Ray Jones wrote"

> If it had've been on my boat I would've to but this was a charter for the
> group. My boat is only a 23 footer so 4 foot seas gets very sloppy plus I
don't
> trust just anybody handling my boat in seas like that while I'm down.

Good point.

> Another lesson hard learned. Back in 85 I had just gotten my first boat.
My
> buddy at the time was raised here on the Gulf and I assumed he knew how to
> handle a boat. I was in the pass here in Pensacola making a dive on the
channel
> between the forts and when I came up my boat was upside down. He had
gotten too
> close to the sandbar and a wave broke over the stern and killed the
engines.
> The boat got swamped and because it had a tower on it it rolled. Weird
feeling
> to see your boat keel up in the water upon surfacing. I had only about a
50
> yard swim to land and needless to say I was hot but that still didn't
bring my
> boat back.

I would much rather learn from your mistake than make this one myself.  8^)

> This was just on the charter boat. On my own boat I don't even use a tag
> line. We just buoy dive. I NEVER anchor.

If I were diving the depths you do, I wouldn't anchor either.  In fact, most
of my diving these days is from charter boats.  Jayna seems to have lost
interest in diving, at least for now, freeing me to enjoy the deeper reefs
more often.  I don't mind anchoring the boat in 30 to 40 feet of water, but
I'm a bit shy about diving from a dead boat much deeper than that.  As you
know, the deeper the water is, the harder it can be to ensure the boat is
anchored solidly.  It takes a lot of scope to be comfortable anchoring in
100 feet, even with my 40 feet of chain.

> I've basically done the same thing on my boat. I've got my emergency DAN
kit
> to be used just as such and then I've got another O2 cylinder that we use
> between dives over 100 feet.

A couple of years ago, DAN came out with an emergency O2 kit that was,
essentially, a rebreather, complete with counterlung and scrubber.  As I
recall, they indicated it was good for about 6 hours on the smallest O2 tank
I can recall seeing.  It was very compact and seemed like a great idea to
me.  I don't know what went wrong, but when I checked back with them a few
months later, I was told that they had decided not to market the unit.  As
far as I know, they still haven't.  Perhaps somebody more connected or with
better knowledge of rebreather technology knows why this wouldn't be a great
product for small boaters.

Lee