Skipper error?

[balbrigganbloke]

After being out on a YD gig the day before with this lot A grand day out - YD Ireland does Rathlin i decided to go out with an LDS and get some good viz cos i knew Mick F wasnt going that was doing the Leinster (Irish Wrecks On-line - Leinster RMS (No. 555))
There were two boats going out to do it but only me and my mate Johnny doing it on twins, we were last to splash in and the skipper of our boat told me and my buddy to go down the shot of the other boat. We went down and Johnny put a strobe on the shot so wed know which one to come up.We did 35 minutes bottom time I was on 32% and Johnny was on air and 50% accelerated deco
We came off the bottom at 35 minutes and took the strobe off and started to ascend,at about 18 metres Johnny indicated to me to turn around(i had my back to the surface cos i was looking at him)
There was the buoy from the surface not two feet from me, i indicated to Johnny to let it go and we did but it didnt ascend it just floated there in the current, there was nothing for it but to send a blob up so we did and Johnny took his buddy line out and we clipped on cos we could feel the current starting to move
We did all the stops that Johnny had to do and when he was happy we ascended and surfaced
The boat was about ten feet away so i thought to myself 'thats grand now just get back on the boat and away home' but when we surfaced the skipper launched a tirade about how we were out of order and we should have come up the shot line like everyone else, well we werent having that so we returned fire i said we came up the shot line that he had put us on and that the other boat had left which would have been supporting the buoy(it was the size of a childs football to give you an idea its more of a marker than a buoy) he soon shut up and said to get in the boat and wed get moving,I asked him what did he want us to do it was either stay at 18 metres and wait there for the rest of our lives or do a mid water ascent and do our stops
I was talking to some of the others on the boat and they said he was going mad because the tide was turning and one of them even said we could have probably missed our stops as computers are padded conservatively , i replied id rather have a pissed off skipper and do my stops than miss my stops to please a skipper
When we got on land he had turned it around to it was the other skippers fault but i said i thought it was his cos the other skipper wouldnt have been aware we were on his line as he had divers of his own in the water he replied it was noones fault really to which i replied i know it wasnt ours...
I learned from this that the skipper isnt always right and at the end of the day its up to you and your buddy to get yourselves right and forget about the rest of them
I was happy with the dive and the little bit of task loading at the end of the dive cos we coped well with it

[GLOC]

Well done. Skipper's can't have it both ways (taxi driver and dive marshal) and the most important person is you when it comes to something like this.

Regards

[Scubee]

There needs to be communiaction between the divers and the skipper. If there is a current likely when you are coming up, you dont want to be on a fixed shot line, so a DSMB is the sensible way to do it, but then the ascent and the way the skipper expects you to ascend would normally be mentioned at the start of a dive, in the same way as what you would expect him to do if you send up a yellow blob.

[Devon Rob]

I certainly wouldn´t have taken an earbashing from him either....
You don´t miss stops just because the shot line ends!

Out of interest... why were you guys the last in? I´m asuming you were expecting to have the longest run time.

[TerryH]

Gotta go with Scubee on this one.

If a skipper says "come up the shot" ask "what if we cant make the shot"

If the skipper says "dont come up the shot" ask "what if we have no
choice"

If you dont ask then who is to blame you or the skipper?
50/50 - its a two-way street/

[GaryC]

Sounds like you did the correct stuff.

It is not uncommon to find the buoy floating mid water and it is usually cos they are not big enough. They work in benign conditions but not when there are a few divers /current.

Personally I use a 24" diameter buoy with a small indicator buoy tied on to it. So if the big one does get pulled down (and it hasnt) then there is still a small one trailing by a metre and a half. This also indicates tidal direction.

Any skipper/dive manager that asks you to miss any deco is out of order.

Well done.

Gary

[RogerViking]

hi dave Johnny filled me in this morning about what happend ...what can i say that skipper is well known to be a bit of a blagard he nearly took of one of a vikings legs last year (left the boat in gear when picking up divers) what can i say 'you did damn right'. when i go down a shot ide like to have pice of mind is gonna be on the surface when im coming back up.

u should have riped him appart. write up a report and give it to me to send into cft head office.

roger

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by GLOC

Well done. Skipper's can't have it both ways (taxi driver and dive marshal) and the most important person is you when it comes to something like this.

In what way was the skipper trying to act like a dive marshall? He is responsible for picking you up safely out of the water and he can't do that if some people come up to shot and others are drifting away from the site potentially for a couple of miles.

Though obviously this doesn't apply in this case as no-one could have come up the shot, so I'd had told him to get stuffed.

Jason

[GLOC]

Originally Posted by JasonP

Though obviously this doesn't apply in this case as no-one could have come up the shot, so I'd had told him to get stuffed.

My thoughts exactly, that is what I meant about dive marshalling. Bollocking you for something which was not achievable within his plan.

Terry, I understand what you are saying about questioning the skipper, but if a skipper tells me to come back up the shot, I assume that he knows his sh*t and the shot will still be on the surface when I come to ascend. I would have also thought that a skipper would realise that if divers couldn't ascend the shot as it was underwater then they would launch a bag to make themselves visible to the skipper who could then follow them. The dives in question (twin 12's, single deco gas) and 30m would give in the region of 30 mins deco above a switch so not too far for a team to drift in the water underneath a bag. If everyone ascended and the shot wasn't there then everyone would be in the same situation and the divers would be fairly close to each other.

Regards

[Scubee]

I wasnt disagreeing witht he way the OP ascended. For sure i wouldn't miss stops to stay on the shot. Thw whole point of a DSMB is to mark your position on the surface so that the skipper knows where you are.

If a strong current was expected, then that should have been taken into account with plans. I am surprised that the divers with potentially or planned longest run times were the last in, unless it was unavoidable (e.g faff time, kit problems etc ).