Posted by Chuck Tribolet on October 29, 2002 at 16:25:33:
In Reply to: Disagree on a couple of things..... posted by Ed on October 28, 2002 at 10:30:39:
Wind: The original comment said to put out the
current line, esp. if there was current or wind.
My point was that wind was not relevant to putting
out the anchor. And the boat swings on wind,
SO WHAT. You are supposed to be finding the
anchor on the bottom, and the wind doesn't
affect that. You just go in a different direction
as you follow the line up.
A proper anchor, checked at the beginning of the
dive, isn't going anywhere. The wrong anchor
(say, a mushroom or river anchor in sand) will
drag. My choice is a Danforth (unbeatable in
sand, it just digs in, adequate in rocks),
with a Bruce as a second choice (but the little
Bruce is no longer made). NO: Navy anchors,
folding grapples, mushrooms, river anchors, or
concreate blocks.
If you put out a current line when there's no
current, you end up with 100'+ of line tangled
around the boat.
It is rarely an option to leave someone on a small
boat. How many small inflatables have room for
a spare person? How many of us have a spare
person? I have a 17' Boston Whaler, and the only
time I've been able to leave someone on the boat
is when somebody decided to sit out the dive.
You are welcome to your opinion, but the practical
situation is that a lot of us wouldn't be doing
any diving.
The most important thing is to be able to navigate
back to the anchor with compass and brain. I was
on a dive recently where we had four divers, one
buddy team (with a sonar boat finder), one solo
(with a different brand of sonar boat finder),
and myself, solo, just a compass and my grey
matter. This was on a site where surfacing by
the boat is important (a fair amount of boat
traffic, and way offshore). I got back to the
anchor by simple navigation (keep reef on right
swimming out, keep reef on left swimming back).
NONE of the other divers got back to the anchor,
and they were all experienced divers with lots of
recent experience.
Finally: Everything about boats is a tradeoff.
There's no perfect solution for everyone. In fact,
there's no perfect solution for anyone.
Chuck