Rescue procedure if diver blown off wreck?

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

As others said, you and your buddy stay on the shot/upline, it's up to the other buddy pair to sort themselves out. They should deploy a dSMB from the bottom, so that the boat is aware that someone drifted away, based a on procedure that you hopefully discussed before jumping in. Not sure whether you could do anything else - if the current is strong enough, they will get exhausted and blown off from the wreck before you could perform any rescue.

I wouldn't consider it an emergency, drifting ascent/deco is pretty normal in any place that is tidal, you just need to make sure that people leave the wreck relatively close to each other - divers with longer planned runtimes should jump in first.

The only times it would be an emergency is when you must return to shot for your safety. Two examples:

• Very long decompressions where everyone needs to go back to a deco trapeze/lazy shot. In this case, drifting off means that you get away from the rest of the team, which might kill you if you have a problem - think problems such as leaking drysuit, bailing out from CCR to OC and having barely enough gas because you were planning team bailout, vertigo, ... I heard that e.g. in Malin Head (70 meter 3 hour runtimes) you learn a lot of new profanities from the skipper once you eventually get picked up if you don't return to shot.
• Diving shipping lanes - if you drift away, you get turned into fish feed by a passing ship.

 

[Gelirfella]

thanks everyone. Sounds like the prevailing wisdom is to stay on the line and ascend and hope the other team behaves appropriately.

Interesting point some have made about ditching the line to join a buddy. Out of curiosity, why not tie off to the up line before you go to join your buddy?

I took a rescue course but we didn’t cover potential rescues of this nature. I appreciate the need to not create two victims which is why I was curious about the reliability of tying off to the line before leaving it. Sounds like most think it isn’t a reliable solution for keeping you from drifting for miles. Intuitively it seems like if your line doesn’t break it’s a great way to limit the amount of drift you’ll have on ascent, but I guess there’s something I’m missing about it.

The opinion that grappling into wrecks is a bad approach is an interesting one. Not sure if there are any captains around but would be curious what the counter argument is.

 

[mr_v]

I took a rescue course but we didn’t cover potential rescues of this nature. I appreciate the need to not create two victims which is why I was curious about the reliability of tying off to the line before leaving it. Sounds like most think it isn’t a reliable solution for keeping you from drifting for miles. Intuitively it seems like if your line doesn’t break it’s a great way to limit the amount of drift you’ll have on ascent, but I guess there’s something I’m missing about it.

Wreck diving courses will cover these scenarios. You can tie off to the upline in some cases but not in this one. For example, a diver may use a Jon Line for deco. That line is typically strong but short. Tying off a reel to the upline won't make coming back to the upline much easier and there are better ways.

@Nick_Radov had a good point and the best overall advice. If you're diving wrecks, get the best boat/captain you can afford and see if you can limit the number of random people on the boat. It is not uncommon for a group of friends to buy out the boat. If you're diving cattle boats with many random people, let their rescue become the captain's problem. A good captain will have all rescue procedures dialed in and will explain what you need to do if you get blown off the wreck and how the boat will assist you. If a team is not comfortable with the advice, e.g., "we can't do drift diving/deco," let the captain deal with them.

The opinion that grappling into wrecks is a bad approach is an interesting one. Not sure if there are any captains around but would be curious what the counter argument is.

I am not sure what "grappling into wrecks" means in this context. But you can attach a line to a wreck and ascend, if required. See New Jersey Upline.

 

[Gelirfella]

I am not sure what "grappling into wrecks" means in this context. But you can attach a line to a wreck and ascend, if required. See New Jersey Upline.

I mean anchoring to a wreck, either by dropping a grapple to catch the wreck or having a diver secure to the wreck depending on the site, wreck, etc.

just curious what the counter argument is to always doing a drifting ascent with a “live boat” for pickup.

 

[Gelirfella]

Tying off a reel to the upline won't make coming back to the upline much easier and there are better ways.

Would it limit your drift reliably though, similar to the way northeast divers tie directly to the wreck and ascend when they can’t get back to the line?

 

[mr_v]

I mean anchoring to a wreck, either by dropping a grapple to catch the wreck or having a diver secure to the wreck depending on the site, wreck, etc.

just curious what the counter argument is to always doing a drifting ascent with a “live boat” for pickup.

You can't do drift dives/deco ascends everywhere. Sometimes wrecks are close to shipping lanes and you will have to ascend on the wreck. That's how New Jersey uplines were invited.

 

[mr_v]

Would it limit your drift reliably though, similar to the way northeast divers tie directly to the wreck and ascend when they can’t get back to the line?

Yes, it would. Also, consider the following:

- Most reels and spools are not designed to carry multiple divers in the way that you've described in the first post, i.e., reel the team back to the upline.

- If you use a typical reel/spool tied off to the line, you'll have to cut it, pollute when you are on the surface. You will also need to signal to the boat, so you will still have to deploy an surface marker.

- NJ uplines are much stronger and have biodegradable material so you can leave them behind. Basically, they're better solutions for some scenarios.

 

[VsubT]

When I dived in the most insane current I've ever experienced (Spiegel Grove), the skipper said that if we lost the wreck/shot line, he'd never see us again. That focused the mind. Brave talk from an operator that just threw a couple of tourists unguided in to the maelstrom!

This skipper's comment may have been in jest or intended to scare you and your fellow divers into staying on the down line, but it could also create more problems when things start to go wrong. A diver with a minor problem that could be resolved easily on a drifting ascent could easily cascade into panic if they're too stressed by losing the line and fighting current to get back to it. Stuff usually gets wierder from there.

I'm a big fan of hot drops in stronger current, but that method requires set-up skills on the captain's part and often a negative entry + quick descent by the divers. Other factors on the diver side can complicate this (trouble equalizing quickly, type of gear used, etc.), requiring longer up-current lead distance on the drop and better "Kentucky windage" estimation by the captain.

Combinations of these hot drop factors not lining up are what cause divers to miss wrecks on hot drops. So, some operators keep using the down-line method in strong current to mitigate known issues. These can include: a mix of diver skill levels, lack of experience with hot drops, lack of local condition knowledge, fear of missing the wreck (FOMO-W?), and others. A tie-in has the advantage of a direct connection to the wreck (tougher to miss), but the disadvantages and dilemmas noted in the posts above plus it limits the ability of the dive boat to assist anyone blown off the wreck. Hot tip: if your skipper plans to do a stern tie-in on a high current day, things may even get more interesting.

With either method, all divers should carry a DSMB and long enough spool/reel to account for depth + current. High school trig finally pays off to calculate how much line you'd need at 100' deep with a current pulling your line at 45 degrees off vertical. I like using [2 x max expected depth] as a rule of thumb, because it allows shooting the bag immediately and not worrying about getting yanked up by the line. The closer you can send a DSMB to the boat, the better chance the crew has of seeing it.

The skipper's comment quoted above is problematic, because shooting a bag is the simplest way to recover divers blown off a wreck. This captain is effectively eliminating that option in an inexperienced diver's mind. However unfortunate, my response to this attitude is to be ready to shoot a bag from depth and carry a PLB and/or InReach device on these types of dives. I also let the crew and other folks on the boat know I'm carrying electronics, so we can group up if something happens and collectively have better odds while drifting.

I'm curious - do any agencies cover this type of practical stuff in rescue, wreck, or boat diving courses? I see lots of folks diving near rec limits here in south Florida with no clue about how most of this works.

Lance

 

[mr_v]

I'm curious - do any agencies cover this type of practical stuff in rescue, wreck, or boat diving courses? I see lots of folks diving near rec limits here in south Florida with no clue about how most of this works.

Depends on the instructor. Tech Wreck courses should definitely cover it; mine did.

 

[SlugLife]

Interesting point some have made about ditching the line to join a buddy. Out of curiosity, why not tie off to the up line before you go to join your buddy?

Maybe this would work? I'm not that experience with diving in heavy currents. I'm guessing the idea is you could use your tie-off to pull yourself and your buddy back to the line. It would probably depend on a lot of context, for example, how strong the current is, how far away your buddy is, how quickly you can tie-off, etc.

Doing that for another dive-team, seems generally impractical, because there are 2 (or more) of them, and they're probably a further distance away. You could try tying one end and tossing the line to see if they can catch the other end, but this would be one of those areas where you're attempting a creative solution to a non-standardized problem. Perhaps the one risk of this might be whether you're creating an entanglement hazard. Last thing you want to do, is contribute to the problem or create a problem where there was none.

Missing the line, to me, doesn't seem like an "emergency" in the same sense as out-of-air, severe entanglement, or a panicking diver. There certainly is a danger in the divers becoming lost as sea of course, but it seems like any competent dive-boat should be able to handle a diver missing the line, and if not, they shouldn't be dropping divers at locations with currents.