min is my contingency for going beyond 30 metres and we need to stay on plan because we don't have a computer to ride up even if we find the sloping side. I'm starting to worry about how long it's going to take to get out of the shipping lane.

Make mid-water ascent to 15 metres (second leg). We can stay at this depth for 71 minutes. The current us much lighter here. Check air. Myself and one buddy have 120 bar (1700) and the other is at 90 (1300). That's a bit of a worry. I don't know how far out we are and we have about 30 min of air.

It should only be a 5 min swim to the shoreline but...... with these currents there was all kinds of silt and what not floating past. It makes you feel like you're always turning and you can end up swimming in circles. And we were at 15 metres with 3 metres of viz. No reference. So I started swimming. One eye on depth one eye on compass. Buddy #1 (90 bar) swam next to me and buddy #2 had taken up the rear and was swimming at 18 metres to see if he could see the bottom. I had set my compass before we went in the water so I new which way the shore was but with the current we were mostly swimming parallel to shore. I figured on about 10 min to reach the bottom at 15 metres.

5 min. No sign of the bottom. Buddy #1 now at 70 bar.

10 min. No sign of bottom. Buddy #1 now at 50 bar and pointing at spg.

We ascend to 10 metres to save air. I don't dare go any shallower in the shipping lane. Buddy #2 ascends just enough to not lose track of us. I'm starting to feel a little insecure about navigating out of this. I want someone else to take over but I know in my head that I can do it better. (that's not supposed to be arrogant, it's just a fact)

15 min no sign of bottom. Still at 10 metres. Buddy #1 now hitting his spg with his fist. I give "OK" and "CALM!". But I don't feel calm. I'm scared. I have no idea how far out we are. Buddy #1 told me after the dive that he never felt lost. He calls me "the homing pigeon" because I can navigate blindfolded better than most people can do it with a compass. I wish *I* had so much confidence in my ability. I felt lost.

20 min no sign of bottom. Buddy #1 now holding on to my bcd ready to take my alternate (longhose). Rob (that's me) doesn't notice. He is concentrating on depth and talking to himself "trust your compass" "trust your compass" "trust your compass". My breathing rate was getting alarmingly high. I was quickly catching up to Buddy #1 in air usage. About then Buddy #2 flashes me with his light and signs "bottom".

Rob is happy. Very VERY happy. We're out of the shipping lane.

Buddy #1 has 30 bar (430 psi). Rob has 50. Buddy #2 has 90.

We make a 5 min stop at 5 min and then finish the dive.

On the surface Buddy #1 says "Rob, how's your adrenaline level because MINE IS PEGGED!!!"

R..

<ok - bring it on>

as one of my college professors always said...."Better to ask stupid question, than to make a stupid mistake...and Better an alive chicken than a dead hero"......

That said..(hehe don't know which applies here) , I think you should have turned when you first had your feeling of something "wrong"....Other than that IMHO I think handled the situation as best as possible, and as safe as possible......

Glad you are here to keep posting.....

Thank you for posting your account. We can all learn from these things.

I only have two criticisms.

First, and maybe you have an excellent reason for this, I think that when the current picked up you should have ascended to the minimum safe depth. This would have given you more time and possible less current.

Of course it may have meant more current as well...I don't know that site, so maybe your decision was right.

The other criticism has to do with dive planning. I think that planning the dive is fine, but you should have a good idea of what to do under any circumstances. This may require carrying a set of tables. I don't like computers, but another short term quick fix would be to throw a computer in your pocket.

Another thing to consider is that if you can't ascend in the shipping lane, then you are effectively diving in an overhead environment. This may require different planning, such as redundant air supply and rules of thirds (or better).

I don't know if the dive was planned so the deep part is in the shipping lane, or if you got swept into it...although it sounds like the latter. I suppose in that case the dive was not planned as overhead.

You may also want to consider carrying a waterproof VHF in an airtight canister. It may save your bacon one day if you get swept in the shipping lane.

All in all I think you guys handled it quite well, and in a smart way, as evidenced by your being here

It's always easy to critique these things after the fact.

It sounds like you did an excellent job of managing this once things started to go awry. The question obviously is what could have been done to keep it from going bad in the first place?

It sounds like you realize that the indecision about whether or not to turn the dive when you encountered unexpected current has already been dealt with so I won't comment on that.

The question I have is whether or not the plan was to follow the bottom throughout the dive and at what point did you lose the it? Obviously you wanted to go back to the bottom once you turned the dive, but it wasn't where you wanted it to be. Could you have stuck closer to the bottom during the dive and been able to react faster to get back once you started to head into midwater?

I'm glad you and your dive team are back safe and sound to tell us about it.

Rachel

Braunbehrens once bubbled...
Thank you for posting your account. We can all learn from these things.

I only have two criticisms.

First, and maybe you have an excellent reason for this, I think that when the current picked up you should have ascended to the minimum safe depth. This would have given you more time and possible less current.

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check. We should have called it and ascended to a minimum depth as soon as the current surprised us. This was one element of the complacency. We dive in pretty hard currents a lot and you start to think that you can handle anything God throws at you, but you can't.

The other criticism has to do with dive planning. I think that planning the dive is fine, but you should have a good idea of what to do under any circumstances. This may require carrying a set of tables. I don't like computers, but another short term quick fix would be to throw a computer in your pocket.

Click to expand...

I think the planning was ok to a point. We had planned for three scenarios. One was the one we wanted to dive, one was for going too deep and one was for slightly overstaying the NDL. It was all recorded on wrist-slates and it was easily readable. As it was, we had enough information to manage a safe dive in terms of DCS, even when it got a little pear-shaped. What we did wrong is we planned the dive for site #1 and then applied the same planning for site #2. The depth was the same but that was all. Site #2 wasn't supposed to be an overhead dive, we got swept into the shipping lane against our will, but we should have planned for this scenario and applied the rule of 3rd's. Site #1 didn't have this problem so we didn't plan for it and we were complacent when we changed sites without re-thinking the planning. Being in a hurry didn't help either.

Another thing to consider is that if you can't ascend in the shipping lane, then you are effectively diving in an overhead environment. This may require different planning, such as redundant air supply and rules of thirds (or better).

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Very true.

<snip>
You may also want to consider carrying a waterproof VHF in an airtight canister. It may save your bacon one day if you get swept in the shipping lane.

Click to expand...

This is an original idea. This never occured to me before.

All in all I think you guys handled it quite well, and in a smart way, as evidenced by your being here

It's always easy to critique these things after the fact.

Click to expand...

R..

biscuit7 once bubbled...
<snip>

The question I have is whether or not the plan was to follow the bottom throughout the dive and at what point did you lose the it? Obviously you wanted to go back to the bottom once you turned the dive, but it wasn't where you wanted it to be. Could you have stuck closer to the bottom during the dive and been able to react faster to get back once you started to head into midwater?

Click to expand...

Yes, the plan was to follow the sloping bottom throughout the dive. It was easier for navigation in the bad viz. We got pulled away from the sloping side when the current picked up and then I had no bottom features I could use to navigate with. I could still see the bottom but with only 3metres of viz I couldn't read what I was seeing. That got complicated by getting pulled deeper in the wrong direction.

R..

Diver0001...been there and I know what you went through. I don't think there is anyone out there who dives, and therefore explores who hasn't at one stage in their diving life been in similar circumstances.

The positive side to this, and there is one, is that you have learned from this experience and that goes a long way to making you a better diver.

Theory is one thing but until you actually have the experience its extremely difficult to understand what the books are telling you.
Well done for keeing your cool!

Coogeeman

You worked through something that came unexpectedly and got your whole team through.

Sounds like the dive we did yesterday on a wall dive in a ferry boat channel... except when we hit 100' and rounded a corner into a down welling we turned and started working our way back and up.

Actually at the point we turned I had to hang onto a giant barnacle to keep from getting pulled off by the current. I was about to signal the other guys to turn back when I noticed that they had already come to the same conclusion.

Sometimes current doesn't do what you thought it was going to be doing. I guess the only safe thing is to not dive these sites and spend more time on Scuba Board.

However the high exchange sites are where the best stuff seems to be. We saw a bunch of cool stuff including a couple of wolf eels.

I think the key is assessing the situation and turning back in time... and that isn't always easy.

For example we have done dives in Deception Pass (high current + boat traffic + limited egress) with up to one hour bottom times. We have worked the same plan with success multiple times.

However on this dive I came close to catastrophe because the current calculations were off by one hour (huge in D.P.)

So... you do your planning and you do your best to be observant and call the dive when things are starting to go sideways... but some days you are already past the point of no return as soon as you hit the water.

good job - always good to go out with a homing pigeon!

Some of your buddies on the other side of the channel go out with either flares and/or EPIRB's in waterproof canisters when diving anywhere near shipping lanes.

Either way this is a good learning experience. You survived to dive again and hopefully you won't make the same mistake twice. Obviously you trusted your training and your compass and all you did was reinforce that trust. Even if you think it's not working, that compass never lies.