Tying in without plastic bottles

[Marty Kolenut]

how is this even a thing?

Northeast USA Diving .. guess you gotta be here to understand

 

[Marty Kolenut]

I’ve also been on boats that still release cups which will be recovered and used for the next dive

?? I can't imagine this is very efficient or reliable. Maybe ok on a very calm day in the caribbean in a small boat, but I would imagine that even an 8 knot wind .. and your chasing cups around all day. Not practical on a 50' 32 Ton dive boat w 15 divers with 3' to 5' seas and 25-30 knot gusts.

 

[Tug]

Not sure I follow you here. Captain drives over the wreck which is, let's say.. 130' deep. Crew drops shot line with a 40lb chain attached to one end and a tuna ball on the other. Boat comes back around and a diver goes in at the tuna ball, follows the shot line down to the wreck, Finds a solid spot to tie the chain into the wreck. At this point you have a diver at 130' who has been working depending on how far he has had to swim or drag the chain to find a good spot to tie. You also have a boat full of divers waiting to get in the water.

The "Shot Line" is actually the anchor line. After the crew spots the bottles, the boat is pulled up along the tuna ball and it's pulled up on deck with the Shot (anchor) line attached (and the other end now tied to the wreck). The tuna ball end is cleated and was-lah .. we're tied in.

We do the same thing except our chain probably doesn’t weigh that much.

What we do is attach a 25ish lb weight to roughly 8-10’ of chain at the bottom of our shot line with a tuna ball at the end. This is tossed overboard when we’re over the wreck. We then go down, tie in and then shoot the weight to the surface once we’re tied in. This is the same procedure for our deeper technical wrecks too.

 

[Marty Kolenut]

Yes, the used condom can be easily recovered from the gut of a dead sea turtle.

The styrofoam cups have been around a long time. Part of the problem is you need to retrain the dive community from using something that is very reliable, very cheap and stupid simple. It does have the down side of not being environmentally friendly. But how many plastic water bottles are carried on boats every dive?

You got it .. It's very SIMPLE and RELIABLE and CHEAP

A few people have mentioned Full Face Masks and communications. I personally like this idea but again, keeping in mind how simple cheap and reliable bottles are... There is the initial cost of the system. I'm guessing $3,000 to $4,000 ? Thats hard for a dive boat just covering operating costs on an annual basis to digest. (anyone feeling generous .. LOL). Secondly but there is equipment maintenance and failure. Ok this could be overcome with having bottles as a backup. So on this idea it is good .. but just the cost issue.

 

[Marty Kolenut]

We do the same thing except our chain probably doesn’t weigh that much.

What we do is attach a 25ish lb weight to roughly 8-10’ of chain at the bottom of our shot line with a tuna ball at the end. This is tossed overboard when we’re over the wreck. We then go down, tie in and then shoot the weight to the surface once we’re tied in. This is the same procedure for our deeper technical wrecks too.

Right .. same procedure .. so how do you signal "Tie In"?

 

[Snoweman]

Not sure I follow you here. Captain drives over the wreck which is, let's say.. 130' deep. Crew drops shot line with a 40lb chain attached to one end and a tuna ball on the other. Boat comes back around and a diver goes in at the tuna ball, follows the shot line down to the wreck, Finds a solid spot to tie the chain into the wreck. At this point you have a diver at 130' who has been working depending on how far he has had to swim or drag the chain to find a good spot to tie. You also have a boat full of divers waiting to get in the water.

The "Shot Line" is actually the anchor line. After the crew spots the bottles, the boat is pulled up along the tuna ball and it's pulled up on deck with the Shot (anchor) line attached (and the other end now tied to the wreck). The tuna ball end is cleated and was-lah .. we're tied in.

It was suggested earlier to use a larger metal ring over the shot line so it wouldn't get hung up on a kink. Why wouldn't this work?

 

[Marty Kolenut]

{scratching my head} I agree with @CuzzA . It isn't difficult at all and this is what we do too. The 1st diver down ties into the wreck. Once set, he shoots a bag (smb) on a reel to the surface and hooks off the reel near the boat tie in.

The last diver on the wreck agrees to release the tie in slip knot and set it free. He then grabs the reel (The SMB is still inflated and not touched by the boat). He then drifts off the wreck with the SMB so the captain knows where to follow him. Every wreck diver knows how to shoot an SMB with an OPV. And if you suck at tying in to a wreck you can use 2 different colored SMB's which all the tech divers do to indicate what kind of problem they have.

P.S. If you are using any part of a chain or anchor to tie in, that's your main problem to get rid of.

Thanks for the input. Leaving an SMB attached presents a problem as currents shift, with it getting tangled up either with a diver or the anchor line itself. So next .. you say that "using a chain is the main part of our problem" .. Interesting .. I'm open to suggestions on how to keep a 32 Ton boat tied into a rusting jagged edged steel wreck without using a chain. All ears ..

 

[Marty Kolenut]

It was suggested earlier to use a larger metal ring over the shot line so it wouldn't get hung up on a kink. Why wouldn't this work?

Because sometimes there is a lot of slack in the downline before the line gets cleated to the boat. So imagine this. Wreck is at 90 feet. Line is 150' long (because its used for wrecks anywhere from 90 to 130' deep). So now you are tied in at 90'. The other end of the line is attached to a tuna ball floating on the surface. So it it a calm day (no wind blowing the tuna ball) all that slack line lays or is suspended in the water until it is pulled up and cleated on the boat. It can lay horizontally sometimes etc..

(Note: you have to throw the whole line .. chain, line, tuna ball.. in. You can't meter it. It's a timing game to hit the wreck with the chain. Anything that interferes with it at all is going to alter the timing of the chain dropping and it likely will end up off the wreck in the sand. Which may be ok in Florida lol, but when you only have 10' of dark vis and ALL you see is green .. you can't see the wreck!)

 

[johndiver999]

Look up an an anchor lifting ball. That ring is full proof, just deploy with an smb attached. Release at top of chain. Can be recovered when you pull in anchor. Really simple Actually. Can’t see how people are going to get tangled in it or cause a problem.

 

[kelemvor]

dsmb on a 150' reel? Shoot it at the anchor point and tie it into the wreck. Last diver removes it when he unties the anchor and reels it up along his ascent.

Or you could switch to biodegradable plastic bottles or paper bottles.