Liberty_6
Guest
As some of the greatest stories ever told go, "There We Were."
Another member who wishes to remail nameless, (you will be named later) and I went to Venice yesterday afternoon. As with any dive that you should just pass on, it started with forgotten gear, frustation and the infamous Murphy along for the dive.
We finally get heading south from Tampa and have decided to save on some air and a considerable surface swim so we will rent kayaks, stow the gear and paddle out to the site, no worries. Gear is loaded, hopes are high and the weather is moving in, damn.:no
No getting comfortable in the small kayak laden with gear, oh well paddle on. Waves are getting rougher, no worries, be in the water soon. Get the spot, per se, luckily I have inflated my BC already just in case. Just in case happens, overboard I go, BC is on and I am getting ready for the dive. My buddy in the other kayak will wait to see if we are where we think we are when I come up. Anchor line in hand I descend, bottom is as rough as the surface and viz is deteriorating quickly. No dice. I surface, hemming and hawing.
Enter the infamous Mr. Murphy, the Torquemada of the deep.
My buddy looks one way and rolls overboard going the other. Gear goes everywhere. We recover the stuff floating and back in the kayak it goes. Alas, Murphy is just warming up. Said dive buddy is now bobbing up and down and is struggling with something. You guessed it, the BC that is already set up, weighted but not inflated. He is trying to inflate it before it sinks and he drowns. Did I mention the anchor line?
In the course of events, Murphy saw fit to get the anchor line around his neck. Yeah, this is about to suck. I grab my back up reg and he tries to take a few breaths. Although he is a new diver, he used his head and training and ditched the gear. Better to dive for it later than have a memorial service.
Anchor line is gone and so is his rig. As we are getting our
sorted out I tell him I will be right back I am going for his rig. Waves are getting higher and current is getting stronger. I drop down, bottom out at 15' to find viz is now down to about 2 ft and the grass is getting churned up from the bottom. Viz is almost zero. I have been pushed about 20-30' away from where he ditched and cannot see much. Dive light on, no good, tuck it away. Time to start a pattern search.
About 10 minutes later and with no help from Mr Murphy I spot the faintest glimmer of yellow. Gotta love those brightly covered hose protectors on his rig. It was the only thing that I could see as the grass and bottom were in the blender. That $5 piece of plastic saved him about 1k in gear.
We swim the kayaks back to the shore, you guessed it here comes the lightning with a vengeance and the cool air that says, you are not getting off that easy. Suffice to say we must have been a sight right out of creature from the black lagoon. Covered in grass, weeds, sand and humility we get it all loaded and decide that dry clothes and food are in the immediate future.
Win some lose some. 11 hard earned minutes of bottom time. Better luck next time. Now go have a good laugh on us, myself and JRMFG17 (sorry bro' I aint going down alone on this one...hhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa).
Dive Safe All,
Scott
Another member who wishes to remail nameless, (you will be named later) and I went to Venice yesterday afternoon. As with any dive that you should just pass on, it started with forgotten gear, frustation and the infamous Murphy along for the dive.
We finally get heading south from Tampa and have decided to save on some air and a considerable surface swim so we will rent kayaks, stow the gear and paddle out to the site, no worries. Gear is loaded, hopes are high and the weather is moving in, damn.:no
No getting comfortable in the small kayak laden with gear, oh well paddle on. Waves are getting rougher, no worries, be in the water soon. Get the spot, per se, luckily I have inflated my BC already just in case. Just in case happens, overboard I go, BC is on and I am getting ready for the dive. My buddy in the other kayak will wait to see if we are where we think we are when I come up. Anchor line in hand I descend, bottom is as rough as the surface and viz is deteriorating quickly. No dice. I surface, hemming and hawing.
Enter the infamous Mr. Murphy, the Torquemada of the deep.
My buddy looks one way and rolls overboard going the other. Gear goes everywhere. We recover the stuff floating and back in the kayak it goes. Alas, Murphy is just warming up. Said dive buddy is now bobbing up and down and is struggling with something. You guessed it, the BC that is already set up, weighted but not inflated. He is trying to inflate it before it sinks and he drowns. Did I mention the anchor line?
In the course of events, Murphy saw fit to get the anchor line around his neck. Yeah, this is about to suck. I grab my back up reg and he tries to take a few breaths. Although he is a new diver, he used his head and training and ditched the gear. Better to dive for it later than have a memorial service.
Anchor line is gone and so is his rig. As we are getting our
sorted out I tell him I will be right back I am going for his rig. Waves are getting higher and current is getting stronger. I drop down, bottom out at 15' to find viz is now down to about 2 ft and the grass is getting churned up from the bottom. Viz is almost zero. I have been pushed about 20-30' away from where he ditched and cannot see much. Dive light on, no good, tuck it away. Time to start a pattern search. About 10 minutes later and with no help from Mr Murphy I spot the faintest glimmer of yellow. Gotta love those brightly covered hose protectors on his rig. It was the only thing that I could see as the grass and bottom were in the blender. That $5 piece of plastic saved him about 1k in gear.
We swim the kayaks back to the shore, you guessed it here comes the lightning with a vengeance and the cool air that says, you are not getting off that easy. Suffice to say we must have been a sight right out of creature from the black lagoon. Covered in grass, weeds, sand and humility we get it all loaded and decide that dry clothes and food are in the immediate future.
Win some lose some. 11 hard earned minutes of bottom time. Better luck next time. Now go have a good laugh on us, myself and JRMFG17 (sorry bro' I aint going down alone on this one...hhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa).
Dive Safe All,
Scott
