Have you ever lost the line? And if so how many minutes did it take to find it?

[DA Aquamaster]

Jeff,

Marci and I have similar fears regarding large passage. For example if diving Manatee from friedmans on a low viz day or the larger sections of passage in Lafayette Blue on pretty much any day, we'll assign someone to be on the line to allow the other team member(s) the ability to range a bit farther from the line.

It's a lot easier to see a diver and their light on the line than it is just the line, it's easier to see the line itself when it's in the vicinity of a diver's light, and it's prudent to have someone following the line and ensuring there are no gaps, breaks, tees, or unexpected twists that could be missed by diver looking at the rest of a large passage, looking for side passages, leads, etc.

[diveconjeff]

Spot on ! (literally and figuratively)

[huxley]

once in a while I take two primaries with me when there is low viz, dark line ...... One follows the line the other one I use to look around, makes it easier to not loose the line out of sight and still be able to look around.

[tomhauburn]

Added a few options...also extended the time for those of you who missed the early date. Did not change anything folks had voted on.

[DogDiver]

Didn't actually loose the line, but swam over the jump on hill 400 just before you get to the bats. I knew in the first 30 feet I wasn't where I belonged as I was in the skid row loop. Turned around to find my team members waiting for me at the jump. Poor jump there. Only about 12 inch jump at a turn in the main line. Won't do that again.

[Reefnut]

Yes, a couple of times. The first time I was gawking at the beauty of my surroundings in Little River. I lost line awareness for only a moment. When I realized I didn't know where the line was I froze. Thank goodness my buddy was paying more attention than I was. The second time was in Mexico during my final cave course. The main line was a thin, white twisted braid running very close to a white bone-like floor. Again, I was so preoccupied gawking at the beautiful cave I took my eyes off the line for only a second and the darn thing up and disappeared. It was perfectly camouflaged against the white floor. I found it only by panning my light back and forth and looking for the line's shadow. After that, if I wanted to ooh and ahh at the cave I just let the back of my hand brush against line as I swam so I always knew exactly where it was. Both were valuable experiences and I've never lost the line since.

[bullfrog]

Once lost the line and a buddy. I remember thinking this is how people die in caves. one minute everything is ok and next it is not. didn't take long to find the line but taught us all a couple of lessons. see http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...n-Madison-Blue

[mdax]

small safety spools were mentioned. I've never understood why some folks use a safety spool that couldn't reach from one side of a passage to the other. Places like manatee or large passages in ginnie necessitate a 150' safety spool imo.

[Ann]

We did the excersice in the course. For my feeling it took a really long time before I found the line, I totally went in the wrong direction, but it had only token a couple of minutes the instructor said.

[citracaver]

A lost line search is very difficult, if not impossible in truly zero viz. You can't read a compass, and it is even hard to find something to tie the line on, to even start a search. So yes, it is luck if you do find it. By "zero visibility" I mean the kind where you can't see your light, until it touches the glass on your mask.

It seems like "zero viz" is subjective. I have been sump diving in true zero viz where when I touched my light to my mask glass I still couldn't see it. It doesn't get anymore zero viz than that. I was very glad that I was diving solo and you can bet that there was no way that line was coming out of my hand. I have to agree with Forrest, losing the line in that type of condition would be almost impossible to recover from.