SCUBA diving success stories?

[rasher]

Wife and I got into sailing specifically to feed our insatiable SCUBA habit. We don't mind paying the $40-75 per dive fee to various shops around the Carribean, we just prefer not to dive with DMs and deal with noobs crashing all over the reefs and doing stupid crap like deco'ing their computers.

We loaded tanks aboard our very first charter boat in the BVIs when we did ASA 101, 103 and 104 and absolutely fell in love with self-guided boat diving. It was the perfect way to start because we'd leave the instructor on the boat while we dove.

Since then we've done several charters in the BVIs, USVIs and SVIs (Culebra), our last one was two weeks around the USVIs, down to St. Croix and then a lap of the BVIs. The diving is fantastic. Not as good as Roatan or Bonaire, but very enjoyable and especially so that we're running on our own schedule and all by ourselves. We've had some truly transcendent experiences.

Quick points:
1. When we were sailing noobs, we figured we could save tons of money owning our own boat and diving as much as we want. Now we just chuckle to ourselves about our naivety. In no way is owning (or chartering) a sailboat just to SCUBA dive a value proposition.
2. Luckily for us, we've since grown a passionate love of sailing itself, so we're not so focused on the diving aspect. In fact, we've finally ditched our plans to outfit our future Carribean liveaboard with a compressor and that's opened up lot more (smaller and cheaper) options.
3. Depending on where you're looking to sail, you may not need a compressor. My understanding is it's not difficult to find tank fills anywhere in the Carrib.
4. The first time you solo moor your boat to a ball, load the gear in the dink, drive around to the other side of the little island, drop down for an hour, then come back up and both the dink and the yacht are still there where you left them: PRICELESS FEELING OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
5. However, every time we leave a yacht unattended to dive for an hour, is still somewhat terrifying. Every time. I'm not very experienced with anchoring yet, so we don't leave the boat unless there's a mooring, and that helps. The first time you surface at your dinghy and the weather has deteriorated making the trip back to the mothership fully loaded with heavy gear and building seas is also real butt-puckering.
6. Truth is, as we get more experienced with sailing and managing risks, we'll probably plan and budget for dive operator diving. We've used shops in Cozumel, Roatan, Grand Cayman and Bonaire that allow us to go off on our own during guided dives and that's probably the best solution for us. We support local operators with our business, they take us to the good sites, they have the safety gear and deco training, and we can live comfortably on a 35' boat rather than having to own a 40' boat to accomodate all the tanks and compressor.

FINAL REQUEST: You folks with compressor setups on your liveaboards - please post pics! Nobody talks the details about their equipment setups and it's hard to visualize a compressor on a boat much smaller than 40 or 45 feet.

[caradow]

No problem diving from your boat in the Cayman's. Have done it for years.
Also Lion Fish make great ceviche.
Not to pollute the subject however have any of you Lion Fish hunters even got Ciguatera from these little beasts?

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by caradow

No problem diving from your boat in the Cayman's. Have done it for years.

Also Lion Fish make great ceviche.

Not to pollute the subject however have any of you Lion Fish hunters even got Ciguatera from these little beasts?

We also eat lion fish in Cayman and other places. So far have never heard/known of a ciguatera case.

However, I don’t like them raw. They eat pretty much only other fish so parasites are a significant risk that cooking takes away. Have had some run-ins with seafood parasites. It sucks big time.

[mark0978]

Cozumel, the Caymans, and Greece are the ones I've heard mentioned specifically.

I've dived from my boat in Cozumel and Cayman. The problems in Cozumel are drift diving, you need a captain to that. You can get a local for about 500-1000 pesos/day though so it works out. Same is true near Cancun and Isla Mujeres. However the local dive shops there know where to drop you in, so its better on their boats.

Cayman has almost 300 free dive buoys available for anyone to use. It's about the only thing they have done to protect the reefs. So no idea what you are talking about when you say they are restricted.

I have a compressor I can run from my 11KW generator. I can fill 2 tanks in under 30 minutes and make fresh water at the same time. I got it because I plan on going places where getting air is NOT easy. In the Pacific Islands you can be days away from a refill and the water there is deep. So I got the compressor and it ran about $6000 installed with hoses and a fill whip.

[mark0978]

Good luck with that. Places like Cayman don't allow spearing, even with hawaiian slings which is why the # of lionfish here is so high. You have to take a course given once every two year, you can only checkout the spearing equipment during business hours, in general, they are doing everything they can to help the lionfish win, and it shows in the depleted fish stocks around the reefs. Real shame too, because they used to have a lot of fish.

[SIGMACHI]

Enticing thread. I lived on St. Croix for almost 4 years....immersed myself (Ha!) At Cane Bay Dive Shop. Probably my lifetime of scuba diving “the Wall At Cane Bay...Fredrickstad, etc. forrays to the BVIs....all good. Ah, memories...

Alan
M/V SIGMACHI

Thanks guys‼️⚓️

[GrowleyMonster]

There are different sorts of scuba divers. Some, or most, like to look at pretty fishes and corals and wrecks. Me, I could care less. I dive when I have to, to do something with the boat, to free an anchor, to find something dropped in the water, and seldom in open ocean, rarely below 30' (safety stop, absolutely!) and, when diving off the boat, someone on the boat competent enough to come get me if need be. I always dive alone. That might change soon since GF wants to get certified, and if she does then I will, too. She will be the fish watcher and I will basically just be designated dive buddy who could care less about the undersea scenery. So yeah, self taught (thank you, youtube) and still alive to tell about it. Did all the exercises required by current certification courses. However, after having done this for some years now, I have come to the conclusion that a hookah rig, and a BC and weights for working with heavy props, etc would do me just fine. For this type of diving, that is what I would recommend. Maybe add a wire or dyneema tether to the hose, for open water diving. My next dive project will be connecting my Ocean Reef full face mask to a hookah compressor so I can communicate with my topside helpers while hookah diving.



BTW, I am not recommending just any average person buy a hookah kit and jump right in without any experienced instruction. Many of the potential risks of scuba exist for the hookah diver, too. Hey, where's my octopus? LOL. I think some folks get just a little bit too casual and carefree with hookah diving.



But as for an actual scuba tank fill compressor on the boat, IMHO for me it would be more trouble than it is worth if I also have hookah. To properly maintain a high pressure breathing air compressor is considerable cost and bother.



When GF gets certified, maybe priorities and preferences will change. She did an introductory lesson where she was able to go on air and spend some bottom time in the pool and found it quite a thrill so maybe she will want to feed the eels and pick up starfish and take underwater pics of coral and sunk boats and stuff, and find hookah to be limiting. In that case I might let her pay for a tank fill compressor and maintain it herself, and I would not be averse to using it.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Thanks. For clarity, I have made a substantial number of solo dives (and solo flights, for that matter).





Thanks, I'm aware of the risk.


I am trying to build a sailboat-friendly compressor plant out of a Walter Kidde 2.2 cfm pump, and am, how shall we say, doing a good deal of troubleshooting. Hopefully it will come together.

I would be interested in reading how that works out for you.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by mark0978

Good luck with that. Places like Cayman don't allow spearing, even with hawaiian slings which is why the # of lionfish here is so high. You have to take a course given once every two year, you can only checkout the spearing equipment during business hours, in general, they are doing everything they can to help the lionfish win, and it shows in the depleted fish stocks around the reefs. Real shame too, because they used to have a lot of fish.

The reality is that spearing lion fish will not significantly impact their numbers nor their effect on numbers of other fish. We see lots of lion fish everywhere in the Caribbean and I believe it’s impossible to impact them by divers spearing 3-4 on every dive.

Cayman had to do something because the temptation to take a nice grouper home for dinner was too much for some divers. Cleaning lion fish is not fun and the amount of meat is pretty meager by comparison. They have now only started to come back. We recently went diving there and could see only a few young groupers and no middle aged adults.

FWIW we helped remove several lion fish but it’s like peeing in the ocean.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

There are different sorts of scuba divers. Some, or most, like to look at pretty fishes and corals and wrecks. Me, I could care less. I dive when I have to, to do something with the boat, to free an anchor, to find something dropped in the water, and seldom in open ocean, rarely below 30' (safety stop, absolutely!) and, when diving off the boat, someone on the boat competent enough to come get me if need be. I always dive alone. That might change soon since GF wants to get certified, and if she does then I will, too. She will be the fish watcher and I will basically just be designated dive buddy who could care less about the undersea scenery. So yeah, self taught (thank you, youtube) and still alive to tell about it. Did all the exercises required by current certification courses. However, after having done this for some years now, I have come to the conclusion that a hookah rig, and a BC and weights for working with heavy props, etc would do me just fine. For this type of diving, that is what I would recommend. Maybe add a wire or dyneema tether to the hose, for open water diving. My next dive project will be connecting my Ocean Reef full face mask to a hookah compressor so I can communicate with my topside helpers while hookah diving.



BTW, I am not recommending just any average person buy a hookah kit and jump right in without any experienced instruction. Many of the potential risks of scuba exist for the hookah diver, too. Hey, where's my octopus? LOL. I think some folks get just a little bit too casual and carefree with hookah diving.



But as for an actual scuba tank fill compressor on the boat, IMHO for me it would be more trouble than it is worth if I also have hookah. To properly maintain a high pressure breathing air compressor is considerable cost and bother.



When GF gets certified, maybe priorities and preferences will change. She did an introductory lesson where she was able to go on air and spend some bottom time in the pool and found it quite a thrill so maybe she will want to feed the eels and pick up starfish and take underwater pics of coral and sunk boats and stuff, and find hookah to be limiting. In that case I might let her pay for a tank fill compressor and maintain it herself, and I would not be averse to using it.

Along with Hookah, 100ft hose and scuba aboard, we just purchased one of these underwater drones for my wife to do some underwater exploring, anchor checking and hull and prop inspections; it comes with a 330ft tether and 300ft depth rating. Now we can explore underwater via the large screen TV inside the saloon. I'll be writing a review just as soon as Gladius arrives and we test it.

Things just got easier and safer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVVmIPmvzYk&t=66s

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Along with Hookah, 100ft hose and scuba aboard, we just purchased one of these underwater drones for my wife to do some underwater exploring, anchor checking and hull and prop inspections; it comes with a 330ft tether and 300ft depth rating. Now we can explore underwater via the large screen TV inside the saloon. I'll be writing a review just as soon as Gladius arrives and we test it.

Things just got easier and safer.

I am sure your review will be very interesting. Sounds like a pretty cool gadget.

[mako]

Originally Posted by waterman46

Other than the disputable safety issues of diving alone...
I guess you can find stories about folks who have been saved by having a buddy diver close by, but I think that's very rare. More often the story goes that you look around, can't find your buddy and there's a bit of panic. In poor visibility (Northern CA) I have even had to surface to reconnect with a buddy. That was an unsafe condition actually caused by buddy diving itself.

I've done alot of solo diving but always in controlled, gentle, shallow conditions where I can free ascent (about 50ft limit).

I did have a scary situation once here in Qatar. Was diving during summer right off the beach, 1/8" wetsuit including hood for protection from the nasty jellies. Came up to safety stop at 15' and I could feel myself overheating from the hot 93+ degree water temperature in the shallows. The body just can't cool itself off. I felt getting close to faint/dizzyness so just shot up to the surface and partially inflated by BC in case I were to pass out.

However that was totally related to absolutely crazy temperatures (the air temp was about 120 degrees that day as well).

I will continue to dive solo but I understand that some of the associations offer solo diving courses and have thought about taking one.

[mako]

Originally Posted by Lihuedooley77

" Doom to the Lion Fish ! "
Denny and Erica

Funny how when I dive Vietnam I see lion fish but they do not take over the reefs. The same for the Crown of Thorns. Even the divemasters there have no real idea how the populations are controlled because you don't ever see eels or sharks snacking on them in enough numbers that would contain an outbreak like the one in Florida.

[transmitterdan]

In pacific waters many predators (groupers, eels, snappers, etc.) eat live lion fish. But on the Atlantic side almost nothing except sharks and eels will eat a live one. And many of those simply don’t know what they are. Apparently it takes many generations for predators to realize that lion fish are actually fish and edible. They look very alien to Atlantic predators.

The other day a friend speared a lion fish and he pushed it off the spear so a nearby snapper could have lunch. But a bigger shark came out of the deep and stole his lunch almost right out of the snapper’s mouth.

[mako]

How does a lion fish even go down a sharks throat? Those spines and the poison in them have to hurt a hell of a lot