Slims

I have always used toothpaste and without harm to the mask

My only anecdotal evidence supporting the practice though was a dive with a new-issued mask which fogged up so bad I had to leave seawater in my mask so I could 'defog' every couple seconds. Following that dive I gave it the usual toothpaste treatment followed by good anti-fog and haven't had any problems since. I don't know whether the tooth paste helped at all as I did use anti-fog, but it didn't hurt anything either.

I feel for you. I have done several 'swims to nowhere' where we ended up fighting a losing battle against the current.

Cromp: A good rule of thumb is that with no current a fully charged 80 will allow you to swim about 750 yards at a pace of about 100 yards every 3 minutes. If you find yourself stuck in a current you don't really have a whole lot of 'wiggle room' to escape the current or swim out of it as even a modest current can propel a diver faster than they are able to swim.

__________________
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence