As a dive guide, one of the skills that you’ll want to improve and work on, is getting your guests back to the boat – more specifically, the right boat! Not only is surfacing at the wrong boat embarrassing, it’s costly in both penalties (like buying your dive group beers), and potentially in tips at the end of the trip.
Know your boat
Before you go down, have a look at the hull. What colour is it? What shape is it? Are there any distinct markings? What does the ladder look like?
All these small little features will help you identify your boat.
Know your mooring line
One useful tip is to descend along the mooring line and have a look at where the mooring line ties off to. It’ll make it easier, especially if there are a number of boats moored up in a bay (which happens often). Knowing what the mooring line looks like (colour, width, condition, floats, etc) will help you to find the boat when you return.
Sometimes this isn’t always straight forward, I’ve had situations where I’ve surfaced on the right mooring line only for there to be no boat! It happens sometimes because lines break or an emergency ensues. Keep your SMB visible and a look out for your boat.
Rely on your navigation
Navigation is the key to successfully finding your boat. The simpler your dive plan, the easier it will be to find your way back to the boat.
Mark your time
I like marking time, and knowing roughly how long I’ve gone out, and therefore how long I need to come back in. If there is current, I will generally factor that in too. Once I’m within about 5 mins of where I believe the boat will be, that’s when I’ll start to look for signs of the boat.
Depth
At the start of the dive, I generally like to descend to the bottom to see what the depth is. This is a key marker to finding the boat. When I return, I keep an eye out for the depth, so that I know if I’m either too deep or too shallow for where the boat might be.
Keep an eye out for seamarks
Look for a couple of key features in the first few minutes of the dive. This is the best way to signal that you’re close to the boat on your return. Make sure you look back at the seamark once you swim past it the first time, so you can get a look at it and remember what it looks like for your return journey.
Look up
As you get closer, look up. Look for your boat and it’s distinctive markings. Often I find that the ladder is one of the easiest indicators of the boat. The other thing that will help is looking for other divers at the surface who are surface swimming. If you recognise the fins or gear of one of the other guides or guests, then you can most certainly be assured that they are heading back to the boat. So follow them!
Lights
At night, it’s often pretty difficult to find your boat. When you start to get close to the boat, start looking up, and you’ll see the boat lights. Remember that boat lights refract, which means that when you see the light, you’re still going to be a fair way off still. The light will initially be quite vague, fuzzy and have a soft quality to it i.e it won’t be bright. As you get closer and closer, the light will sharpen up and become brighter. YOu’ll know that you’re close when you can see the outline of the boat in the light as you look up.
Summary
Finding your boat is a mixture of different techniques, and you’ll need to pick the techniques that you use for the conditions that you are in. The trick is to keep practicing. The more familiar you get with a site, the easier will become to find your way home, and to the boat, rather than spending all your concentration on making sure you don’t get lost.
Happy diving.