It's done regularly and safely every day. One of the skills that make it safe to do these kind of dives is "getting back to the anchor line before surfacing". This way you can hit a specific target area, and not have to deal with the dangers of big swells and faster currents at the surface.[/quote'
As i said before that isnt normally possible given the tides changes, resulting currents and low visibility. Add that to the face having to return to a line can shorten the amount of time you can spent exploring the area by near 50% as you have to turn back. Combine that with the fact its not great policy to anchor a boat in rough seas/strong currents as its (i) not comfortable and (ii) its response time if needed to get to a diver in trouble or pick up a drifting pair is massively reduced.
This is the normal procedure where I dive. If the dive boats only went out in flat conditions, I'd get in about two dives a year
Thats probably the same number id get. The sea here is never flat, never calm and the weather is normally poor as well.
I've done some wonderful wreck dives off the east coast here. I have however had days where after arriving and entering in relativly benign conditions, I've come back up to a completely different ocean after a short 45 minutes or so. When the swells and current get rolling good, you can barely see even a tall marker buoy that's relatively close to the boat.
Quite common here as well, the 5-6ft DSMBs are usually very visibible even when the sea is rough and ive never yet seen a boat thats had difficulty finding one PROVIDED the boat skipper has some sense and stays in the general/expected area. They can be seen from a very long way off given better conditions.
I don't care how I accomplish it, whether it's via a reel or uber-navigating, I'm getting back to my original entry point if the boat is anchored.
I find it far easier to just shoot the bag up and have a boat waiting for me when i surface. Occasionally i have to wait if another pair surfaced just before in which case we bob and drift on the surface until they're recovered then it moves onto us.