Lost at Sea
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SAFETY TALK - March 2008
SURFACE LOCATION
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Lost at Sea
Even though we were making jokes it definitely wasn’t funny at the time! but when my buddy and I were left floating at sea following an aborted dive in South Wales last year we had not quite anticipated how it would feature as one of Brian’s funnies at DOC.
It was a dive we had done before and although on the day the current was different to our previous experience we had a DSMB up and were confident we were being tracked. The drift then changed and we encountered down currents and updrafts that ended with separation of one of the three of us at a point that appears with hindsight to be a point where the current split. This meant that the subsequent search was conducted in the opposite direction to where we were drifting.
 We were eventually adrift for 9 hours and during that time we considered many options for trying to improve our chances of being found. There was no need to bemoan the location aids we didn’t carry because we were unable to change that at the time but we made ourselves all sorts of promises about what we would do in the future. On reflection though some very simple additions to our kit are all that were required rather than the natural knee jerk reaction to carrying the kitchen sink and complete fleet support unit we original felt we needed.Hywel Dyer
Retired Regional Coach |
SURFACE LOCATION
The separation from their surface cover on a dive they had done many times before came as something of a surprise to the divers in the incident above. They had never given much thought to the likelihood of being ‘lost at sea’ in this way but this and other incidents in recent years indicate it is not an impossible situation to either occur or to recover from.
Don’t get lost in the first place
It seems so obvious that it doesn’t bear saying but the best advice is not to get lost in the first place. It starts with properly planning the dive and then following that plan. But what happens when circumstances prevent this as in the case above? Well the important thing is to make decisions quickly and act on them. This may mean deploying a DSMB earlier than planned or even aborting the dive completely.
Location Aids
There is a wide choice and a bewildering variety available and it is sometimes hard to decide on which one. The options range from the simple and cheap low tech end (e.g. an old CD) through to top of the range EPIRBs and other electronic location devices. The best advice is to have more than one and to try and ensure that they are appropriate for different conditions or environments and are relevant to where you are diving (using an EPIRB in Stoney Cove or Vobster is perhaps a bit unnecessary?). A further consideration is to ensure that those who might be required to look for you are aware of the type of location aids you are carrying and other identification details (hood, suit and jacket colour etc.). Finally, if you find yourself in the situation above careful planning of when to deploy certain location aids can help achieve success. Delaying the use of their strobe until night was starting to fall ensured that they preserved battery life until a time when it would prove most effective.
Training
No matter how simple all equipment requires some training and practice to be properly effective. This does not mean you have to go on a Location Aids course but that you at least practice removing the aids from storage, deploying it (e.g. unfolding and unfurling a flag) and using it for maximum signalling effect. This could be done, by prior arrangement, at the end of a dive and would have the advantage of the cover boat being able to see what to look out for. For surface cover regular practice at searching for and locating potentially lost divers can also pay dividends should the need ever arise.
Think SAFE - Dive SAFE
Any suggestions for further items for inclusion would be welcome and can be made to divesafe@bsac.com
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Register for Updates To make sure you recieve a direct notification of each months topic for SAFETY TALK as well as other information about important BSAC changes, new BSAC services and BSAC benefits please register for the BSAC MAILING LIST |
Page last modified: 10th Mar 2008 - 11:28:46