Click here for Online Shop

Navigation

Surface Marker Buoys (SMBs)


Being able to let the surface know where you are during a dive is critical in some situations, and highly recommended in most others. The main ways divers use to achieve this are: a Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) which stays on the surface, with or without a dive flag; a Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) which can be deployed by the diver from underwater; or a Safety Sausage which can only be deployed on the surface.

We consider the Safety Sausage to be unsafe and don't sell them. After all, how do you safely get to the surface in areas where there is boat traffic in order to deploy your safety sausage. They are usually much smaller than DSMBs, and thus don't do nearly as good a job as a signalling/location device.

Most people refer to a DSMB as just a SMB, which is why this category is called Surface Marker Buoys (SMBs), but technically they're very different.

SMB vs DSMB

A Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) is floated on the surface during a dive to mark the diver's position during drift dives, night dives, mist or disturbed sea conditions. A SMB is absolutely essential kit for diving anywhere you may have surface boat traffic. It allows your position to be known by people watching from shore and watercraft, whether they be the boat you are diving from, or other water users. Typically a SMB will have a dive flag on it as well. See Surface Markers for our range of SMBs.

A Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB), decompression buoy or deco buoy, is deployed whilst the diver is submerged and generally only towards the end of the dive. The DSMB marks the diver's position underwater so the boat safety cover can locate the diver even though the diver may have drifted some distance from the dive site while doing safety or decompression stops. A reel or finger spool and line connect the buoy on the surface to the diver beneath the surface.

Our recommendation is that all divers should carry a DSMB and reel on every dive. In many boat diving situations it's also good practice to also have a Surface Marker with dive flag up on the surface to tell your surface support where you are for the whole of the dive.

SMBs and DSMBs are not intended to be used to lift heavy weights. That's what a Lift Bag is for.

Where to Deploy Your DSMB

Delayed SMBs, such as the AP Diving Buddy DSMB, are designed to be deployed from depth near the end of, or at any critical point during, a dive. Some divers, like us, prefer to shoot their Delayed SMBs from the bottom and thus let the surface support know they're begining their ascent. Other divers shoot from mid-water when they start their safety stop, or decompression stops. We strongly recommend you have a Delayed SMB and reel/spool with you on every dive. On open water dives, waiting until you surface to deploy a surface only safety sausage is dangerous in high boat traffic areas.

Which Colour Delayed SMB Should you Use

There are essentially three choices for DSMB colouring — all Red, all Yellow, or Red and Yellow on contrasting sides.

Studies have shown that Red and Yellow are the two most visible colours at sea. But each colour works better than the other in different conditions. Thus if you look around a dive shop, you will see up to three SMB colours: all Red; all Yellow; and one side Red, one side Yellow.

Recreational Diving

An all Red SMB is far and away the most common SMB colour. This leads some new divers to buy an all Yellow SMB so theirs will stand out more when at a busy dive site. We don't recommend this.

Other divers buy the two-colour SMBs (Red on one side, Yellow on the other side) because these must surely be the ideal for high-visibility over the widest range of conditions. For recreational diving, especially when ocean diving, this is what we recommend. However, it is essential that you let your surface cover know that your combined Red and Yellow SMB is not being used as an emergency signal unless an emergency signal or message is attached to it.

Advanced/Technical Diving

In Australia, and many other parts of the world, there is a convention used by more advanced and technical divers that an all Yellow SMB is an emergency signal, to be responded to by sending down a cylinder of gas, or a rescue diver, or both.

Whilst for the most part recreational divers do not have or need such a signal, it is possible for both types of diver to be on the same dive site. If one group of divers is using Yellow as an emergency signal and the other group uses Yellow as standard, this could lead to confusion and even to a genuine emergency signal being ignored.

For this reason, unless you have a very strong reason for wanting an all Yellow SMB as standard, please don't buy one.

If you decide that you would like to use a Yellow SMB as an emergency signal yourself, two precautions to take are:

  • Make sure your surface cover knows this convention
  • Mark the SMB with "EMERGENCY", "HELP", "SOS" or some other such message in large, clear black letters to ensure there is no doubt that you are a diver in distress and not just a diver who thought a Yellow SMB looked nicer than a Red one.


Lune

Wreck Dive Wreck Dive | Boat access Boat access

Advanced Open Water Rated Wilsons Promontory Wreck Dive Site

Three-Masted Wooden Barque | Max Depth: 19 m (62 ft)

Lune
Lune | Source: Heritage Victoria

The Lune shipwreck lies in 19 metres of water off Cliffy Island in Bass Strait. Cliffy Island is located about 32 kilometres directly south of Port Albert, and roughly 38 kilometres to the north-east of Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse.

The Swedish-owned barque Lune was on a voyage from Newcastle to Batavia via Melbourne loaded with coal. In a thick fog it struck a reef on the eastern side of Cliffy Island, Wilsons Promontory. The crew reached safety, but the vessel soon broke up and sank on 17 February 1885 in the heavy swell.

Diving the Lune Shipwreck

Little remains to be seen of the Lune shipwreck. Her beams and large admiralty anchor are covered in marine growth.

Lune Shipwreck History — Built in 1874

The Lune was a three-masted wooden barque of 500 l-ton (508 t) built in 1874, by Simpson in Glassom Dock, England. She was built on a length of 137 ft (42 m), a breadth of 27 ft (8.23 m) and a draught of 18.3 ft (5.58 m).

Lune Sinking — 17 February 1885

The wooden barque Lune was carrying 750 tons of coal from Newcastle, NSW to Batavia, Dutch East Indies via Melbourne, Victoria. She was sailing with nine crew under the command of Captain J. Malmberg. Off Cape Howe the barque struck West to SW gale force winds and a heavy sea. When the gale subsided the vessel was left in a heavy swell and later a thick fog settled down.

At 1.30 a.m. on 17 February 1885 the barque struck the reef on the eastern side of Cliffy Island. Rudder, stern post and steering gear were lost and two boats were lowered and the crew escaped. The vessel struck heavily on the reef, breaking up and then sinking at daylight. The crew landed at the Cliffy Island Lighthouse station on the island at dawn, although one of the boats was smashed during the landing. The crew were looked after by the people at the lighhouse station station.

Four days later, Captain Lee of the steamer De Bay, observed signals flying at the light house. He went to the island, took the shipwrecked people on board his vessel and brought them to Melbourne.

See also, Australian National Shipwreck Database: Lune, and
Heritage Council Victoria: Lune.

Heritage Warning: Any shipwreck or shipwreck relic that is 75 years or older is protected by legislation. Other items of maritime heritage 75 years or older are also protected by legislation. Activities such as digging for bottles, coins or other artefacts that involve the disturbance of archaeological sites may be in breach of the legislation, and penalties may apply. The legislation requires the mandatory reporting to Heritage Victoria as soon as practicable of any archaeological site that is identified. See Maritime heritage. Anyone with information about looting or stolen artefacts should call Heritage Victoria on (03) 7022 6390, or send an email to heritage.victoria@delwp.vic.gov.au.

Bass Strait Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any shore or boat dive in Bass Strait on Victoria's coastline. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-in-bass-strait before diving or snorkelling this site.

Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country
Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes parts of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-west, down to Wilson's Promontory in the south-east, including the Mornington Peninsula, French Island and Phillip Island, plus Western Port. We wish to acknowledge the Boon Wurrung as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.

 

Lune Location Map

Latitude: 38° 57.000′ S   (38.95° S / 38° 57′ S)
Longitude: 146° 42.000′ E   (146.7° E / 146° 42′ E)

Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-04-27 09:06:44 GMT
Source: GPS
Nearest Neighbour: Rubicon, 13,014 m, bearing 321°, NW
Three-Masted Wooden Barque.
Built: Glassom Dock, England, 1874.
Sunk: 17 February 1885.
Cliffy Island, Wilsons Promontory.
Depth: 19 m.



DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.

SALE and CLEARANCE [more]

New Products [more]

Brands [more]

500 PSI Adrenalin Air Dive Equipment Alpha Diving Products Analox AOI Limited AP Diving Apeks Apollo Scuba Aqualung AquaSketch Atomic Aquatics Atorch Lighting Australia Post AVATAR Backscatter Bare Barfell Best Divers Catahoula Manufacturing Inc Catalina Cylinders CDAA CineBags Cressi Cressi Swim Custom Divers DAN DiCAPac Dive Alert Dive Perfect Dive Rite Divesoft Dolphin Tech E-Shark Force Eezycut Faber Cylinders Fourth Element Fred & Friends Garmin Gear Aid Gear Keeper Glo-Toob H2Odyssey Halcyon Hi-Max Hollis Hyperion i-Dive (i-Torch, i-Das, i-Pix) Intova Isotta IST Proline IST Sports Kraken Sports Land and Sea Light & Motion Mac Coltellerie Mares Medical Developments Metalsub Miflex Hoses Nautilus LifeLine Neptune Sports New Holland Publishers NiteCore Northern Diver Ocean Design Ocean Hunter Ocean Pro Oceans Enterprises Omer OMS OrcaTorch PADI Performance Diver PowerDive Predator Probe Wetsuits Reef Line Salvimar Sammy Glenn Dives San-o-Sub Scuba Capsule Scuba Ninja Sea & Sea Seac Sub Seaka Shark Shield Sharkskin Shearwater Research Si Tech Sonar SteriGENE Sterling Leisure Surf Lock Suunto Tektite Termo Industria The Dive Spot The Scuba Doctor Tovatec Tribolube Trident Diving Equipment Tusa Tusa Sport Underwater Kinetics Unoflow Victorian Fisheries Authority View Swimming Gear Waterproof X-Adventurer XS Scuba

Copyright © 2005-2022 by The Scuba Doctor Australia, ABN 88 116 755 170. All rights reserved.
tel. +61 3 5985 1700 :: email. diveshop@scubadoctor.com.au :: Web site by it'sTechnical 2022