Diver Drowned in Pompano

[Padipro]

Here in South Florida an EPIRB is not really necessary on a dive boat because if you're far enough off the coast to need one you won't be diving anyway. Anything more then about a mile off shore is to deep to dive, at least recreationally. Most of the time we're so close to shore that it wouldn't really be all that hard to swim back to shore if there was a real problem. You might get swept up the coast by the current but you could make it back.

I've dove with him many times in 3 to 4 foot seas and just as you time a surf entry/exit inbetween waves you time your exit onto the dive platform the same way. Never really had trouble with it.

Scott

Genesis once bubbled...
A ladder is as basic a piece of equipment as is an EPIRB and O2 kit for a boat supporting divers.

How the hell do you board in 3-4' seas?

No thanks....

 

[Genesis]

A news report claims the owner of the boat is the one who perished, and it was a 27 footer.

Not exactly an inflatable or a kayak.

WTF is this guy doing getting out of the water without his gear on? No ladder? On a $100,000 boat? Too cheap to spend $400 on an Armstrong bracket ladder, when you have 100k tied up in the vessel?

This just underlines the point - this death was inexcusable.

Folks, if you're going to dive off a boat, take reasonable safety precautions. There is no reason on god's green earth why you should be reboarding without your gear on unless the vessel simply CANNOT accomodate a ladder.

A 27' boat (ANY 27' boat) CAN accomodate a ladder, and if the owner is too cheap to install or maintain one, find a different vessel to dive from.

BTW, 1 mile off the beach may as well be 100 miles off if the wind and/or surface current is running the wrong way. You may think an EPIRB is not a big deal in those conditions, but you'd be wrong. Yes, the prevailing wind is from the east over there, but if you have a WEST wind your next stop might be the somewhere near Nova Scotia, as if you get too far west you get into the gulf stream and once that happens you're cooked.

Open water is open water. If you're boating in the ocean a working VHF radio and EPIRB are, IMHO, simply not optional pieces of safety equipment.

Just this summer a guy was out fishing not far off the beach when his motor took a dump. He had a VHF but no EPIRB on board. He called SeaTow. They played games with coming out to get him. The surface drift was away from shore; several hours later he was very near the gulf stream and drifting northward at a knot and a half.

Fortunately another boater overheard the "discussions" between him and shore and passed him a line, pulling him out of danger.

This was an INTACT boat (other than not having propulsion), yet he still could have easily expired in a day or two due to lack of provisions, and batteries, without engine power, eventually go flat.

Bring the safety equipment or don't go out on the water.

We'd like to see you all back on dry land.

 

[pdoege]

I have some experience here.

Reboarding is not an issue.

1. You clip off your gear to the yak, with the exception of your fins and suit
2. You get the tank/BC back into the tankwell by pulling it up the opposite side from you. (Large LP tanks, canister lights, and BPs are not recommended, but I have done it.)
3. You climb in. You are only climbing about 4 inches or so.

No problems. I've successfully re-entered my yak in 3 foot seas. Not really fun, but very doable.

I have a VHF and a cellphone on board. Extra batts for the VHF. No EPIRB.

Peter

 

[CBulla]

Genesis once bubbled...
A news report claims the owner of the boat is the one who perished, and it was a 27 footer.

Not exactly an inflatable or a kayak.

WTF is this guy doing getting out of the water without his gear on? No ladder? On a $100,000 boat? Too cheap to spend $400 on an Armstrong bracket ladder, when you have 100k tied up in the vessel?

This just underlines the point - this death was inexcusable.

Folks, if you're going to dive off a boat, take reasonable safety precautions. There is no reason on god's green earth why you should be reboarding without your gear on unless the vessel simply CANNOT accomodate a ladder.

A 27' boat (ANY 27' boat) CAN accomodate a ladder, and if the owner is too cheap to install or maintain one, find a different vessel to dive from.

This underlines what I have been saying for over 20 years that it is simply to easy for people to purchase and operate boats. There is no training, there is limited liability and accountability, and safety regulations are minimal at best and followed only by conscious boaters, most of whom believe those are the only real rules.

 

[Genesis]

that you cite, however.

As evidence I offer that some of the WORST seamanship I've witnessed has come from commercial, licensed captains!

These are people who are subject to all that regulation and control, and had to pass a test to get their ticket in the first place. It hasn't mattered.

 

[CBulla]

I hear you about those captains. Incidentally, I have learned of 2 people with captains licenses here locally that have no practical experience what so ever. One of these people aquired all the required hours on a JET SKI (about 8 or 9 weeks ago this person tested and passed the captains test), the other person was merely a passenger in a boat and frequently rode with her husband when he went to work the crab traps (she works with me).

Hearing that stuff has really pulled credibility of the captains license down for me.