should you still pay?

[Finless]

Originally Posted by Dave Sydenham

Point taken. However you still are going to know 'roughly' where the site is presumably and what day you are going to dive so you can still work out roughly what the tides are going to do around that area. If the skipper is guarding the marks then not a lot you can do to check the position. You still should know roughly when slack will occur though unless it is a particularly tricky area of coastline with numerous localised currents and slacks in which case you need a more accurate position in order to work out slack for that site.

If it is a brand new undived wreck and the tides are not working out quite as expected - well that's all part of the fun isn't it!

Cheers!

Dave

Yeahhhhh, but, no, but, well, it's like this ...... TBH, I have never put my long ago learned knowledge of tidal diamonds etc into practise. I always rely on the Skipper - that's part of what I pay for.

[Dave Sydenham]

Originally Posted by Finless

Yeahhhhh, but, no, but, well, it's like this ...... TBH, I have never put my long ago learned knowledge of tidal diamonds etc into practise. I always rely on the Skipper - that's part of what I pay for.

No that's fair enough and to be honest I would guess that most folk probably go onto a hard boat with no idea of exactly where the wreck is on the chart or exactly what the tide is doing. However at least if you know then you won't get caught out......often......

[Finless]

Originally Posted by Dave Sydenham

No that's fair enough and to be honest I would guess that most folk probably go onto a hard boat with no idea of exactly where the wreck is on the chart or exactly what the tide is doing. However at least if you know then you won't get caught out......often......

Ahhh, I love you "the glass is half full" types. All I would find out is I don't understand tidal diamonds properly and if the dive time had been left to me we would have head butted the Lizard before we got to the bottom of the shot!

PS - we are in Sussex.

[bottle_monkey]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

on the other side of the coin ....
divers book the boat for a particular wreck .. 2 dont show and 1 is late
it takes forever to get kit onto the boat because of numerous toilet trips,several "ooooh ill just get my **** out the car" trips and someone who takes 10 mins to climb down 6 ft of ladder. The tide is running at 5knts in the wrong direction as you leave the quay ... and you burn 100 ltrs of fuel just trying to get to the wreck on time to catch slack water ...which is 5 minutes out of 12 hrs because its high springs. The divers faff for 20 minutes before getting into their drysuits and cant decide in which order to jump in ... leaving you wondering if there was a point in living today!

however to answer your questions .....I would expect to be given an alternate dive site choise and perhaps a discount on my next trip !


H

and that was me and woz on a good day

[Dave Sydenham]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

on the other side of the coin ....
divers book the boat for a particular wreck .. 2 dont show and 1 is late
it takes forever to get kit onto the boat because of numerous toilet trips,several "ooooh ill just get my **** out the car" trips and someone who takes 10 mins to climb down 6 ft of ladder. The tide is running at 5knts in the wrong direction as you leave the quay ... and you burn 100 ltrs of fuel just trying to get to the wreck on time to catch slack water ...which is 5 minutes out of 12 hrs because its high springs. The divers faff for 20 minutes before getting into their drysuits and cant decide in which order to jump in ... leaving you wondering if there was a point in living today!

however to answer your questions .....I would expect to be given an alternate dive site choise and perhaps a discount on my next trip !


H

I once went on a hard boat with another group (there were just three of us). We arrived early and stowed our gear. The other group generally arrived late with one very late pair sitting on the bonnet of the car eating their chips before unpacking their car much to the amusement of the skipper. When we finaly got underway we got kitted up shortly before arriving on site and dropped in just as the skipper brought us up to the buoy. As we wandered along the deck the others were still putting their kit together and waiting until they were on site before even putting their suits on properly!! In fact one of those leading the group actually told the others not to get kitted up yet as we weren't there yet (as we were just arriving on site coming up to the big yellow buoy and we were wandering past them to the jump off point fully kitted )

We had our 50 minute dive and were seriously thinking something must be wrong on the surface as we were the only ones on the wreck (very small wreck, we could see from end to end) As we began our descent they arrived at the bottom of the shot! Just as well slack wasn't crucial on this one!!

[Scuttler]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

someone who takes 10 mins to climb down 6 ft of ladder.

Where is Sixsquid?

Coat on

[Hazel W]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

Where is Sixsquid?

believe me ....she isnt the only one !!!!!!

H

[davidcarson]

When I skippered my liveaboard there was times that I offered my customers money back under certain circumstances. These circumstances were not my fault but I always felt obliged to offer something. Divers are a great bunch and they always refused my offer, so I would buy the beers and get Nicky to serve up a few extra roast potatoes! if going 30miles offshore to 65mts, divers turned up the night before and we talked and planned the next day through together.

Best Regards
David
Dive 24:7 Tenerife Diving Scuba Diving Tenerife Canary Islands Dive Center PADI BSAC TDI

[Andy M]

Originally Posted by gerry brain

You have chartered a boat to take you to a wreck, thirty miles out depth 63 mtr.

The skipper gets the tide wrong and missed the wreck.

the tide is running like a train

Who,s fault is that but you still have to pay?

Gerry

Thats not a typical dive. You pay.

For basic inshore dives where there really is no excuse for missing the wreck/tide, my personal policy is no wreck, no pay.

Breakwater Dive Centre managed to miss the Black Hawk (bow) off Lulworth banks three times in a row. Yes I jumped off the boat and went down to the bottom three times, and there was no wreck each time. They gave me my money back. This was two/three years ago.

Andy

[Shot Hog]

I was one of those divers on this trip.
The dive was posted by a reputable dive charter and in good faith, perhaps misplaced, it was taken as read that conditions were right to make such a deep dive.
Out of nine divers on the boat, six abandoned the dive on reaching a sandy sea bed. With the current running like an express train we could not make any headway. To be fair, the skipper did apologise. The first three divers in the water were CCR divers and on their return to the boat they did inform us that they had reached the wreck. The first two apparently informed us that the line came off the wreck as they approached and that they had left the line and had just made the wreck. The third CCR diver made the wreck having finned hard for ten minutes against the current to get to the wreck which was only apparent by the first two shining their lights. The first two also reported that the current was so strong that they could not drag the line back to the wreck because of the effort required. The rest of us following on from this then stood no chance.
I have dived many times this season through the same company. The two times that I have dived with this particular skipper he has dropped us on the sea bed with the current running strong.

On returning home I e-mailed this particular company to express my unhappiness and suggested that when undertaking such dives, that perhaps the first two diviers in could signal that the line was secured by sending up a DSMB.
I am still awaiting a reply but I am not holding my breath.
Next time, I think I will ask who the skipper is before paying my money.