TampaScuba
Contributor
Well this was the first time in my life I seriously thought I was going to die.
First I want to say that I have about 300 dives logged and 200 of them are while spear fishing. We spear about 3 times a month and 2-3 dives each time in about 40-60 feet of water 30-50 miles out. This was my first close call.
In this instance I was on a friend's boat that we don't usually dive on, and he had a friend that I didn't know and didn't know his experience with boating or diving.
The conditions were 2-3 feet and sunny. It was a 4 person trip, and we were about 20 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico west of Clearwater, FL doing our 2nd dive of the day in 45 feet of water. This particular dive site was a very long section of concrete barriers and cylinders that make a great area for sea life neat passages to swim through...It's supposed to be a very chill and sight-seeing dive. We took our spears just in case we saw something, but didn't expect to do much shooting.
It was a really great dive and did manage to spear one 15" hog. When we finally surfaced after a 30 minute dive, we were about 300 feet from the boat. The two in the boat saw us and his friend started pulling the anchor. We floated as we waited for pickup with the dead hog in hand. We then watched in horror as the boat started to travel away from our location... They had lost sight of us... My dive buddy, thank God, had his safety sausage with him and later admitted that he NEVER carries it on dives, but for some reason on this particular dive, decided to put it on his BC... As we are screaming bloody murder and i'm waving both spears in the air floating on my back, he inflates the sausage. It takes 10 full minutes before they spot us. Those were the longest 10 minutes of my life...
Lessons Learned. NEVER have your most experienced boaters and divers in the water at the same time and ALWAYS carry a safety sausage and/or PLB no matter how easy the dive.
When I got home the first thing I did was purchase a whistle, 6 foot day/night SS, and now I'm looking up resqlinks that I can put in a capsule so I can dive with it.
This event has really made me appreciate life and also respect the real dangers of diving and boating. Never again will I dive without at least a whistle and SS, and I hope I encourage people that see this to always dive prepared.
First I want to say that I have about 300 dives logged and 200 of them are while spear fishing. We spear about 3 times a month and 2-3 dives each time in about 40-60 feet of water 30-50 miles out. This was my first close call.
In this instance I was on a friend's boat that we don't usually dive on, and he had a friend that I didn't know and didn't know his experience with boating or diving.
The conditions were 2-3 feet and sunny. It was a 4 person trip, and we were about 20 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico west of Clearwater, FL doing our 2nd dive of the day in 45 feet of water. This particular dive site was a very long section of concrete barriers and cylinders that make a great area for sea life neat passages to swim through...It's supposed to be a very chill and sight-seeing dive. We took our spears just in case we saw something, but didn't expect to do much shooting.
It was a really great dive and did manage to spear one 15" hog. When we finally surfaced after a 30 minute dive, we were about 300 feet from the boat. The two in the boat saw us and his friend started pulling the anchor. We floated as we waited for pickup with the dead hog in hand. We then watched in horror as the boat started to travel away from our location... They had lost sight of us... My dive buddy, thank God, had his safety sausage with him and later admitted that he NEVER carries it on dives, but for some reason on this particular dive, decided to put it on his BC... As we are screaming bloody murder and i'm waving both spears in the air floating on my back, he inflates the sausage. It takes 10 full minutes before they spot us. Those were the longest 10 minutes of my life...
Lessons Learned. NEVER have your most experienced boaters and divers in the water at the same time and ALWAYS carry a safety sausage and/or PLB no matter how easy the dive.
When I got home the first thing I did was purchase a whistle, 6 foot day/night SS, and now I'm looking up resqlinks that I can put in a capsule so I can dive with it.
This event has really made me appreciate life and also respect the real dangers of diving and boating. Never again will I dive without at least a whistle and SS, and I hope I encourage people that see this to always dive prepared.