Missed the boat...Underwater strobe what distance is it visible?

[Stuart99]

Hi,
I dive off our BSAC boat on the North wall in Grand Cayman, it starts at 14m and drops to about 2000m. Its nice
However distracted by looking after my new buddy I stuffed up my navigation and missed my turn off the reef back to the boat ... resulting in a normal blue water ascent which was done effectively, only to find we were about 300m away from the boat- down wind and current, with a tough surface swim I would rather avoid doing again. ( I won't go into why the boat didn't drive over to pick us up...that's another story.) I think I just got a bit complacent with our Navigation and with a new site, an unusual amount of current and a fairly bland bit of reef.... Anyway, I stuffed up.
So as to avoid this again I am wondering if an underwater strobe hanging of the bow of the boat at 5m would work. How far can you see them in daylight? (before I buy one.)
The boat is normally moored at depth of 15m and 20m horizontally from the edge of the wall and vis is normally a good 15- 20m horizontally....
On a good day you can see the anchor line from the wall. As long as the wind doesn't change and blow it away from you, which it did on that day.
Another idea is a small weight with a long ribbon on it placed as we reach the wall.

Any blue water divers out there with experience of this? Or for that matter cold, green water divers.
Incidentally, my new buddy thought it was great!
I was less impressed.
S

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I don’t think this will work..for starters it would have to be 360...do you mean strobe as in camera strobe. I.e. ‘flash’ or a strobe as in ‘disco pulsing strobe’?

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Oh, hang on...I get it now...basically your question is, ‘can you see a strobe from 20m in decent daylight visibility’?.

that’s a tougher one. I suspect there are better options for marking the point on the wall. Bonaire forums have some. Small inflatables with a strobe on on the wall as opposed to on the boat perhaps..

 

[Stuart99]

One of these is what I had in mind.
TekTite Multifunction LED 3500 Strobe Light | Dive Gear Express®

 

[Stuart99]

Its more normally used on your bc. So if you get really lost the boat/helicopter can find you at night.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I keep one on my windscreen at night in Bonaire...I don’t think you will be able to see it underwater though.
If nightdiving on liveaboard teaches you anything, it’s how surprising it is that you don’t have to go far away from the boat before you lose sight of the powerful underwater boatlights..I suspect it may actually be worse during the day...

 

[Damselfish]

I think that’s a pretty decent strobe. I’ve seen similar used hanging under boats especially liveaboards on night dives - and they can be seen from a fairly long distance in good viz. At night. Sometimes people will even just try to stay in it’s range. But better to think of it as guidance for the last bit of the trip back and still have some navigational sense.

Daytime, I would expect it to wash out pretty quickly and doubt it’s the solution.

 

[ChuckP]

One of these is what I had in mind.
TekTite Multifunction LED 3500 Strobe Light | Dive Gear Express®

If it was hanging down or upright, you could see that 360, now for how far.....

In curaçao, we used a smb slightly inflated attached to a weight to mark where we went over the wall - one guy had this cool radar thing that could directionally point you back to it, tell you how far away etc. I bought a used one and never used it.

 

[Valyngar]

TekTite strobes are quite junk. If you want really a good strobe it's going to cost. This is best I have used. Trojan diving strobe eXtreme It is expensive though.

 

[Doc]

Strobe in daylight.

That, in itself, is a non-starter. You’ll neverr see one with any sort of sky in the background.

IF we are talking about returning along a reef structure, your “small weight long ribbon” idea, that’s kind of my method.

a 1# weight, a 15’ string, a plastic water bottle.

i plunk it in 20fsw (or whatever my return path depth is) and stumble into it at 20’. Aha...turn left.

I do this every time in Bonaire or wherever shore diving.

Failsafe. No batteries, all I have to pack is a string.