Near Miss on the Marissa Dive Boat (5/15/11) - San Diego

[ligersandtions]

Yes I know you were not on a tech dive... However you did say that you two are preparing for "bigger dives". My point is that if you stick with this hobby worse things will happen.

Tyler, thats what I was saying to Steven and Nicole, this incident was something all divers will encounter if you travel and charter.

I guess you two tolerate inattentiveness more than I do...

I consider the crew to be part of my team when I'm diving, and I will choose my team based on who I can trust. I have dive ops who have earned my trust and I will continue to dive with them.

 

[California Diver]

I guess you two tolerate inattentiveness more than I do...

I consider the crew to be part of my team when I'm diving, and I will choose my team based on who I can trust. I have dive ops who have earned my trust and I will continue to dive with them.

Good on you, just be warned of the stories you don't know or the ones divemasters won't tell, every boat has some.

 

[scubadobadoo]

The boat was NOT drifting due to picking up divers who had blown off the wreck!



Lora acknowledges that the mooring line broke, they drifed away and didn't notice, and then came to pick us up.

It amazes me that you have had to mention this 1000 times and people still seem to forget it. THEY DIDN'T NOTICE and that is why you bobbed on the surface no matter how many minutes. This would be a different thread if you hadn't remained cool and stayed put on the mooring ball they drifted from.

I can honestly say that based on the Captain's comment mentioned earlier with the F word, my family and my many gay friends in LA will not dive on their homophobic boat. No big deal though as there aren't any homosexuals in SoCal.

 

[Cave Diver]

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[Jax]

I wonder what NDL plan was being followed... As originally planned 6+ mins of deco.
Decompression model: VPM - B

Does it matter?

The boat assuredly knew they were not up, via the comment "one crew member even mentioned the fact that she had lamented that, “If they’re going to do this long of a dive, they really should let us know beforehand.” "

 

[Mizer67]

Not sure why so many keep pinging on "dive from a boat it's gonna happen". OP never said that what happened was the problem (at least as I read it). The have repeatedly said that the crew's response was the problem. Personally, I've never dove in SD, and I don't know any of the folks involved. I do know, that if someone makes a mistake (like breaking mooring and not noticing for the better part of 1/2 hour) and isn't willing to admit or learn from that mistake, I would not trust them with my life a second time. The old saying fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me comes to mind.
I would imagine fear of lawyers may play into it. Never admit guilt is the lawyers first rule of liability. But I don't care how old and salty you are, if you screwed the pooch, at least graciously accept the suggestions for things you should have been doing anyway (maintaining navigation watch and look out discipline). I mean if you didn't notice the buoys drifting away, how would you notice a diver drifting away, or a diver in trouble and surfacing on another buoy line.
I know divers who won't admit or correct mistakes and under no circumstance would I buddy with them to dive. Same goes for charter captains or DMs who can't or won't admit to being a human being.
That's all I have to say about that.

 

[ligersandtions]

I'm not sure how analyzing our dive profile is really relevant to the thread. Our doing an NDL vs deco dive isn't why the mooring line broke and the crew did not notice.


Also, I've been informed that the Marissa is now employing the use of a drift alarm and actively monitoring the location of the boat. I don't know if this was the result of this thread or of our correspondence (I suspect the former....if she had said they'd be doing this back in May after this incident happened, this thread would never have seen the light of day).

Either way, it sounds like the Marissa has taken actions to ensure this type of situation does not happen again and that's all I was hoping for. I do hope they continue with this and prove to be a safe dive op. I believe this thread has pretty well run its course and should probably be locked now.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. Glad to hear nothing worse happened. I have dived on the Marissa and thought they are a well-run outfit. What you describe in your very clearly written and easy-to-follow account gives me deep concern. Kudos to you for keeping the cool on the surface in such bad conditions. Of course it's always tricky to draw a conclusion without hearing the other party, but from what you describe the Marissa crew's behavior and follow-up of the incident are unacceptable. 45 minutes is a perfectly acceptable and standard duration of a dive, so there is no reason for the crew to complain about it. Plus, that only reveals a lack of preparedness and communication on their part, suggesting they never bothered to discuss dive times with the customers. And finally, I'd tell the crew that if you're leaving divers behind because you're not paying attention, it doesn't matter how long they were diving, it's YOUR responsibility to make sure your divers are safe and tended to before and after the dive.

One thing that was not clear to me, is what your dive profile was. From your mention of a 40-foot stop and wearing doubles, I was led to believe you were doing a decompression dive. But later in the article you are mentioning NDLs. That left me confused.

 

[Garth]

Everyone loves dive boats that cater to divers... frequent divers... return customers... etc...

So good business sense would be to apologize for the situation that occurred and offer compensation or a deal. At the same token. -

I don't know how the situation occurred and how the two divers in the water for the extended period of time responded to staff and after the incident. I've seen the response by some (yuppy/uppidy) divers and a compensation is tough to swallow.
I would have definitely offered free air for sure.

 

[merxlin]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Post regarding deco diving and it's definition have been moved here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/389672-what-defines-deco-dive.html as they have nothing to do with the incident. Please stay on topic.

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