Dive trip failed... what's your story?

So we were all set to head to Tioman Island in malaysia as a family and i would get some dives in (essential vacation activity).. There's some killer diving there and the place is all around beautiful. Packed the fam up on sunday night, drove up to the town on the coast and stayed in a hotel that night so we could get the first ferry the next day. Got to the island by 10:00am and decided to dedicate the day to my kids although dives were tempting me.. was gonna dive Tiger Reef the next day (tuesday) which i was pumped about.

then it happened..

that night my wife got ultra sick.. puking ALL night long and in to the next day. tried to see if i could get her home but we missed the last ferry to the mainland for tuesday. So i looked after the kids, all day. She felt slightly better later in the day, but still very weak. i had already missed the morning and afternoon dives, tried to sneak in a night dive off the shore but the tide went out so far that diving was a no-go. So i did the saddest thing imaginable.. a night snorkel... (lol) went to bed and we left for home the next morning..

so close to great diving, but so far... anyone else had a dive trip go south?

I was in Mexico some years ago and had a bit of a cold. I was still able to clear my ears so i decided to go diving anyway....

Dive #1: On the ascent I got a reverse block in my sinuses. I got back to... IIRC 15 or 20ft and then couldn't ascend any further.

I tried everything.... I went back down a bit and tried again, I waited at 15 ft (had do do that anyway) to see if it would clear... at one point I even took off my mask and tried blowing my nose and even deliberately sucking some salt water into my nose to see if that would clear it.

Nothing.

At some point the tank was getting empty and my need to survive outweighed the need to not become injured. I ascended to the surface, blew the sinus and subsequently bled for days from it. The worst part is that I couldn't even put my head in the water far enough to snorkel because of the pain.... my dive trip was over on dive #1.

R..

racerx_:

So we were all set to head to Tioman Island in malaysia as a family and i would get some dives in (essential vacation activity).... anyone else had a dive trip go south?

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That's funny, because one of my dive trip failures was to Tioman. I was going up with my instructor for the check-out dives for advanced nitrox and deco procedures. I dutifully showed up at 7:00 am to catch the ferry at the World Trade Center terminal. As you probably know, though, the ferry from Singapore to Tioman leaves from Tanah Merah. (It did back then, anyway.)

I had another fiasco at Tioman when I flew up with no room reservations. My friends told me I could easily grab a hut anywhere. Which is probably true on any day besides the start of Hari Raya (Aidilfitri). Anyway, I managed to find a place after hiking up and down that west coast in 33º heat with all of my gear a few times.

I did a trip to Sri Lanka that was marred by some serious diarrhea. I had to skip 3 out of 5 dive days. I also couldn't eat those days, or keep water in. On the plus side, I did manage the plane ride home without soiling myself--but I wasn't 100% confident of that when we set out.

Diarrhea struck me on a week-long liveaboard in Thailand too, but I didn't miss one dive in a great week of diving highlighted by multiple whaleshark encounters. I was actually sick before the trip began, because I spent the week prior to the trip in Phuket, day diving and, apparently, eating indiscriminantly. The upside? I was model-thin by the time I headed home, and a lovely SilkAir stewardess did her best to pick me up on the flight back to Singapore.

Diver0001- now that IS a bad dive experience!! Makes my sinuses hurt just thinking about it lol

Vladimir- ha very nice.. Yeah I imagine hari raya is a pretty crazy time over there haha.. Sounds like you've had your fair share of messed up dive plans.. Hoping this is my last for a while.

A bit bummed cause my next dive will be in Seattle which will be freezing cold compared to out here! Was hoping to squeeze in one more warm dive before then

On my first really big dive trip, to Indonesia, I caught a cold that one of the group brought onto the airplane with her. I sat out two days of spectacular diving, in rather poor grace, too.

I just got home from a 10 day trip to the Red Sea, where almost everyone on the boat got a GI bug that wasn't fun at all. Again, I sat out two days of great diving, but honestly, I was so miserable I didn't even mind.

Last February, we went to Florida for four days. One of the big things on my itinerary was diving the Blue Heron Bridge, because I'd seen all the fantastic macro photography people post here from that site. We couldn't dive it because there was a SEWAGE alert for the site! Not only did I miss out on the dive, but I missed out on meeting several SB folks who were going to be there. That was a bummer.

I am delighted to say that only once did I curtail diving on a trip because of a health problem, and that was a short 3 day excursion to Fort Lauderdale where I lost one of the three days. My wife and I did lose a day of diving on live aboard when our gear did not arrive with us, but we made in up over the week and had more dives than anyone else on the boat. We have been very fortunate to get the value out of every trip, and I hope that streak continues. We have two trips in the next few months- Mexico and Maui.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com

Funny you should mention this...

My wife and I were supposed to leave for the Florida Keys for two weeks this PAST Saturday...the weeks leading up to the trip have been a bit of a pain, my wife's 99 year old grandmother broke her hip about a month back, and up until that point, only suffered mild dementia..she was pleasant, but you had to remind her who you were a few times, and almost every time you walked into a room with her, she'd act as if she hadn't seen you in a while...nothing overly horrible...she deteriorated in the rehab facility that she had to be admitted into, and after a bout with some infections, was seemingly back on the road to recovery...I had the car 95% packed (we're driving down, for the 5th time) and went to pick my wife up from work, as wee sat there, she got a call from her mother, who was on her way to the hospital to get treated for a broken arm...sounded like a collar bone, and we were thinking that was the best case in that situation...turned out she needs a shoulder replacement (or so that hospital said) since my wife works in a hospital, she said "come down, get a second opinion" So we knew at that point we'd be leaving at the earliest on SUNDAY depending upon what she needed.... Saturday came and went, they aren't going to operate and wanted to wait until the swelling goes down before further evaluation...so we were set to go (after some debate) Sunday, early afternoon...the car was completely packed, we bid our cats farewell for the week, and contacted their "care giver" that we were NOW going, and stopped for a quick bite to eat... as we finished our lunch, my wife got another call and her mother said that her grandmother was now NOT eating, and her facility was suggesting a feeding tube, or Hospice care....that was the deal breaker! We went home, unpacked, and decided that we ran out of "last straws" too many factors working against us...we MAY try to go in two weeks if things settle down, but it's unlikely, and we're not holding our breath!

Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with airlines, the realtor from whom we've worked with the past several years is being cooperative, and I think will honor our "payments" if/when we reschedule...not sure for how LONG, but it's better than nothing at this point.

And the update....her mother has another appt. this Thursday... and her grandmother is stable....

Diver0001:

I was in Mexico some years ago and had a bit of a cold. I was still able to clear my ears so i decided to go diving anyway....

Dive #1: On the ascent I got a reverse block in my sinuses. I got back to... IIRC 15 or 20ft and then couldn't ascend any further.

I tried everything.... I went back down a bit and tried again, I waited at 15 ft (had do do that anyway) to see if it would clear... at one point I even took off my mask and tried blowing my nose and even deliberately sucking some salt water into my nose to see if that would clear it.

Nothing.

At some point the tank was getting empty and my need to survive outweighed the need to not become injured. I ascended to the surface, blew the sinus and subsequently bled for days from it. The worst part is that I couldn't even put my head in the water far enough to snorkel because of the pain.... my dive trip was over on dive #1.

R..

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That's pretty much my story, with the exception that I did make it to dive two the first day, and instead of blowing a sinus, it was an eardrum. My son and I had driven down to FL for some diving in the springs as a winter escape...packed the truck back up the second day, and headed home...pretty much a thousand miles of driving for two dives in Devil's Den.

Spent several days making my way to Koh Tao, Thailand. Got settled in and ready for a week of diving. The next day, first dive... massive mid-dive vomiting. Oh joy. At least the fish liked it.

That became a multi-day bout of diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. At the time there were no doctors or clinics on the island, and I was getting so dehydrated that I knew soon I wouldn't be able to move.

I took a jet boat to Koh Samui and still felt awful.

Two days later I flew to Phuket, and still felt like crap.

Worried about the quality of medical care, I flew to Singapore.

So much for Koh Tao. It's no fun being alone when you're really sick.

I once had the opportunity to dive the Outer Farisan Island that guard the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean, its a fascinating place a once in a life time experience to dive. We were at a place called Hells Gate on the really old chart we were using a really amazing place, Sharks, Sail fish, Turtles lovely coral reefs. I got a gastro bug I have never ever been so ill, thought I would turn myself inside out. There was no point in staying on the boat as conditions were really primitive, no heads sleeping on the deck, so I just snorkeled round I really did not dare to dive. Between vomiting got to dive with Sail fish and Whale sharks never went deeper than 2m. Wish I had been well enough to really enjoy the trip properly