Anchor Almost Dropped on Head - What Would You Do?

[Dsix36]

What should you have done?

You should have thanked God that no divers were injured due to their own stupidity, ignorance, or laziness in dive flag laws.

It would seem that this thread has schooled you a bit and now if you continue the same way, it will most definitely be all on you next time.

I have actually had an anchor fall on my legs while diving. It hurt like hell and made my return swim almost unbearable. i did absolutely nothing and said nothing to the others on the boat when I returned. Why? Because I had left the area and was in route to a different wreck when it happened. Get it? No dive flag or dive boat for surface notification and thus not the fault of the boater.

I was caught by a trolling fishing boat once too. Same situation without a flag. I learned my lesson this time as I was drug over 100 yards before I could get cut loose.

 

[vincent54]

I often shore dive without my float and flag, and it is out of laziness and because I forget it back at the house. Not only is it stupid, it puts myself and buddies at risk. There is no excuse, no weather or no dive that should prevent it. The boater is not responsible, unless he is in a boat restricted area, to look out for any diver. As in motorcycling, be defensive because collisions never end well. I use a velcro wrist strap that hopefully will release if a boat happens to catch my float line.

Even if you are right, vigilante justice just makes the problem worse. If they are drunk, call the police and let them handle it. It is hard to engage in fisticuffs when you have tanks, weights, fins, octopus, smb, mask and a camera, while in a wet suit. You'll get your butt kicked.
Glad it worked out well though. Cheers

 

[drbill]

Do you know the dive flag laws in Australia where this diver had their experience?

Don't assume every location on Earth has the same dive flag laws. We do not tow floats here in California, although most of my diving in areas where recreational boats are present is off a dive boat that flies both the Alpha and the red-and-white flags. That doesn't stop a lot of bozo boat operators who seem to zero in on the boat with the flags.

What should you have done?

You should have thanked God that no divers were injured due to their own stupidity, ignorance, or laziness in dive flag laws.

 

[fsardone]

Do you know the dive flag laws in Australia where this diver had their experience?

Don't assume every location on Earth has the same dive flag laws. We do not tow floats here in California, although most of my diving in areas where recreational boats are present is off a dive boat that flies both the Alpha and the red-and-white flags. That doesn't stop a lot of bozo boat operators who seem to zero in on the boat with the flags.

I did not, but as I said code of navigation air (I am also a pilot) and sea is pretty standard because you can fly and navigate a plane/vessel registered in your country pretty much anywhere in the world.

Easy to look up tough: from the West Australia Department of Transporation:
========
Diving without a vessel

Divers operating without a vessel must also display the International code flag "A".
The flag may be displayed from a jetty (for example) and must be at least 750mm long and 600mm wide.
Exception to size: If displayed from a buoy, the flag must not be less than 300 mm in length and 200 mm in width.
The flag must be clearly visible to all vessels operating in the vicinity.
=======

Goes without saying that diving from the boat the boat has to display the flag. Not the usual red with white diagonal white line but the international code Alpha .....

Interestingly enough also California forbids to be more than 200 yrds from shore without a flag ...

Los Angeles County:
17.12.450 Swimming and other water activities--Restrictions.

A person shall not swim, bathe or immerse himself in the Pacific Ocean opposite any beach regulated by this Part 3 more than 200 yards seaward from the shore except:
[...]
C. A person who dives from a vessel and who displays while diving either a rectangular flag 12 by 15 inches, orange-red in color with a white diagonal stripe three inches wide running from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner, or the lights and/or flag prescribed in Rule 27 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea as set forth in 72 COLREGS as published with the Proclamation of January 19, 1977 at 42 FR 17112, March 31, 1977 and amended by the document annexed to the Proclamation of June 16, 1983, and published at 48 FR 28634, June 23, 1983, or as Rule 27 may be subsequently amended and accepted by the President of the United States of America, above the surface of the water in the vicinity of the dive;

Similarly, here is part of Section 12.08.040 in Manhattan Beach:

No person shall swim, bathe, or immerse himself in the water of the Pacific Ocean opposite any beach regulated by this chapter more than two hundred (200) yards from the shore except ... C. A skin diver equipped with swim fins and a face plate if at all times he maintains within fifty (50) yards of himself a boat or a surf mat, paddle board or surf board upon which there is a rectangular flag twelve by fifteen inches, orange-red in color with a white diagonal stripe three inches wide running from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner. The flag shall be flown high enough so as not to touch the water.​

Your milage will vary, but everybody everywhere in the world has to avoid code alpha and the diver down flag (the latter not a legal requirements in some part of the world), nowhere is forbidden to tow a float (as far as I know) so carrying it is insurance!
Cheers

Fabio

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Actually there is one place where you don't tow a float, flag, or shoot an SMB from depth. The shipping channel in the St Lawrence river. Do that and you face a fine as they have to shut down the channel and it takes a lot of room and time to stop a 500 ft freighter.

 

[fsardone]

Actually there is one place where you don't tow a float, flag, or shoot an SMB from depth. The shipping channel in the St Lawrence river. Do that and you face a fine as they have to shut down the channel and it takes a lot of room and time to stop a 500 ft freighter.

Yup!
Guess there is some other rule forbidding to dive into ports channels and the sort, not an expert in dive regs. Navigation rules are federal and international, diving rules are local (County, State).

Fabio

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Well no rule about diving in it. You can do that. Just don't come up in the middle of the channel. Pretty cool to be down on a wreck when ones of the big ones goes over. You can feel the vibration from the screws through your whole body. Very cool.

 

[Stoo]

Actually there is one place where you don't tow a float, flag, or shoot an SMB from depth. The shipping channel in the St Lawrence river. Do that and you face a fine as they have to shut down the channel and it takes a lot of room and time to stop a 500 ft freighter.

You aren't referring to JB are you Jim? Blown off the Jodrey and drifted down the channel... It was pretty funny I thought... Although both the boat guy and he were fined for bringing the entire economy of central North America to a halt for a short while...

Back to the topic, I think that this whole thing is a non-issue. Diver chooses not to tow a marker in "very popular fishing and recreational boating location", so diver assumes the risk that nobody knows he's there, and should expect stuff to be falling from the surface. Diver also seems to feel that "he" has some sort of claim to exclusive use of the sea. Diver assumes that his bubbles are breaking the surface remotely close to "directly above" him. Last I checked, oceans have currents which not only redirect rising bubbles, but also break them up into less discernible "fizzing" on the surface, especially if the surface is remotely choppy.

Should the boater have exhibited more care... perhaps. But perhaps he looked for a marker and saw none. Perhaps he looked for bubbles and saw none. So he dropped anchor. I think one could make an argument that he was very careful and avoided areas where RESPONSIBLE divers were flying flags.

Only my opinion of course...

 

[kwinter]

Do you know the dive flag laws in Australia where this diver had their experience?

Don't assume every location on Earth has the same dive flag laws. We do not tow floats here in California, although most of my diving in areas where recreational boats are present is off a dive boat that flies both the Alpha and the red-and-white flags. That doesn't stop a lot of bozo boat operators who seem to zero in on the boat with the flags.

Couple of problems with this, drbill. First, it doesn't matter if the law requires a surface float. It's just the smart thing to do. Unless prohibited like the St. Lawrence (learn something every day), there is no reason not to tow a float.

Second, they weren't diving from a boat, so there was no vessel with a flag. The OP said it was a shore dive in a popular boating area.


Please pardon any typos. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rich Keller]

I am not a big fan of using a dive flag either but in this situation I would have towed one or anchored a few along the route that you were going to dive. I did have something like this happen in a similar area but I had a flag and the people on my boat tried to warn off a boater who chose instead to just drive right over the flag. We were both moored there over night after the incident and later that night I did swim over and remove the nut that held his prop in place. I did not have a prop puller with me and I could not have removed it anyway without making any noise or I would have.