Posted by Patrick on February 09, 2005 at 10:17:40:
In Reply to: Message to Dan Carlock posted by jeff Shaw on February 08, 2005 at 22:28:10:
I've been watching this ongoing commentary with amusement for some time, and lemming-like am finally jumping in.
First we should thank Dan for providing a topic that has provided such intense and long-lived dialogue. Look back at the board topics and imagine how dull it would have been without him as a topic.
(For those who are slow on the uptake, the above statement is satirical in nature)
Though I doubt that I would have ended up in such a situation, I am merely a guy who dives in water, not walks on it, so can accept that "things" do happen. Given that, I have pondered what I would have done given 1) current too strong to swim against, 2) limited visibility (topside). Now I realize that this is a simplistic statement of the situation, but flex a bit here.
First, I imagine I'd be pissed - at myself for being in the situation and at the crew of the diveboat for screwing up their responsibility to make sure all bodies were back on the boat. Next, given the location, the prevailing wind (was there any?)and currents for the area, I would have sayd "*uck it!" and started kicking SE. I would figure about six+ hours would probably get me to, or close to the beach around Newport. Given the amount of boat traffic in that area, even on gray, foggy days, I would expect to be picked up prior to completeing the swim. I would assume my biggest problem would be not getting runover in the fog by the small (and large) boat whackos that rarely ever keep a proper lookout in limited visibility (unlike Boy Scouts). For at least the initial part of the swim, I'd hang on to all my gear. If the load began to become a problem, probably ditch the tank, keep the BC and weightbelt. The former to help stay afloat plus it holds several signaling devices, the latter to be able to dive down in case of needing to dive away in a boat/diver collision situation.
I would kick until I reached the beach or was picked up along the way.
Probably wouldn't have done a lot of driftin'
What would you do?