Recently, Ann and I were sitting at a table with Mike Lever, from the Nautilus Explorer and Nautilus LifeLine as well as Karen Zammitti, from Bamboo Reef in California; and, we were talking about the LifeLine units. Karen related a story about her father and a recent experience he had with the unit. He was diving in the Maldives and he and his dive buddy were pushed by a current in a different direction from the other divers in the group. When they surfaced, they found the boat picking up divers and looking for them in a totally different direction from where they were. They were not far away and eventually the boat would have found them but by using the LifeLine, he was able to tell the boat where they were so they could be picked up sooner.
Mike had a similar story to tell which drove him to develop the units. The diver had drifted away from the shore and could see the boat but the boat was looking for him in the wrong direction so he had to just wait until they expanded their search in his direction. It was nothing like the mneues, both divers could see the boat they were just in a different location from where the boat expected them to be. By using the LifeLine, Karen’s father was able to reduce the time on the surface by letting the boat crew know where he was in relation to the other divers.
Divers in the Galapagos are used to carrying radio direction finders, RDF units, which will help the boat locate you if you surface too far away. Most people never use them but everyone carries them. The advantage of the LifeLine over the RDF is that it has GPS coordinates and you can talk directly to the boat.
For a lot of trips, especially the ones in “big water” like the Pacific, carrying a LifeLine makes a lot of sense. It is a waterproof VHF radio with a GPS function included. It is small and fits easily onto any diving configuration. The goal of Project LifeLine is to outfit divers doing open ocean dives with the Nautilus units. Mike uses them on all of his boats and a number of other operators are incorporating them into their operations as well.
They are an east to use device and easy to carry. If you would like to see them and play with them, please come by Oceanic Ventures for a demo.
