Near Miss on the Marissa Dive Boat (5/15/11) - San Diego

[salty5150]

I'm with the captain, 1st let me say that scuba diving is a dangerous sport!
Way too many people lose sight of that, everyone has there own opinion
no matter if it's right or wrong. It's also very important to listen to the captain
or DM when they briefing you, just because you have been on a thousand dive
boats doesn't mean they all operate the same! In my opinion all I see is a few people
that had a bad day, an accident happened and it sounds like it was handled
in a safe way.

[Bubbletrubble]

Thanks, ligersandtions, for sharing your story. I'm sorry that you had to experience that. I'm glad you guys are OK.

The captain and dive op should have been extremely apologetic about not being on-the-ball.

I can empathize with the situation of having a Marissa gift certificate but not being thrilled about using it. I still have a couple of vouchers for dives on the Marissa. Unfortunately, the vouchers were purchased under the old management (pre-2009). At the time of the transition to the new company, we were informed that the vouchers would be honored. Not sure if that would be the case today. The last time I dived off of the Marissa was last year. I didn't witness any egregious safety issues, but I just didn't get the same air of professionalism and warm-and-fuzzy feeling that I got with the previous captain/DM combo. I learned my lesson not to purchase several gift certificates ahead of time. Companies can declare bankruptcy, be dissolved, or simply change management and become less desirable to do business with.

I would have to call BS on the "expired points" issue. If your parents paid $500 for the gift certificate, then that should be the current value of the gift certificate. As aquaregia pointed out, "gift certificates" don't expire in the state of California (in most cases).

I've always had good service & communication with the Marissa Crew --of course I always tell them my route through the Yukon wreck and total dive time to surface.

I've always had a good time on the Marissa. Sad to say I no longer will. Count me as another lost customer (frankly, I don't much care about their side of the story).

@Kevrumbo and Blackwood: Have you guys dived off of the Marissa in the last couple of years? Just curious if you were familiar with the new management at all. I really liked it when Carl and Anita were running the show. Never really got a chance to get to know Brandon and Lora (even though she was the one that previously helped check us in on the boat).

[diverrex]

I can't even begin to believe its possible to drift away from the site and not realize it. If the boat isn't even paying attention to where they are what are they paying attention to? I haven't dived the Yukon yet but now I know I won't be uisng the Marissa. Thanks for the info.

[DwayneJ]

Preface:

Instead, I was told that my “gift certificates have no cash value”, so the only way to not waste the money my parents spent on us is to go dive off their boat again and risk being left at sea again. In response to this, I asked if we could sell our credits to others who are still willing to dive off the boat (even after having heard this story) and was then told that $100 worth of my credits had expired (even though the email clearly states that they expire 12/30/11) and that she would not allow the $170 credit to be transferred, so we could sell up to $230 of them. So basically, we wasted $270 to be left out in the middle of the ocean.
.

There is always two sides to a story and my experiences with the Marissa have been extremely positive - PM me if you want to sell your "shares" and I will throw in an extra $100.

Dwayne

[Blackwood]

@Kevrumbo and Blackwood: Have you guys dived off of the Marissa in the last couple of years? Just curious if you were familiar with the new management at all. I really liked it when Carl and Anita were running the show. Never really got a chance to get to know Brandon and Lora (even though she was the one that previously helped check us in on the boat).

I have, but don't recall any specific impressions. I too like Anita and Carl, even with the accompanying ribbing I get for diving open circuit. :P

[GrumpyOldGuy]

There are 2 sides to most stories, mooring lines do sometimes break and crews sometimes make mistakes, this is the nature of life on the ocean.

Since you joined just to blast the OP and your post is chock full of personal attacks and insults, I (probably along with most others) would dismiss your rant as some friend trying to protect a crew member. Admirably but not really effective in the manner executed.

If as you said, the captain allowed the boat to drift to pickup other AOW divers safely, then all he has to do was say that when they finally did pick up the OP. My guess is it would have been a non-issue for the OP.

I personally have never seen a captain let tech divers splash without knowing their planned run time. The double tanks wave a big flag that is could be a long dive and safety aside, the captain has a schedule to keep, especially with an AOW class on board.

I do think the OP screwed up by not complaining at the time to the captain. I am such an SOB I would have done so ASAP, but I am old and grumpy so it comes naturally.

If you feel the boat and crews are being unfairly attacked, please share this thread with them. A response with their side of the story would be most informative and might explain what happened in a more positive light.

[ZenDiver.3D]

I can see if a boat was floating free after breaking their line, and they had divers on the drift line, they would not start engines, but float free while getting everyone onboard. That could take 1-5 minutes per diver, depending on rough conditions and gear. Then pull in the line and circle back around to get the other divers. 20 to 30 minutes easily. And for the ones floating in high waves, it would look as though they weren't paying you any attention.

We have had to go chase our divers who let the current pull them around an island on a drift and then return back to pick up me and my group. Almost 30 minutes. They knew where we were, we just had to wait our turn.

I am not taking sides for either grouping here, just noting some things.

I am also curious about your dive planning. You don't make a dive plan for an average depth. You must factor in your maximum depth. At 100 ft, and 40 minutes, you weren't pushing ndl's, you were right into deco for 81ft ead. By calculating a 90ft on ean, you were shaving your numbers.

[TSandM]

I don't know the boat or the site. But I DO know, from personal experience, that Steven and Nicole are not "newbies" or "tech wannabees". They are experienced Southern California divers who know their gear -- and who has not left the lens cap on a camera once or twice?

It is not common practice in most agencies to calculate and execute a dive based on depth averaging, but it is in ours.

I don't know about SoCal boats, but a 47 minute dive would be quite normal for Puget Sound charter boats. Most of my experience is on the Peace, where on occasion, they will ask us to limit our dives to an hour -- implying they are expecting some of us might exceed that. Of course, if this is a deep site and most divers on the boat use air, the time a Nitrox diver might expect to run could be a surprise.

If the boat had broken moorings and the crew had not noticed it, I'd be very annoyed and unhappy with that boat. If they were not apologetic, I'd be even MORE unhappy -- and the response of the captain, as reported, would put me off that boat. I am going to San Diego in December, and I will not use the Marissa.

[mathauck0814]

It's really a shame that this happened - it's even more of a shame that so many have been fast to slander and dismiss the Marissa as an option. It's a great boat and my wife and I have had a number of very positive interactions with Lora and Brandon. Hopefully they will post a response so that we can hear their side of the story. In the meanwhile, I'm very happy to continue diving with them.

[Rainer]

So sorry to hear about this TERRIBLE experience, ligersandtions. Not only was the crew of the Marissa quite incompetent that day, but their refusal to apologize and take remedies to prevent another such occurrence is both telling and sad. I, too, will be joining the others here in avoiding the Marissa for future San Diego trips.

The reality is, the Marissa USED to be a very good operation in San Diego when Carl and Anita ran it. It's certainly gone downhill since then.

A great operator is defined not just by how he runs day to day trips where everything goes well, but how they handle cases out of the norm (e.g. broken mooring line). The Marissa crew really blew it here. Pretty pathetic.

For great diving in San Diego, stick with Humboldt (http://www.waterhorsecharters.com/), Lois Ann (http://www.loisann.com/), or Yellow Boat (http://www.yellowcharterboat.com/).