Navigate Like a Magician

Relatively early in my diving career I went for a night dive at the Mukilteo T-Dock with a much more experienced buddy who had about 400 dives. The main point of interest at the T-dock is a geodesic dome at about 60 feet deep at high tide. The visibility was only about 5-10 feet, so we could only see a little more than a body length in any direction.  

We descended, following the barely visible trail of rocks along the bottom that guides the way to the dome. Along the way we saw an abandoned crab pot (trap). I signaled that maybe we should take it with us back to the surface rather than leave it to entangle crabs and divers. My buddy signaled back to leave the pot there. I assumed he knew best so we continued our dive leaving the crab pot behind. 

After spending some time at the dome with the rockfish, wolf eels and other critters we took a right for a few dozen yards, saw some more features, then took a second right leading us back uphill, and one final right.  At this point I was thoroughly turned around and not quite sure where we were... but lo and behold after following my buddy for a few kick cycles the crab pot came into view out of the murky depths dead ahead! We retrieved it, continued our ascent up the rocky path, did our safety stop and ended the dive. 

Maybe you can already guess how my buddy navigated exactly back to the crab pot like it had a homing beacon in full darkness with low visibility? He used a few navigation techniques that every diver should learn - techniques that felt like magic to me as a relatively new diver! First he took note of the depth of the crab pot - let's say it was 37 feet deep. Secondly he was aware that this site slopes downhill at a fairly steady rate. Lastly he kept track of the general direction of his turns. With this information he could be confident that by finning for a while, that after three right turns, he'd be headed back in the general direction of the rock path - and that if we stayed at about 37 feet - we'd run right into the crab pot. Easy!

Become a Better Diver By

• Using depth, bottom contours, and your general direction (a compass helps) to orient yourself and navigate like a magician!