Lost at sea in the Maldives

[John N]

Thought this trip report from my sister may be of interest:

"Poor Charlie got a cold on our honeymoon and missed a few days diving. The day he got back in the water the current was quite strong and outgoing, and since the dive site was at about 20metres we needed to descend quite fast. Unfortunately, although his ears were fine at the surface he couldn't get below 5metres, so after a few minutres of determined trying we sent up the SMB and surfaced.

We weren't far from the boat, a couple of hundred metres at most, and did big OK's for a while. When we realised they weren't seeing us (looking for us??) we started whistling and waving madly, Charlie put his strobe on and we inflated the second SMB. Still nothing.

We were finning hard against the current but still were drifting further and further into the blue. The water was very choppy, so we could only see the boat when we were on the crest of a wave (and so we supposed, they could only see us then too). Still nothing.

EVentually we realised that the boatcrew were not going to see us, they were waiting 45mins to an hour for the divers to surface at the reef, and not providing any surface cover in the meantime. Still we kept on finning at waving our buoys just the same.

After an hour we saw the boat, now looking like a speck in the distance, circling the reef picking up divers. Well, to cut a long story short, eventually they realised we were missing and headed off quite fast in the direction of the current. We saw them coming, now from perhaps 2km away, and kept waving our bouys and our arms. We didn't get a big OK from them until they were about 100m away. People on the boat afterwards told us that even at that distance we looked like little red specks in the choppy water.

If the wind and the current had been going in different directions it could have been a different story. Fortunately they weren't so our drift course was quite straightforward. A very scary thing nonetheless.

We are never ever diving without SMB's in the future. Anyone know of other useful safety devices we should consider (suddenly high on our list)?

Charlie had told the dive leader he may have problems descending but the dive leader hadn't relayed to the boat crew that they should look out for us specifically. Anyway, what if one of us had been injured? There are lots of reasons for aborting a dive early and if we had been in trouble, an hour in that water could have been much more of a nightmare than it was.

The dive school were horrified that this could happen and are reviewing all their boat staff and going over boatcrew requirements. We suggested emergency drills. "

"The dive centre was run by Ocean Pro on Velavaru who operate a lot of the Maldives diving. On the whole they were very professional and friendly and fun. For our check dive they made us do skills (mask flood, out of air drill) at 5m before continuing the descent, no-one's ever asked us to do that before.
The problem we had was due to the boat crew not maintaining surface cover. Arguably this shouldn't be a problem that you just stumble across by accident, but Patrick who runs the centre told us he would immediately review the crews contracts and ensure they sign up to all necessary duties. So I suppose you can decide if that makes you feel safe."

[Lynne]

How about an air horn? - scub alert horns can be used both underwater and on the surface and are f*cking loud! - I'm sure they wouldn't have been able to ignore one of those - simply fits to your LP inflation hose and costs around £30 - less if you get one from ebay

[Janos]

A flag?

I take mine with me on every sea dive. They're much more visible than an SMB. You can find out how to make one on my shed

Still scary that the boat cover could miss them though

Laters,
Janos

[SCUBA Chick]

Originally Posted by Janos

A flag?

I take mine with me on every sea dive. They're much more visible than an SMB. You can find out how to make one on my shed

Still scary that the boat cover could miss them though

Laters,
Janos

We are off to the maldives again in Feb next year with Maldives Scuba Tours and I understand that they give a flag to every diver for them to use whilst they are diving with them...

Got to be a good thing as, as you say they are far more visible than a SMB.

Scubachick

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by scubachick1972

Maldives Scuba Tours and I understand that they give a flag to every diver for them to use whilst they are diving with them...

Got to be a good thing as, as you say they are far more visible than a SMB.

Scubachick

That is quiet correct they do issue with one and I did use a flag for the first time whilst I was there. I then took one with me to the RedSea and used it there as well, we surfaced away from our boat cover while they were picking up another group and the other guys said it was very visible.

[Allan Carr]

Years ago, somebody produced an emergency helium balloon with a radar reflective coating which could be inflated on the surface and floated about 30 metres up. Haven't seen these advertised for years but sounds like a good idea for these sort of situations.

Allan

[John N]

Air horns are useful - I have one, although at an estimated distance of over a mile it may well not be heard.

Flags are also good, but that misses the point somewhat.
The problem on this dive was that the boat crew were simply not looking for divers behind the boat. No aid to visibility would have helped.

It shows that the only thing between us and final drift in the big blue is often the competence of the crew on our boat.

[David A]

Originally Posted by John Nortcliff

It shows that the only thing between us and final drift in the big blue is often the competence of the crew on our boat.

I couldn't agree more. My buddy and I popped up about a kilometre from the boat at Las Animas in the sea of cortez not so long ago. We had also cut a dive short, simply because the route we had taken (into the blue, shark watching) had dropped us into a huge current, and we had lost reference points. We thought the best thing to do would be to cut it short, as we knew we were drifting.
We weren't worried, we could still see the boat, and the surface was flat calm. We inflated both DSMBs, and sat having a chat. After 10 minutes we thought we could do with getting some attention, so used the air horn, then a whistle (one of those super-loud jobs that hurts your own ears as you use it), but still nothing. After half an hour another boat picked us up, a rib from a liveaboard that was on the other side of our boat from us, and took us back to our boat. It turned out that the surface support, who was also the skipper, had decided to go below and make a spot of lunch.
We were fine, and in this case had been in no real danger, but the conditions in the area around these sea mounts and pinnacles can change in no time, so the story could have been different.
In these cases, it doesn't matter what you're carrying, if there's no surface support, you're buggered.

David

[dave archer]

Completely agree on the need for good surface support.

I also carry a locator beacon to give me the best chance of being found by a search effort, if it ever somes to that.

Dave.