Lost camera off of Jupiter, FL

[Chugwhump]

Thanks for the story. Bummer about the camera. Good point about looking for it down south with the south currents. I don't have a Nautilus Lifeline but thought about getting one because you never know. I have a friend who sent 4 back due to flooding. I wonder if this is a common issue or he was just unlucky. It's a dreaded feeling being "left at sea." I did the Ultimate Getaway in May and forgot to reattach my SMB to my gear from the previous dive. I got separated from Husband and ended up surfacing far from the boat. I was only on the surface for 25 minutes but got a little panicky when the boat started heading in the opposite direction. Turns out I WAS spotted and he was picking up other divers. I did the same trip again in July and attached a spare just in case. Dry Tortugas are FAR from land!! Hope you get the camera back.

I dive with three SMB sausage thingies.

Chug
'fraidy cat.

 

[Tom Winters]

Forgot the SMB huh? And 99.63% of the time, it wouldn't matter anyway.

I still see a lot of people forget their fins. Cracks me up each and every single time.

I think I use a 6' and I have them in both yellow and orange. The one to get for offshore is the OMS 9'7" job. And if you use it, fold it into a triangle and not straight up in the air like you're John Holmes.

It has 90 pounds of lift so you wouldn't routinely use it. The triangle shape will show up better to someone looking into that glaring morning sun from a flying bridge or worst case, spotters in an airplane. SAR people get zoned out quickly staring at the endless ocean - and you might only get glanced at once.

 

[mscott556]

Rat-man,
plug in your Nautilus to your PC and download the waypoints for when you hit the button to call. All those locations should be downloadable from your unit. This will give you a track of your drift and potential search area for your camera. Good luck, I lost my GoPro out of Hillsboro a few weeks ago myself.

Good idea, I'll see what I can pull up.

 

[MrChen]

Why were you so far from the boat?

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[mscott556]

Here are the points after activating the radio. Surface current was moving north. If I had to guess, I'd say it came off closer to the first point at the bottom.
http://goo.gl/maps/oO2WG

 

[Mike Walsh]

GOOD LUCK :depressed:

 

[Tom Winters]

Maybe you oughta be looking at British Airways for a flight next spring so you can go to Land's End in Penzance Cornwall and wait for your camera to drift by?

 

[islanddream]

We were on the same boat as rat-man and all of us were on the lookout for him and the other diver. Our captain was covering a lot of territory during the search. The seas were very high and it was hard to identify SMBs with the huge waves. After rat-man and the other diver got on the boat, everyone was saying they were buying the Nautilus Lifeline because they saw the positive results. We have a Nautilus Lifeline but never even took it on a dive with us. After experiencing this episode, the very next day we had the Nautilus attached to hubby's BCD where it will stay forever more!

Rat-man....I hope you find your camera. I really felt bad for you....not only drifting for almost 1 1/2 hours but also losing your camera! And the really crappy thing about the whole deal was.....the diving sucked (except the shark dive)! Vis was bad, seas were high, the wind was blowing....UGH!

 

[Mike Walsh]

I lost many things Lobster equipment / a fin / gloves / My worst camera flooded .........

 

[n2ogto]

The boat (Republic IIV) we were on looked for you too on the way to our second dive. Hope you get the camera back! ROUGH seas that day for sure, I hardly ever chum.....