Loading…
5
I finally found my missing surface marker buoy after 3 dives looking in the wrong spot
So last Tuesday we were doing a pipeline inspection off the dock in Gulfport and I clipped my surface marker buoy to my harness like always, or so I thought. We finished the dive, I came up, and the thing was just gone. I looked for it on the next two dives along the same run, thinking it drifted or sank near the worksite. Took me about 40 minutes extra bottom time total and I was starting to think a current had dragged it a quarter mile out. Turns out the brass clip had worn thin and it popped off right at the ladder during entry, so it was sitting in 8 feet of water the entire time, tangled in some old crab trap line. I only found it because my tender noticed a glint when he was rinsing gear off the transom. Lesson for me is check your clips for wear before every job, not just every season, because a $6 clip cost me almost an hour of bottom time. Anyone else had gear come loose at the ladder and waste your whole dive plan?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
shane_williams412d ago
That brass clip thing hits home. I had a double ender snap on me last summer, not even from wear, just cheap pot metal that looked fine until it didn't. What gets me is how this stuff works in regular life too. You skip one small check, a bolt on the trailer hitch, the oil in the truck, the clasp on your kid's bike helmet, and suddenly a two minute task turns into three hours. The expensive failures get all the attention but it's almost always the six dollar part that eats your day. I check my clips with a flashlight now before every splash, takes ten seconds, way cheaper than burning bottom time.
8