Diving from a SIB

[paulpost]

Hi, my question is for sibers that scuba dive out from their SIB's.
Do you leave your boat anchored and you do your dive up current or do you use the boat as a float moving along with you and have the dive flag attached to her .

Thank you
Paul

 

[Sea Rider]

Re: Diving from a SIB

Not good to dive against the current, will tired yourself soon, better drift along the current, if it's a small budy diving team, one must always stay on board anchored or not watching other divers just in case, always use a diver's flag for other boaters to know there are divers near.

Get yourself a ladder or become flipper to get on board. If skin diving, always carry a flotation device, buoy, etc attached to you by a line. Watch for spears, knives, sharp objects that might puncture tubes.

Happy Boating

 

[paulpost]

Re: Diving from a SIB

OK, thank you for your input, but there are some issues that I cannot understand.
First is that if I drift along with the current and the boat is anchored how I'll be able to get back.
Second if the boat is not anchored looks that the guy in the boat has to follow my the bobbles?
Thank you
Paul

 

[Sea Rider]

Re: Diving from a SIB

Personally preffer to dive at the most with 3 divers, one always stays on board, if drifting along the current, driver must follow by means of rows or motor other divers, better is to remain close as a group and have visual bubbles, buoys to follow. If diving in no current locations you can be anchored and all 3 divers on water, but with an eye mostly of the owner that no pirates comes along and takes your beloved sib while diving disregarded, as has happened

Happy Boating

 

[likalar]

Re: Diving from a SIB

I used to dive years ago in Monterey Bay, CA from an inflatable. 2 divers, boat safely anchored. We would drop to the bottom and move "upstream" against the current, noting compass heading. When it was time to return to the boat, we reversed direction, and had the help of the current to get us back safely, without fatigue, toward the boat. Paul, if you drift with the current at the beginning of the dive, you may end up too far from the anchored boat, and be too exhausted (or out of air) to swim upstream. PLease note I'm talking about fairly mild currents here, but if trouble develops, it's best to be upstream/upcurrent of your boat, not downstream/downcurrent. If you are new at diving from a small boat, try to get experience with no current, if possible. Best wishes for safe diving!
Larry

 

[Pack Rat]

Re: Diving from a SIB

If it's windy I think you'll have the SIB pulling you along at a pace you don't want/like. We used the one man in the boat following the bubbles and that worked very well. If you anchor the SIB you should be able to make the dive plan work around the SIB to your advantage.

I've seen some people make bad decisions and try to have to fight their way back to the boat out of air and on the surface. Two guys I know claimed a shark swam right between them one night as they were splashing and fighting their way back in three foot waves.

I remember a dive below one of the Chesapeake Bay bridges in Virgina Beach. I was visiting relatives and went out with a local dive charter group since they knew the area. There were issues of drug and alcohol usage on the boat I observed as we headed out. The plan had been to swim away from the anchored boat fighting the current and drift back with the current. Right when we turned around the current switched 180 degrees which made us have to fight our way back to the boat. Some of the group didn't have the strength and simply headed to the rocky shoreline clinging like rats insisting the charter boat come and pick them up.

Here's a couple of random pics from the Oahe Dam/Missouri River diving below the dam.
The chase boat would take divers up river drop and follow.

Oahe Dam treasures washed down from the fort years (above the dam) 1865-1894.

 

[jondavies]

Re: Diving from a SIB

As Likalar does, if there is a mild current, I typically dive against the flow and swim back toward the anchored boat with the current. Of course, if I'm diving from an unattended boat, there have been times when we've decided not to dive because a moderate current was running.

However, I was diving from a charter boat off Vancouver Island years ago and I was paired up with a French instructor. We were started diving just as the tide turned and the current was picking up steam. The plan was to do a drift dive and have the boat pick us up when we surfaced down current. The flow got faster and faster throughout the dive and I'm guess we ended up doing about 3 knots -- it was tons of fun.

Unfortunately, the instructor didn't grasp the plan (it may have been a language issue, though he seemed to speak reasonable English). After about 30 minutes, he signals that he wanted to swim back to where the boat dropped us off.... We had a pretty vigorous argument underwater and eventually he just took off. Not wanting to abandon my buddy wrong or not, I followed. By hugging the bottom we were able to make slow progress against the current as it started to slacken until we finally hit 500 psi and had to surface. Of course, the boat was about 200 yards down current and had to come pick us up

I spoke to the dive master and didn't dive with the guy for the rest of the trip.

So the moral of the story is, go against the current unless the plan is to go with the flow