Do you dry out your sausage?

[Barracuda2]

Now that I have your attention: More divers are clipping on an SMB and reel or spool as standard equipment whether diving salt, quarries, or lakes. I just recently started unfurling my safety sausage and uncoiling my fingerspool to dry out after a day of diving; I use to just throw it in my box. It's really a sort of a pain when I put my gear away until the next dive rolling up the sauage and then respooling 100' of line. I figure if I don't do this, eventually the line will rot and the sauage will mildew and start to rot. Do all of you do this as a standard practice and I just finally got smart? or is it one of those things that may just be overlooked when putting gear away?

 

[Blackwood]

Thread title sounds sounds dirty



I don't uncoil my line, but I do unroll my SMB and hang it with the rest of my stuff.

Here are some pictures of my stuff drying: gallery link.

In this case, my SMB (right under my boots, next to the shears) is rolled up because I didn't actually dive with it. Normally it would be unfurled.

 

[RV]

with a sausage dryer of course...

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I unroll my sausage but not my spool. I just leave the spool attached to the sausage and hang them in the garage for 3-4 days to dry.

Denny ... I was gonna practice some with mine last weekend at Gilboa and I forgot. I had so much fun watching all the bass at our safety stop that I forgot to shoot my bag once or twice. Oh well, next time!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I unfurl the smb and hang it up to dry. I do not uncoil the line on the spool. Considering that on some dives I carry a 400' reel, a 160' spool, and a 100' spool ... that'd be an awful lot of line to have hanging around.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[DeputyDan]

Yes I do!

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I wash and hang the liftbag to keep it from getting mildew. The spool I just hose off without unspooling.

 

[eriediver2002]

Gotta admit, I just took my smb outta my bc pocket & unrolled it for the first time in a couple years. Wasn't moldy or anything so I guess it eventually dries in the pocket. My actual lift bag (100lb) I unclip & open to dry (those are too expensive). My reel I only unspool underwater, figure it'll dry on it's own & 300' of line would be a pita.

 

[Charlie99]

Washing, rinsing, and drying can't hurt, but in my experience it is unecessary.

I don't bother drying out either of my sausages. One is similar to the Trident FM36 open ended orange plastic tube, used only for surface signalling. To protect it from punture I put it inside a some skinny bicycle innertube. Since it is for emergency use only, it just stays in my BCD pocket, even while rinsing and drying the BCD. I inspect it every 3 or 4 months.

My other sausage is a 4"x44" oral inflate sausage, around which I have wrapped 30' of 2mm braided cord. I deploy it from 20' or so as a "Don't hit me!" sort of warning to boats on the surface. That sausage is in the BCD pocket for about 90% of my dives, and stays in the BCD pocket both during rinsing and drying. I used to rinse it separately, but have found through experience (i.e. I forgot and nothing bad happened) that it doesn't need to be taken out and separately rinsed.
I haven't seen any damage or wear on the sausage in 4 or 5 years, other than some discoloration from a split ring that turned out not to be stainless.

I'll usually unfurl and dry out a much larger SMB that I use on just a small percentage of dives, but only because it spends most of its time in storage rather than in use.

Charlie Allen

 

[RonFrank]

I dry my sausage at the end of a dive trip. I don't bother uncoiling my spool. I figure that nylon line is not going to get corrode easily, and if the line does start to mildew or look worn, I'll just replace it.

I do rinse my spool if diving in salt.