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The DSMB fully inflated on its reel. It is common to write the diver’s name on the very top (which will protrude above the water) in large letters so those on the dive boat can identify who is below. © Bob Anderson

Delayed surface marker buoy (DSMB) rigged for diving. It is clipped or stored somewhere convenient on the dive rig.

In the north-east of Scotland we get slack water of about 20 minutes at springs – and almost two hours at neaps. So, if we are diving a wreck on a spring tide, we aim to get that precious slack water whilst we are down on the wreck itself, in the knowledge that as we begin our ascent the tide will have turned and the current will be picking up.

But in the North Sea at springs we can get currents of 1–1.5 knots, and it is not feasible for a group of divers on ascent to all try to hang onto the shotline down to the wreck for perhaps an hour of decompression: it would be a rough hour with the water whipping past you at about one knot. (A knot – one nautical mile per hour – may not seem very fast, but when you’re immersed in that water its force is considerable.)