Warhammer
Guest
With all this talk about safety sausages and such, I thought it would be interesting to discuss methods of deploying a sausage. Currently, I use a piece of rope thats about 20 ft long. That way I could use it as a hang line for a safety stop if need be. I deploy it from about 30ft, then ascend to the line. But what Id really like is some kind of spool with around 100 to 150 ft of line on it so I could tie it off and use it as an upline from depth, if need be and deploy it from a safety stop. Ive considered buying one of the Halcyon spools for this purpose, but I see a few problems with that.
- How would you deploy it if you wanted to use it as a hang-line from your safety stop? If you simple drop the spool and allow it to unravel to the bottom, youd likely have a mess and youd have to wind up a lot of line afterwards. You might also get entangled in the line. If you hold the spool, fill the sausage, and allow the line to pull off as the sausage rises, then you could get tangled in the line, your fingers might also get cut on the edge of the spool, or you might end up dropping it and be in the first situation. Ive thought about tying the line off on the spool at say 30ft, then dropping it before filling the sausage. That way it would only unravel the 30ft of line and wouldnt be so bad. But you still run the risk of entanglement. Youd also have to unravel the line down to where you tied it off and untie it before you could use it as an upline, at depths beyond where you tied it off.
- Would the line on the spool be big enough and strong enough to work as an upline, especially in a strong current where youd need it the most? For both you and possibly your buddy?
- And when deploying a sausage/lift bag to use an up line, do you wrap the line around your tie-off point, fill the sausage, and gradually feed it line allowing it to rise to the surface? Or do you simply let it fly and then tie it off after it surfaces? Id think the first method would be best, but Ive heard different divers say they do both.