Lucy's Diver
Contributor
Third day of diving (one 2 tank trip per day) with one of the Keys based outfits. My wife and I have about 20 logged dives each sonce OW cert in August.
She and I were one of two 2 person dive teams on a six pack boat. We got beat up pretty good ont he way to the dive site in 4-6 foot chop.
Eveyone wanted to dive, especially the other dive team (who drove 3 hours to get there for this one trip). The vis was poor for the site, only 8 feet or so, and there was significant current. There were several other dive boats moored nearby.
We went to the bottom (40 feet) down the mooring line and began a series of short out and back forays form the mooring line, relying on compass headings and landmarks to get back. The other dive team was on their own doing basically the same thing.
My wife and I were taking turns leading these forays. She was leading us back to the mooring line. I was following her closely. I was scanning side to side, saw the line a few feet to my right and grabbed it, thinking she would do the same as we had traded hand signals for "boat" and she led us. I looked to where she should have been (on the line) and then to where she should have been had she missed the line and she was nowhere to be seen. She had swum past the line. I noticed that the other buddy team also had become seperated, as one of them was hanging on his safety stop alone. Both those guys were more experienced than us.
I swam around for about a minute (never leaving easy return to the line) looking for her and went up the line, including my safety stop. Once up, I saw that one of the other team members was in the boat and had been for some time. The other member was getting in the boat. A diver from another boat had become seperated from his team and was getting on our boat by himself. My wife had not been seen. I got into the boat without incident, removed my gear, and began scanning all around the boat. About three long minutes later we saw her bobbing in the chop more than a hundred yards away. We went and picked her up.
Turns out she never saw the line and never looked back for me until she was out of sight. I looked for her just as soon as I grabbed the line, but she was lost in the murk and the current had sufficiently turned me around that I was not certain of her direction of travel.
She looked for me for a minute and did her safety stop while drifting. She spotted the boat as soon as she came up, and had plenty of air left, so she tried several times without success to swim back to the boat about 8 feet down to try to get under the current.
She was only just getting ready to use the safety sausage and air horn I had gotten her. The time discrepancy was due to her attempts to reach the boat under the current.
I guess we should have stayed closer and I should have risked losing sight of the line to grab her rather than assuming she saw the line.
She and I were one of two 2 person dive teams on a six pack boat. We got beat up pretty good ont he way to the dive site in 4-6 foot chop.
Eveyone wanted to dive, especially the other dive team (who drove 3 hours to get there for this one trip). The vis was poor for the site, only 8 feet or so, and there was significant current. There were several other dive boats moored nearby.
We went to the bottom (40 feet) down the mooring line and began a series of short out and back forays form the mooring line, relying on compass headings and landmarks to get back. The other dive team was on their own doing basically the same thing.
My wife and I were taking turns leading these forays. She was leading us back to the mooring line. I was following her closely. I was scanning side to side, saw the line a few feet to my right and grabbed it, thinking she would do the same as we had traded hand signals for "boat" and she led us. I looked to where she should have been (on the line) and then to where she should have been had she missed the line and she was nowhere to be seen. She had swum past the line. I noticed that the other buddy team also had become seperated, as one of them was hanging on his safety stop alone. Both those guys were more experienced than us.
I swam around for about a minute (never leaving easy return to the line) looking for her and went up the line, including my safety stop. Once up, I saw that one of the other team members was in the boat and had been for some time. The other member was getting in the boat. A diver from another boat had become seperated from his team and was getting on our boat by himself. My wife had not been seen. I got into the boat without incident, removed my gear, and began scanning all around the boat. About three long minutes later we saw her bobbing in the chop more than a hundred yards away. We went and picked her up.
Turns out she never saw the line and never looked back for me until she was out of sight. I looked for her just as soon as I grabbed the line, but she was lost in the murk and the current had sufficiently turned me around that I was not certain of her direction of travel.
She looked for me for a minute and did her safety stop while drifting. She spotted the boat as soon as she came up, and had plenty of air left, so she tried several times without success to swim back to the boat about 8 feet down to try to get under the current.
She was only just getting ready to use the safety sausage and air horn I had gotten her. The time discrepancy was due to her attempts to reach the boat under the current.
I guess we should have stayed closer and I should have risked losing sight of the line to grab her rather than assuming she saw the line.
