Diving off of your own boat

I live on the water about 10 minutes from the Ocean. Although I have been boating for a long time, and diving for a while as well, I have never had the courage to do "real" dives off of my personal boat. Its definitely dive worthy, and big enough to support probably six divers. I have over 15 years experience as a fishing captain. I know my vessel well. What I don't know well is diving off my vessel. My concern is multiple. My first concern is safety. I know CPR, however I don't have much experience administering Oxygen, and other life saving techniques that I assume the crew of the charters has. On that note I am also unsure of what sort of safety equipment beyond first aid, and I assume O2, I would need on board. My second concern is having proper crew on board and where to find them and how to vet them out. Obviously it would not be smart to leave the boat unattended while we all dive. It seems like I would want a captain for sure, and possibly a dive master or at least a captain capable of both. How do other boat owners normally do this? I feel like I am missing a big opportunity not diving off my boat, but I want to feel safe and confident doing so. Those of you that do crew your boat, what do you typically pay? Or do you trade off diving for crewing, or what?

I have heard of instances where a person was tending to the boat but not really as familiar
as they should be with the operation of the boat, electronics, and also emergency actions that
may be necessary. Cutting tools required to cut anchor line if necessary, saving location on gps for
lost diver, things of that nature. If it was me I would not be comfortable unless I have seen the person
tending the boat demonstrate their ability to do some of these very basic things with that particular
boat.

I do a lot of diving from private boats here in SoFla.
Primarily drift dives.
The safety rule is generally, but not always, 2 up, who cares how many down.
It helps that as I grew up in SoFla I have a pretty good experience level handling all sorts of boats.
A great way to get comfortable is to just tie up at the balls on the "Pompano Drop Off" or similar area and jump into the pool.
As far as paying someone to run your boat.......
well......
I work really cheap.
But in all seriousness.....
As far as O2 aboard, it is an excellent idea.
I assume you also have a marine radio.
Channel 16 is the one to monitor, and the local pro dive fleet and most all of the private boats I go out on also monitor channel 18 here in Broward and Palm Beach County.
Dade County I cannot say.
A great resource is here on Scubaboard as there are a bunch of locals that have a great deal of experience doing the private boat thing, they will help with provisioning the boat, and cleaning it after the dive.
Safety in numbers.

Chug
Is it the weekend yet?

Very good info Chug! Thank you very much. I dont know a lot of divers around here yet, most of my friends do not dive. My boat is a 30' Grady White Marlin. I had tank holders added down both sides and a re-entry ladder as well, so its fairly diver compatible. I also have a widescreen GPS installed onto it. So when do you want to plan the first trip!? I have done the mooring balls thing and the Pompano Ledges, as well as Copenhagen. I want to do some drift diving, and some of the shallower wreck like Sea Emperor, and work from there. There is no doubt that having someone on the bridge at all times that is boat savvy is imperative. I like the idea of two up as well. I actually have been on a private boat where the boat tender could not raise the anchor to pick up the divers. Apparently we only asked her about driving the boat, not operating the anchor. Ended up turning out ok, but was pretty stressful when we discovered this
Frank

I am not an expert on this subject by any means, but occasionally dive off a friends boat in Jupiter and I'll share my experience.....

There are usually only 4 of us on the boat and like Chugwhump indicated, it is two on the boat and two in the water. One of the guys that remains in the boat is always a very experienced boater/captain (usually life long boater from south Florida). All the dives around here are drift dives in the 70-90 foot depth range so we have a float and reel with plenty of line that one of the divers handles while on the bottom. None of us press for maximum bottom time and we all take longer than normal safety stops (usually 5 minutes). While we are all on Nitrox, we still take a 60 minute surface interval between dives. These protocals are all in a effort to avoid DCS problems. When I've been out with these particular dive buddies, we seldom get too far from the inlet: seldom going any great distance south of the juno beach pier. The boat we dive off of is much faster than any commerical dive boat and we could be back to the inlet and dock quickly if we had to drop off a diver with the EMS. We don't, but should, carry O2. I've been thinking about buying one of the DAN kits that have an O2 tank. We do have a marine first aid kit and a second marine radio in case the first gets swamped or goes on the fritz. We usually have two gps units on board too. I am starting a Rescue dive course next week with Gold Coast Scuba in LBTS since I've doing a bit more diving off of private boats this year.

One of the things I enjoy about diving off a private boat is the ability to visit sites that commercial operators don't visit. Also, these particular divers have years of experience in Jupiter and have all sorts of 'secret' lobster holes plotted on their gps. As an FYI, the riders usually split the cost of the fuel since the captain/boat owner is bearing the cost of the wear and tear on the boat.

Dan offers the o2 provider class. PADI instructors can teach Emergency First Response which includes splinting and bandaging.

I also have a "we will just leave the GF's on the boat" story from tens of years ago... competent "captain" is important.

I would HIGHLY recommend having an AED on board. What saves lives is not CPR, but early defibrilation. The use of CPR just slightly increases the window of time you have before an AED will be inefficient. If someone is not breathing, their heart soon stops beating (or goes into an ineffective rhythm), so if breathing isn't restored, 02 doesn't do much good when cardiac problems arise. However with a responsive diver, with possible DCI, 02 is very helpful and the AED would be unnecessary.

I think it is something like 3 minutes without breathing/ heart rate before irreversible brain damage begins. Just know that.

You can find statistics to show how CPR lengthens that window, but if CG is 10 minutes away, the chances are slim that their defibrillator will work (too much time passed)

Chain of Survival

Last paragraph on the page,
"Although CPR can sustain life for a short time, it must be followed within minutes by the third link, early defibrillation. Only when combined with early defibrillation and early advanced care can CPR significantly increase an SCA victim's chance for long-term survival. "




That's what I would have on my boat
And an AMBU bag, with 02 connection.

This way you're prepared for the worst situation. (afterall, if someone needs CPR, they are technically DEAD, so IMO it doesnt get much worse than that)

An AED is an excellent suggestion. I had the DAN kit in mind, but you are right. Defib capability would be a great thing if there were to be a problem. You also make a good point about being faster than a dive boat getting to port. I had not considered that. The nice thing about where I am (Hillsboro Inlet) is that there are several nice reefs just outside the inlet, as well as a several nice wrecks that are in eyesight of the inlet. So it sounds like what I am missing right now is a DAN kit, Divers/Drivers, and possibly an AED.

Before you accept or dismiss the suggestions made here, you may want to go out on a few dive trips on any one of the many dive boats in your area.

You might as well see how it's done from people who do it for a living.

blackvans1234:

Last paragraph on the page,
"Although CPR can sustain life for a short time, it must be followed within minutes by the third link, early defibrillation. Only when combined with early defibrillation and early advanced care can CPR significantly increase an SCA victim's chance for long-term survival. "

Click to expand...

While I agree with the logic, I'm not picturing many sudden cardiac arrest situations with a diver in which there'd be an opportunity to utilize said AED - at least within the three or four minute window necessary for it to do any good, especially if the dead weight is wearing a wet suit. Maybe my imagination just isn't good enough.

Kevin
who *does* keep an AED in his office - with a battery that is actually still good