Personal Boat Diving

[Big Bend Brian]

If you are offshore I’d highly recommend having someone on the boat capable of running it. When I’m offshore we take turns diving and rotate in. Now if you’re close to the shoreline and could swim in that’s a different story IMO.
Brian

 

[yardpro]

i dive unattended quite a bit... i have no worries if i am comfortable with bottom, anchor, weather, etc..

 

[grey2112]

I've done both. Lately when we leave the boat unattended we have a surface marker buoy that has a pelican case attached to it with a sat phone/message device, EPIRB, and flashing light. But I've more of a mind now to simply have enough people on board to be able to stagger our divers so that there's always someone up top that keeps the boat in idle and circles the marker buoy waiting for the divers to come up - this way I can come to them and get them, saving them from a long swim back, and they can show me ideal spots where good reef/structure is and next time we'll hit the bullseye on where to drop.

 

[gmountai]

If possible I would dive with a tender, but that is based on an incident me and 3 buddies had diving Molasses Reef back in the '70s. Surfaced to find our boat nowhere to be seen. Fortunately the Coast Guard found it and found us floating next to the buoy a bit later in the evening. We got a pretty stern lecture from the CG that has stuck with me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

 

[tomfcrist]

If possible I would dive with a tender, but that is based on an incident me and 3 buddies had diving Molasses Reef back in the '70s. Surfaced to find our boat nowhere to be seen. Fortunately the Coast Guard found it and found us floating next to the buoy a bit later in the evening. We got a pretty stern lecture from the CG that has stuck with me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

Molasses reef should be named Vitric reef...it's the whole reason for the molasses name.

 

[SouthFla]

Done both (attended vs non) since diving off my own boat for 15+ years. Common sense goes along way in these matters...

A few years back, me and my partner decided to leave the families behind and enjoy a relaxing dive with just ourselves on my proudly-new-to-me 32' Whaler. My bud's a working marine biologist w/20 years active boating and diving experience, and I'm a former marine biologist and police-certified diver w/like credentials. VERY long story short-we came up from a beautiful 100' reef dive to find our boat gone (stolen) and us floating out in the middle of the ocean . You know that sick-to-your-stomach feeling when you reach for your wallet and realize it's not there? Amplify that by a million LOL...Gotta LOVE Miami

So much for our awesome boating and diving creds

Common sense now has us with a boat tender who can work the radio and boat in case of an emergency....FWIW good luck!