Visibility and lines.

[Gary D.]

Just a couple of things we do that may differ from yours.

Visibility? How do you judge it?
We don’t use up and down or look one way and go by how far you can see. Instead, most of the time we are searching side to side so if I can see 2’ to the right and 2’ to the left we have 4’ of visibility. The tenders now know we want no more than 4’ of rope out for each pass.

Being on the end of the line, what angle are you at?
Some like to be at 90 degrees to the line so there is minimal pull for both the diver and tender. That’s fine but it can cause an arch on the rope not giving accurate length for each run.

We like to be at a sharper angle actually swimming away from the rope putting tension on it. So instead of the rope being straight out the right or left side it is closer to your waist. Also with the tighter rope it is easier to tell signals and if it does encounter an obstruction you know it sooner.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Gary D.

 

[pipedope]

I would call that 2' of vis for a possible visual swath of 4'.

I would only go out 4' at a time if I was doing a fast sweep or initial survey. For a good search, especially for something small I like more overlap of each pass.

 

[Kayla]

Pipedope, we use the same system. 2 ft. vis. with 4 ft. swath, 4 ft. of line. I suppose that its pretty much the same either way....... just different terms.


Kayla

 

[Snowbear]

Viz - what pipedope said.

Line - we use 45 degrees - easy to keep tension on the line without working too hard. My personal preference is to have the line over my upper arm. This serves a couple of purposes:
1 - it's easier for me to keep consistant tension at the correct angle and with less pulling when doing a tactile search in zero viz. I'm lazy, so less pulling means I don't work so hard
2 - It's easier for me to tell the difference between a line signal and the rope clearing a small obstruction like a rock.