Quote: (Originally Posted by
AD_ward9)
Ted, you seem to be saying the same thing as in my post, namely that traffic over the Doria is vastly less than dives we do around Europe, where a trapeze is fine.
A moving boat can get out of the way of a big ship much faster than one anchored.
The purpose of the surface logistics is to ensure no-one is lost, and people do not deco in a current.
The object is to keep the decompressing divers out of other ships path. Please explain to me how you will move your trapeze with divers hanging between 20' and 50' out of the way of another ship. You work under the assumption that every ship coming toward your drifting station has the ability to change course and will do so in time.
In the 2,000+ days of dive operation collectively performed by numerous different boats over the last 50 years, I do not believe there has been a single incident of a vessel transiting the area in the lanes veering off course and putting a dive vessel anchored on the Doria in jeopardy. There have been a few incidents of commercial fishing vessel fishing the area coming to close, but this was usually at night. If you can point me to a documented case of a vessel being chased off a Doria mooring by a transiting freighter etc., I will happily stand corrected. It is inconceivable to most any dive boat captain with a few Doria trips to think that 3,000+ drifting dive operations could have been performed on the Doria in the last 50 years without incident in the shipping lanes.
Alex, you and I are not going to see eye to eye on this. I would rather take my chances hanging in a 3 knot current where my survival is in my control. You would rather tempt fate and hope everyone else will yield to your dive boat. I wish you all the best of luck.......I fear sooner or later you will need it!
Ted