04/10/2012, Mt Hartman Bay, Grenada
Yesterday there was a "Mayday" call on the marine VHF. It started out as a "man overboard", but as we listened, it became evident that it was actually a "lost diver" situation.
I have been spending 6 days a week at a local dive shop for the last six weeks, working on a very comprehensive "Dive Master" course. My instructors have high expectations, but I appreciate the education that I am getting. I have learned a great deal about diving and the local dive sites in that time. I'm not done the course yet, but even when I have that certification, my education will continue long after I have officially completed the course.
One of the most famous dive sites in Grenada is the "Bianca C". 200 meters long, and the top of the wreck sits at about 35 meters deep... she's impressive, and darned deep. I've done a dive there once so far, and the conditions were benign, for the "Bianca", anyway. There is often a strong current there, and the visibility can be anywhere from great to, um, less than optimal (okay, lousy). This is not a dive to undertake without the local knowledge of a guide.
So, this guy dives by himself on a deep dive without any local knowledge, and without some form of marker buoy or signalling device. To be blunt, this diver is the poster child for really stupid diving behaviour. His poor partner is having kittens because she can't see him, and it is now an hour after he went down. She is hovering her boat around the area of the coordinates for the dive site, obviously with no knowledge of what the currents can do out there, (the site is a couple of miles offshore, as well). Dive boats are dispatched, and the lucky bugger gets picked up about 90 minutes after he first entered the water by a dive boat waiting for its' own divers to surface... about 5 miles away. So he saved himself about $50 USD, but wasted gas for the search boats, scared the living daylights out of that poor woman who was getting more distressed as time went on (you could hear it on the radio), and generally created an emergency situation to save a couple of bucks. Either that or he has an elevated sense of his diving abilities. I'll bet that with the strong current that he didn't even see the wreck..
They are very lucky indeed.
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Comments [2]
Water temp? 46F. Brrr.
Diving is distinctly non-trivial, and yet people think it's just all about the tanks and regulator.
On Friday, a woman nearly died in Lake Ontario. She's probably vegetative, by the sound of it, and the way the stories are worded, and the look of the rubble dump, they may have been...uh..equally incautious.
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/200595--woman-pulled-from-waters-near-etobicoke-yacht-club
03/31/2012, Grenada
We've received a question about an older blog concerning some unique calking material used on Silverheels III
"Lynn, you mention that Ken he spent quality time in the boat using dry caulking on the screens. We are currently at dock on the St. Johns River and have no-see-ums every evening. I've never heard of "dry caulking." Would you be kind enough to explain what it is, where to buy it and how to use it. That would be most appreciated. Thanks M____ P.S. continuing to enjoy reading your blog."
Answer
The calking I used to temporarily seal those gaps around
screen frames on our ports is called Dap 18324 Seal 'N Peel Removable
Caulk. There is a newer version called Dap 18354. It will keep those
pesky no-see-ums from crawling through tiny openings. This stuff
strips out cleanly whenever you want to remove the screen frame. It's
available at Canadian Tire in Canada and Ace Hardware in the US.
triple doubleyou .acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3440730
Cheers...Ken
P.S. I needed to spell out the www because this system will not reproduce URL for other sites.
| Limin' in the Caribbean |
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