Sundays dive.
I woke up at 6 wishing I could sleep some more. I was exhausted from the day before and the late drive to Myrtle Beach. As I began to brush my teeth I stood there thinking. What are you thinking girl, you have to be out of your mind. I was tired and I wanted to dive as much as I wanted to snuggle back into those sheets. I said to myself. You can sleep on the boat on the way to the site. We were going to dive The Governor - a 200 foot Civil War paddle wheeler lies in 80 feet of water 22 miles off the coast. The site offers everything from brass artifacts to Southern stingrays and a multitude of other marine life.
When I got to the dive shop Scuba Express, Myrells Inlet, SC, (BTW they were great to dive with) I did my paperwork and we headed over to the docks. Everyone loaded their gear on board and before leaving, the boat captain informed us that for some reason the visibility at the Governor was reported to be very poor and offered another location option. Angel's Ledge: This is a live-bottom reef ranging in depth from 60 feet to 110 feet. Known for the beautiful queen angels it attracts, it is also popular for spear fishing because of the abundance of grouper. The group decided to try the ledges for the opportunity to have better visibility and longer bottom times depended on where you dove. So off we went. Everyone settled in for the ride and I noticed that there was a bench approximately 4 feet long that was not occupied on the other side of the boat. I made my way over and laid down and rested for the ride. The ledges were about 18-20 miles off shore so I could try to nap on the way.
When we reached the site, we buddied up. There were three in my group because we had an odd number. We talked about the plan and I knew that these two had not been diving for long. It wasnt until after the diving that I found out that one of my buddies was newly certified and this was his second open water dive. Saturday he had his first. This explained his behavior and reactions to what happened. Youll understand that in a minute.
The first dive we started down the line and the water was thick with biology. This meant the dive was going to be poor viz. There were lots of moon jellies everywhere. As we began to descend, the water started to get colder around 20 ft. I looked back at the surface to see the rays of light shining down on me and then looked back toward the bottom to see the slate blue color of the water beneath me turn more blue-green. The water seemed thick, almost gelatin like between 20 and 40 feet. The jellies would come to check us out, all by accident of course. What a weird fate in life to drift almost aimlessly victim of every swish and sway of the water. They seem so helpless and yet they pack their own little punch. There were beautiful with purple, blue and pink neon colors coursing through them like chaser lights advertising the best bargain the beach has to offer. My buddy number 1 was new to diving (only a few months and working on AOW) but he new his stuff pretty well. Buddy 2 is the fresh meat newby.
We got to the bottom and everyone signaled OK. I motioned that we would move off to the right and I signal to buddy 1 you can lead. Well follow you. I looked back at buddy 2, on his knees stirring up the bottom and signaled, You OK? He signaled back, OK and I motioned lets swim. I noticed the dive instructor was at the line where buddy 2 was. We began to swim off and buddy 1 was headed away from the ledge. I when over to him and motioned this way, you follow me. I looked back and buddy two was still on the line with the instructor. He stayed on the line almost the entire dive. I think he got scared. The dive instructor stayed with him for a little while and then took him to the surface. My buddy and I began to explore. The visibility was very poor there were huge grouper and ramora in the water but you couldnt see them completely until you were right up on them. The angle fish there ranged from the size of a saucer to the size of a large dinner plate. There were tiny spider crabs, brown with white markings, and sea snails that were purple with yellow strips and spots on them everywhere and lots of starfish of all sizes. There were several sea urchins and lots of large cucumbers. The corals were very pretty, lots of oranges, reds, and yellow. I am a show and tell diver. LOL I like to point out all kinds of things. I explore all over. My buddy caught the image of a large shadow to the left of him and grabbed his light to point out that it was a shark. It wasnt a nurse, I am not really sure what kind, it looked like it had black tips on it, maybe 4 -5 feet long. There was an Eagle ray gliding around. Some in the group were trying to capture sea life for the dive shop aquarium. I instantly thought of Nemo and the divers scene. With slurp guns and catch bags they collected small animals to take home with them. There were a couple guys spear fishing but they only caught two spade fish. The ledge wound its way around the bottom in and out and there was lots of activity all around. When I checked my psi, my buddy signaled that he had 1200 psi I motioned to turn and go back to the anchor line. I aligned my compass and headed back for the line. Once on the line we began to slowly ascend watching the depth and timing the ascent to make everything go smoothly. We did a deco stop to keep the dive plan in accordance with the most recent student training.
On the surface we reviewed our tables and we had an hour interval so we got a little water and a snack and rested while the others began to surface and join us. Everyone was boarding with their treasures. I myself had picked up a starfish that I though was dead. But, once on board I realized that it was moving, however slight the movement was, I was not prepared to take it with me if it was still moving so I placed him back into the ocean and wished him well hoping he would be happy wherever he landed. During the interval, we decided that the next dive we would go to the left instead of the right as we had just then. Both buddies asked me to navigate because buddy one said he didnt think he could find his way back to the anchor line. I told the buddies to stay more to my side and not to be all over the place and asked them to stay off the bottom if they could and then we rested.
After the surface interval, we put on our gear and entered the water. Signaled OK, Divers Down and in my mind I was questioning should I have put on my second suit for more mil to be comfortable. I thought it more and more as I sank into the darker water and the thermal cline seemed to be much colder this time than the last. The water temp was about 68 degrees but once on the bottom and swimming around, I wasnt cold at all. We got to the bottom and the gauge read 63 ft. I knew that my buddies did not have much time as they used almost twice as much air as I did on the first dive and they stated that they used a good bit of air usually. On the boat, I figured we had between 15 and 20 minutes on the bottom. That really sucks when I am used to having 45 minutes on regular hair at that depth. But you can only stay as long as the shortest buddy time - then you go. Right away there were large grouper everywhere. There seemed to be more large fish on this side of the ledge. As we swam along, I noticed one grouper very still near the bottom. I slowly approach and as I did, I put my hand out in front of me so I would not make any sudden moves to scare the fish off. When I was inches away, he started to slowly swim away and at that moment, I reached out and grabbed the fish by the tail. He tried to take off on me. My grin was so big that my mask began to leak a little. He was very strong so I grabbed on with my left hand. He tried to swim so I cradled him in my left arm and held him close to my body. I wasnt really expecting to catch this fish but now that I had, I was quickly trying to decide - let him go or grill him up. I thought, this is a big fish and I caught it with my own two hands. No one would believe this story even if I had two witnesses so this one is going home with me. He was too big for my catch bag so I held on to his tail with my right hand and held him close to my body with my left. After a few minutes, Buddy 2 pulled out a large catch bag that was barely big enough for the fist to fit inside and we pushed it down in the bag and pulled the string to close the top. I looked at my watch and we were about 10 minutes into the dive so I signaled to them both to turn around and head back. I positioned my compass and we navigated back to the anchor line.
As I swam back holding my catch close to my body I took a breath and at the same time, my regulator broke. I had only the mouth piece in my mouth. I had a mouth of salt water and as I swept for my hose I couldnt find the primary. All of this happened so fast and here I was with a mouth full of salt water. I turned to my newly certified buddies and when up to buddy one and signaled buddy breath. In the seconds that passed he first just looked at me. By this time I had my primary in my right hand and my mouthpiece on my left middle finger. I motioned for him to give me his primary. He took a big breath and handed me the primary. I immediately breathed out and purged the water out and as I took my first breath. He began to search for his secondary which was somewhere down around his side. I motioned for him to stop and as I gave him back his primary I placed my secondary in my mouth and began to use it. I am horizontal in the water and he is vertical. He has a standard short hose reg set and his training has told him buddy breath to the surface. So he starts up. Hes wearing a computer thats beeping like crazy. I motion to him. Stop. Go down. He signals back OK Down. At the same time Buddy 2 is in a panic. Hes swimming up and I am trying to get him to calm down and get him to stay down with us. I turned upside down and motioned for them to follow. We got to the bottom and I am hovering signaling back and forth, I am OK. Are you OK? to each of them. Buddy 1 signals to see if I want to thumb the dive. I motioned No, follow me. I needed to get them back to the anchor line. As I swam back I checked on fish. He was still with me.
When we got back to the line, there was still 1300 psi in the lowest tank. My secondary was breathing a little wet. (Mind you, I dont have all my own gear. The reg setup I had to rent this set from the local dive shop here in Beaufort because the gear configuration I have chosen is Hogarthian, and I am putting my gear together a little at a time and without all the pieces of the reg setup, the first and second stages, hoses/necklace, psi gauge, depth gauge, etc you cant dive just part of it. You have to have all of it. So right now I have to rent a reg set which sucks. (After this weekend, I am springing for it all now. I need my own setup complete so I dont have to go through this crap.) BTW, my BP & Wing dives like a dream. I chose a heavy STA for the additional weight I needed for saltwater diving. I may have to get a light STA for fresh water diving so I am not over weighted.
Anyway, we are back at the line and I am checking out my fish because he got a little beat up in that whole episode but I still have him. Since we have a little air, we are okay for our ascent. On the way up, my secondary begins to breathe more water than air. I began to cough and purge the water out. I know that as we rise I will be able to get more air into my lungs. But as we slowly rise to 20 feet the diaphragm sticks and I can only get water. Around 15ft we were supposed to do a deco stop but it is not really necessary so I really dont plan to stay. But I have a console in my left hand the rope in my right and at this point no air. I took my secondary out of my mouth and tried to tap it in the palm of my left hand to clear it and I hear Buddy 2 inflate his BC and he zooms to the surface uncontrolled, only to say later, I let all the air out of my BC but I was still pulled to the surface. I had this happen to me once in very shallow water when I first dove a BP & Wing and after looking for answers I realized that I must have not emptied my wing completely with my dump. The problem here was the Buddy 2 didnt know which button inflated and which deflated. Scary thought huh? Anyway, because visibility was so bad, Buddy 1 let go of the line also and came over to me and motioned UP. When I turned to grab the line, the line was no where in sight. In a few seconds, we had lost sight of the line. Since we were just on the line, and I had no air, I agreed to slowly go to the surface. I thought we would come up a little off the line but the current had gotten so bad on the surface that when we came up we were maybe 200 feet away from the boat. I really was surprised. I was so pissed at myself for letting go of the line. I felt like I put this new buddy at risk by letting go. When we surfaced we both thought we would be right near the boat because we had come up the line to 20 feet. How could I have been so stupid? I let a stupid OOA situation that I thought I had handled well get me off course. At this point we couldnt go back down and navigate over to the boat because he was down to 800 psi, I still had 1400 but my secondary didnt work. We signaled to the boat that we were OK and Buddy 2 was already on board. We began to swim toward the boat. At first we were making ground but all of a sudden, the waves and current began to pull us away from the boat and we were now about 300 ft out and we werent making any ground. My buddy began to tell me he was getting ready to drop his weight belt because it was too much when I noticed his BC wasnt fully inflated. I immediately told him not to drop his weight belt but to inflate your BC all the way. The captain started the motor and came over and picked us up. I was very embarrassed. The captain and the dive master told me that yesterday the dive master simply lost the line and they had to go get him. But, that didnt make me feel much better.
On the surface I kept kicking myself for letting go of the line. I was trying to decide if we could try to change octos on the surface. Have any of you tried to change out a setup on the surface? Will the BC stay inflated if you disconnect the pressure hose? I know you can inflate your wing and shut off the air, but will the air escape if you disconnect the hose? If it wont will a standard BC work the same? If the BC or wing will stay inflated, then it could be possible to change out a reg and swap over to the take the one with the most air. Right? Then you could buddy breath it back under the water. Right? Anyone know the answers? I think this is something I want to explore. Man, I really thought that the OOA was handled well until the very end. I am glad we didnt buddy breath to the surface from off the bottom when it happened. Who knows where we would have surfaced. Isnt it funny how my PADI OW taught that method instead of calmly looking for the anchor line? I personally think that their method should be changed to consider deeper ocean diving. I am glad I had read other training methods because I feel like I was able to handle the situation better with some different skills other than the basic OW/AOW that I was taught in my PADI class.
This whole thing only solidified to me the reasons why TO dive a long hose and a necklace. With a long hose, it would have been easier to buddy breath. With a necklace it would have taken even less time to get the secondary. Heck I may not have buddy breathed at all.
I also learned how important it was for me to talk with my new buddies before the dive like I did. I remember telling them if they had an OOA, to donate the primary. Just calmly, take a breath and donate your primary. You know it is working and you can give them air right away. That was a valuable conversation. I prefer to donate my primary when giving air.
I boarded the boat and sat there checking everything out. I had 1200 psi in my tank and I didnt have an air source. I checked out my primary to see if I could have somehow breathed off of it. Honestly, I didnt try to at the time. I wish I had tried. I knew I had a secondary and I wasnt worried. I didnt even intend to buddy breath to the surface, which he expected. I just needed to get a clean breath of air and get my secondary. Maybe I could have used that primary somehow, that would have been my solution.
I had the dive master trainer on board look at the secondary and it was dry rotted
and the diaphragm was sticking. He told me to go back to the dive shop and have a talk with them.
Can anyone here answer the questions above? Have you tried to change out a reg like that? I know that sometimes when the air hasnt been bled out you cant even turn the value. That may have prevented the change all together.
I beat myself up pretty bad for letting go of that line and for not going back to it but I really didnt think we were that far away from the boat. Instead of beating myself up anymore, I want to learn from this experience. I want to know more about my own personal gear. I have been asking for an equipment training class for months and no one has one. Apparently there isnt enough interest to warrant the class. Maybe I will just have to get a book and teach myself.
I missed the fact that I was not with a buddy who I had been diving with. That buddy who knows my actions and I know his. The buddy that each of us knows how the other dives and what each other will do all the signals down pat and the experience of diving and of diving with each other. I know I will not always dive with a regular buddy but I do want a regular buddy to dive with. Unless you have a regular buddy and know what it is like to be in sync with each other and then not have that with another buddy, you just wont understand.
I want my buddy. My very own buddy. So I can hug him, and love him and pet him real nice George. Sorry just a joke. No, seriously, theres nothing like having YOUR buddy to dive with. Is it to much to ask for? That forever buddy. The one you dive with always.
Well, if anyone has some answers to the questions Ive asked, I sure would like to know them. Please dont be mean though my ego is bruise enough. I must say I was proud of myself for not panicking; two malfunctioning regs on the same dive is a lot to deal with. I guess I should have been more scared than pissed off. Also, my Buddy 1 followed my lead very well. He did get a bit scared, you could see it. But, he kept it together until we got on the boat. Then he needed a little time by himself. I would dive with him again. Anytime.
As for the fish I caught, it was just over 30 inches long and it was heavy. I have no idea how much it weighed. I took some pictures so when I get them scanned in I will show you THE ONE THAT DIDNT GET AWAY. LOL I had it cleaned and packed on ice and sent it to my grandfather because he said, Catch me some fish if you go fishing. : )
I was so looking forward to diving. I had not been diving for weeks and then what an experience.
Dive safe. R
I woke up at 6 wishing I could sleep some more. I was exhausted from the day before and the late drive to Myrtle Beach. As I began to brush my teeth I stood there thinking. What are you thinking girl, you have to be out of your mind. I was tired and I wanted to dive as much as I wanted to snuggle back into those sheets. I said to myself. You can sleep on the boat on the way to the site. We were going to dive The Governor - a 200 foot Civil War paddle wheeler lies in 80 feet of water 22 miles off the coast. The site offers everything from brass artifacts to Southern stingrays and a multitude of other marine life.
When I got to the dive shop Scuba Express, Myrells Inlet, SC, (BTW they were great to dive with) I did my paperwork and we headed over to the docks. Everyone loaded their gear on board and before leaving, the boat captain informed us that for some reason the visibility at the Governor was reported to be very poor and offered another location option. Angel's Ledge: This is a live-bottom reef ranging in depth from 60 feet to 110 feet. Known for the beautiful queen angels it attracts, it is also popular for spear fishing because of the abundance of grouper. The group decided to try the ledges for the opportunity to have better visibility and longer bottom times depended on where you dove. So off we went. Everyone settled in for the ride and I noticed that there was a bench approximately 4 feet long that was not occupied on the other side of the boat. I made my way over and laid down and rested for the ride. The ledges were about 18-20 miles off shore so I could try to nap on the way.
When we reached the site, we buddied up. There were three in my group because we had an odd number. We talked about the plan and I knew that these two had not been diving for long. It wasnt until after the diving that I found out that one of my buddies was newly certified and this was his second open water dive. Saturday he had his first. This explained his behavior and reactions to what happened. Youll understand that in a minute.
The first dive we started down the line and the water was thick with biology. This meant the dive was going to be poor viz. There were lots of moon jellies everywhere. As we began to descend, the water started to get colder around 20 ft. I looked back at the surface to see the rays of light shining down on me and then looked back toward the bottom to see the slate blue color of the water beneath me turn more blue-green. The water seemed thick, almost gelatin like between 20 and 40 feet. The jellies would come to check us out, all by accident of course. What a weird fate in life to drift almost aimlessly victim of every swish and sway of the water. They seem so helpless and yet they pack their own little punch. There were beautiful with purple, blue and pink neon colors coursing through them like chaser lights advertising the best bargain the beach has to offer. My buddy number 1 was new to diving (only a few months and working on AOW) but he new his stuff pretty well. Buddy 2 is the fresh meat newby.
We got to the bottom and everyone signaled OK. I motioned that we would move off to the right and I signal to buddy 1 you can lead. Well follow you. I looked back at buddy 2, on his knees stirring up the bottom and signaled, You OK? He signaled back, OK and I motioned lets swim. I noticed the dive instructor was at the line where buddy 2 was. We began to swim off and buddy 1 was headed away from the ledge. I when over to him and motioned this way, you follow me. I looked back and buddy two was still on the line with the instructor. He stayed on the line almost the entire dive. I think he got scared. The dive instructor stayed with him for a little while and then took him to the surface. My buddy and I began to explore. The visibility was very poor there were huge grouper and ramora in the water but you couldnt see them completely until you were right up on them. The angle fish there ranged from the size of a saucer to the size of a large dinner plate. There were tiny spider crabs, brown with white markings, and sea snails that were purple with yellow strips and spots on them everywhere and lots of starfish of all sizes. There were several sea urchins and lots of large cucumbers. The corals were very pretty, lots of oranges, reds, and yellow. I am a show and tell diver. LOL I like to point out all kinds of things. I explore all over. My buddy caught the image of a large shadow to the left of him and grabbed his light to point out that it was a shark. It wasnt a nurse, I am not really sure what kind, it looked like it had black tips on it, maybe 4 -5 feet long. There was an Eagle ray gliding around. Some in the group were trying to capture sea life for the dive shop aquarium. I instantly thought of Nemo and the divers scene. With slurp guns and catch bags they collected small animals to take home with them. There were a couple guys spear fishing but they only caught two spade fish. The ledge wound its way around the bottom in and out and there was lots of activity all around. When I checked my psi, my buddy signaled that he had 1200 psi I motioned to turn and go back to the anchor line. I aligned my compass and headed back for the line. Once on the line we began to slowly ascend watching the depth and timing the ascent to make everything go smoothly. We did a deco stop to keep the dive plan in accordance with the most recent student training.
On the surface we reviewed our tables and we had an hour interval so we got a little water and a snack and rested while the others began to surface and join us. Everyone was boarding with their treasures. I myself had picked up a starfish that I though was dead. But, once on board I realized that it was moving, however slight the movement was, I was not prepared to take it with me if it was still moving so I placed him back into the ocean and wished him well hoping he would be happy wherever he landed. During the interval, we decided that the next dive we would go to the left instead of the right as we had just then. Both buddies asked me to navigate because buddy one said he didnt think he could find his way back to the anchor line. I told the buddies to stay more to my side and not to be all over the place and asked them to stay off the bottom if they could and then we rested.
After the surface interval, we put on our gear and entered the water. Signaled OK, Divers Down and in my mind I was questioning should I have put on my second suit for more mil to be comfortable. I thought it more and more as I sank into the darker water and the thermal cline seemed to be much colder this time than the last. The water temp was about 68 degrees but once on the bottom and swimming around, I wasnt cold at all. We got to the bottom and the gauge read 63 ft. I knew that my buddies did not have much time as they used almost twice as much air as I did on the first dive and they stated that they used a good bit of air usually. On the boat, I figured we had between 15 and 20 minutes on the bottom. That really sucks when I am used to having 45 minutes on regular hair at that depth. But you can only stay as long as the shortest buddy time - then you go. Right away there were large grouper everywhere. There seemed to be more large fish on this side of the ledge. As we swam along, I noticed one grouper very still near the bottom. I slowly approach and as I did, I put my hand out in front of me so I would not make any sudden moves to scare the fish off. When I was inches away, he started to slowly swim away and at that moment, I reached out and grabbed the fish by the tail. He tried to take off on me. My grin was so big that my mask began to leak a little. He was very strong so I grabbed on with my left hand. He tried to swim so I cradled him in my left arm and held him close to my body. I wasnt really expecting to catch this fish but now that I had, I was quickly trying to decide - let him go or grill him up. I thought, this is a big fish and I caught it with my own two hands. No one would believe this story even if I had two witnesses so this one is going home with me. He was too big for my catch bag so I held on to his tail with my right hand and held him close to my body with my left. After a few minutes, Buddy 2 pulled out a large catch bag that was barely big enough for the fist to fit inside and we pushed it down in the bag and pulled the string to close the top. I looked at my watch and we were about 10 minutes into the dive so I signaled to them both to turn around and head back. I positioned my compass and we navigated back to the anchor line.
As I swam back holding my catch close to my body I took a breath and at the same time, my regulator broke. I had only the mouth piece in my mouth. I had a mouth of salt water and as I swept for my hose I couldnt find the primary. All of this happened so fast and here I was with a mouth full of salt water. I turned to my newly certified buddies and when up to buddy one and signaled buddy breath. In the seconds that passed he first just looked at me. By this time I had my primary in my right hand and my mouthpiece on my left middle finger. I motioned for him to give me his primary. He took a big breath and handed me the primary. I immediately breathed out and purged the water out and as I took my first breath. He began to search for his secondary which was somewhere down around his side. I motioned for him to stop and as I gave him back his primary I placed my secondary in my mouth and began to use it. I am horizontal in the water and he is vertical. He has a standard short hose reg set and his training has told him buddy breath to the surface. So he starts up. Hes wearing a computer thats beeping like crazy. I motion to him. Stop. Go down. He signals back OK Down. At the same time Buddy 2 is in a panic. Hes swimming up and I am trying to get him to calm down and get him to stay down with us. I turned upside down and motioned for them to follow. We got to the bottom and I am hovering signaling back and forth, I am OK. Are you OK? to each of them. Buddy 1 signals to see if I want to thumb the dive. I motioned No, follow me. I needed to get them back to the anchor line. As I swam back I checked on fish. He was still with me.
When we got back to the line, there was still 1300 psi in the lowest tank. My secondary was breathing a little wet. (Mind you, I dont have all my own gear. The reg setup I had to rent this set from the local dive shop here in Beaufort because the gear configuration I have chosen is Hogarthian, and I am putting my gear together a little at a time and without all the pieces of the reg setup, the first and second stages, hoses/necklace, psi gauge, depth gauge, etc you cant dive just part of it. You have to have all of it. So right now I have to rent a reg set which sucks. (After this weekend, I am springing for it all now. I need my own setup complete so I dont have to go through this crap.) BTW, my BP & Wing dives like a dream. I chose a heavy STA for the additional weight I needed for saltwater diving. I may have to get a light STA for fresh water diving so I am not over weighted.
Anyway, we are back at the line and I am checking out my fish because he got a little beat up in that whole episode but I still have him. Since we have a little air, we are okay for our ascent. On the way up, my secondary begins to breathe more water than air. I began to cough and purge the water out. I know that as we rise I will be able to get more air into my lungs. But as we slowly rise to 20 feet the diaphragm sticks and I can only get water. Around 15ft we were supposed to do a deco stop but it is not really necessary so I really dont plan to stay. But I have a console in my left hand the rope in my right and at this point no air. I took my secondary out of my mouth and tried to tap it in the palm of my left hand to clear it and I hear Buddy 2 inflate his BC and he zooms to the surface uncontrolled, only to say later, I let all the air out of my BC but I was still pulled to the surface. I had this happen to me once in very shallow water when I first dove a BP & Wing and after looking for answers I realized that I must have not emptied my wing completely with my dump. The problem here was the Buddy 2 didnt know which button inflated and which deflated. Scary thought huh? Anyway, because visibility was so bad, Buddy 1 let go of the line also and came over to me and motioned UP. When I turned to grab the line, the line was no where in sight. In a few seconds, we had lost sight of the line. Since we were just on the line, and I had no air, I agreed to slowly go to the surface. I thought we would come up a little off the line but the current had gotten so bad on the surface that when we came up we were maybe 200 feet away from the boat. I really was surprised. I was so pissed at myself for letting go of the line. I felt like I put this new buddy at risk by letting go. When we surfaced we both thought we would be right near the boat because we had come up the line to 20 feet. How could I have been so stupid? I let a stupid OOA situation that I thought I had handled well get me off course. At this point we couldnt go back down and navigate over to the boat because he was down to 800 psi, I still had 1400 but my secondary didnt work. We signaled to the boat that we were OK and Buddy 2 was already on board. We began to swim toward the boat. At first we were making ground but all of a sudden, the waves and current began to pull us away from the boat and we were now about 300 ft out and we werent making any ground. My buddy began to tell me he was getting ready to drop his weight belt because it was too much when I noticed his BC wasnt fully inflated. I immediately told him not to drop his weight belt but to inflate your BC all the way. The captain started the motor and came over and picked us up. I was very embarrassed. The captain and the dive master told me that yesterday the dive master simply lost the line and they had to go get him. But, that didnt make me feel much better.
On the surface I kept kicking myself for letting go of the line. I was trying to decide if we could try to change octos on the surface. Have any of you tried to change out a setup on the surface? Will the BC stay inflated if you disconnect the pressure hose? I know you can inflate your wing and shut off the air, but will the air escape if you disconnect the hose? If it wont will a standard BC work the same? If the BC or wing will stay inflated, then it could be possible to change out a reg and swap over to the take the one with the most air. Right? Then you could buddy breath it back under the water. Right? Anyone know the answers? I think this is something I want to explore. Man, I really thought that the OOA was handled well until the very end. I am glad we didnt buddy breath to the surface from off the bottom when it happened. Who knows where we would have surfaced. Isnt it funny how my PADI OW taught that method instead of calmly looking for the anchor line? I personally think that their method should be changed to consider deeper ocean diving. I am glad I had read other training methods because I feel like I was able to handle the situation better with some different skills other than the basic OW/AOW that I was taught in my PADI class.
This whole thing only solidified to me the reasons why TO dive a long hose and a necklace. With a long hose, it would have been easier to buddy breath. With a necklace it would have taken even less time to get the secondary. Heck I may not have buddy breathed at all.
I also learned how important it was for me to talk with my new buddies before the dive like I did. I remember telling them if they had an OOA, to donate the primary. Just calmly, take a breath and donate your primary. You know it is working and you can give them air right away. That was a valuable conversation. I prefer to donate my primary when giving air.
I boarded the boat and sat there checking everything out. I had 1200 psi in my tank and I didnt have an air source. I checked out my primary to see if I could have somehow breathed off of it. Honestly, I didnt try to at the time. I wish I had tried. I knew I had a secondary and I wasnt worried. I didnt even intend to buddy breath to the surface, which he expected. I just needed to get a clean breath of air and get my secondary. Maybe I could have used that primary somehow, that would have been my solution.
I had the dive master trainer on board look at the secondary and it was dry rotted
and the diaphragm was sticking. He told me to go back to the dive shop and have a talk with them.
Can anyone here answer the questions above? Have you tried to change out a reg like that? I know that sometimes when the air hasnt been bled out you cant even turn the value. That may have prevented the change all together.
I beat myself up pretty bad for letting go of that line and for not going back to it but I really didnt think we were that far away from the boat. Instead of beating myself up anymore, I want to learn from this experience. I want to know more about my own personal gear. I have been asking for an equipment training class for months and no one has one. Apparently there isnt enough interest to warrant the class. Maybe I will just have to get a book and teach myself.
I missed the fact that I was not with a buddy who I had been diving with. That buddy who knows my actions and I know his. The buddy that each of us knows how the other dives and what each other will do all the signals down pat and the experience of diving and of diving with each other. I know I will not always dive with a regular buddy but I do want a regular buddy to dive with. Unless you have a regular buddy and know what it is like to be in sync with each other and then not have that with another buddy, you just wont understand.
I want my buddy. My very own buddy. So I can hug him, and love him and pet him real nice George. Sorry just a joke. No, seriously, theres nothing like having YOUR buddy to dive with. Is it to much to ask for? That forever buddy. The one you dive with always.
Well, if anyone has some answers to the questions Ive asked, I sure would like to know them. Please dont be mean though my ego is bruise enough. I must say I was proud of myself for not panicking; two malfunctioning regs on the same dive is a lot to deal with. I guess I should have been more scared than pissed off. Also, my Buddy 1 followed my lead very well. He did get a bit scared, you could see it. But, he kept it together until we got on the boat. Then he needed a little time by himself. I would dive with him again. Anytime.
As for the fish I caught, it was just over 30 inches long and it was heavy. I have no idea how much it weighed. I took some pictures so when I get them scanned in I will show you THE ONE THAT DIDNT GET AWAY. LOL I had it cleaned and packed on ice and sent it to my grandfather because he said, Catch me some fish if you go fishing. : )
I was so looking forward to diving. I had not been diving for weeks and then what an experience.
Dive safe. R
