This took place about seven years ago in Cozumel. My wife (150 dives over 20 years) and I (around 400 dives over 35 years) were diving one of the southern reefs, Francesca (I think), on our second of a two tank dive. We were with the DM plus one other diver we had just met. We were at around 70' max depth. It was a typical Cozumel drift dive with a mild current. Towards the middle of the dive the current picked up considerably. We weren't flying but it was significant. I believe that we ended up on Dalila for the last third of the dive.
The DM gave the gather together, we're heading up signal to all of us. Everyone acknowledges. As we were heading up for our safety stop, the DM shot his SMB. My wife and I were close to the DM but the other diver was no longer near us. He (solo diver) had spotted a couple of blacktip reef sharks down on the reef. I saw him look at us, look at the sharks, look at us and, in my head, I said "don't do it, bud". Yeah... he did. He turned and dove back down chasing the sharks.
I slowed myself down and I tried to split the distance between my wife & the DM and him, keeping everyone in sight. I was trying to act as a bridge between everyone. There was decent current and, since we were now at very different depths, the distance between him and I was rapidly increasing as was my distance from my wife and the DM. I was banging away on my tank trying to get the other guy's attention, but to no avail. I could tell my wife was not happy with me and was (strongly) signaling me to come back as I was now a decent distance from her and the DM and, effectively, had put myself in a no buddy situation. Since she, and the DM, were downcurrent, I was able to rejoin them reasonably quickly (couple of minutes). We did our safety stop and we surfaced... to no boat. I could see the DM looking in a particular direction and focused my gaze on where he was looking. Oh, yeah... there's our boat. But why is so far away that I can barely see it? Why isn't it moving? And, hmmm why can't I see it all now? I ask the DM and he says "I don't think it's coming". Ummmm.. what? He said that he thinks there's a problem with the boat. A long thirty minutes later, we are able to get the attention of another dive boat and they bring us aboard and then transport us to our boat (which had suffered an engine failure).
Meanwhile, no sign of the other diver. After another hour, we hear on the radio, that another boat has found our missing diver and they were bringing him to us. What a relief! I'm sure it was the longest 90 minutes of his life. It felt like forever for us sitting on the broken down boat waiting for any news of his being found. As we were being towed back to the marina, he came up to me and apologised profusely. He knew he'd made a bad decision and put himself in jeopardy. He said he saw me hanging back for him and was trying to get some shots of the sharks and, when he looked back again, he looked he couldn't see anyone. He'd never practiced shooting his SMB and when he tried to shoot it during his safety stop, he ending up losing it. There went his best chance and being spotted on the surface. He had no other signaling device.
Why am I posting this? To ask if there's anything I should have done differently. Should I have just let him go right at the outset, when he dove back down to the reef, and stayed with my wife? Should I have stayed with him and allowed my wife and DM out of my sight? Anything else that I can use as a lesson for the future?
The DM gave the gather together, we're heading up signal to all of us. Everyone acknowledges. As we were heading up for our safety stop, the DM shot his SMB. My wife and I were close to the DM but the other diver was no longer near us. He (solo diver) had spotted a couple of blacktip reef sharks down on the reef. I saw him look at us, look at the sharks, look at us and, in my head, I said "don't do it, bud". Yeah... he did. He turned and dove back down chasing the sharks.
I slowed myself down and I tried to split the distance between my wife & the DM and him, keeping everyone in sight. I was trying to act as a bridge between everyone. There was decent current and, since we were now at very different depths, the distance between him and I was rapidly increasing as was my distance from my wife and the DM. I was banging away on my tank trying to get the other guy's attention, but to no avail. I could tell my wife was not happy with me and was (strongly) signaling me to come back as I was now a decent distance from her and the DM and, effectively, had put myself in a no buddy situation. Since she, and the DM, were downcurrent, I was able to rejoin them reasonably quickly (couple of minutes). We did our safety stop and we surfaced... to no boat. I could see the DM looking in a particular direction and focused my gaze on where he was looking. Oh, yeah... there's our boat. But why is so far away that I can barely see it? Why isn't it moving? And, hmmm why can't I see it all now? I ask the DM and he says "I don't think it's coming". Ummmm.. what? He said that he thinks there's a problem with the boat. A long thirty minutes later, we are able to get the attention of another dive boat and they bring us aboard and then transport us to our boat (which had suffered an engine failure).
Meanwhile, no sign of the other diver. After another hour, we hear on the radio, that another boat has found our missing diver and they were bringing him to us. What a relief! I'm sure it was the longest 90 minutes of his life. It felt like forever for us sitting on the broken down boat waiting for any news of his being found. As we were being towed back to the marina, he came up to me and apologised profusely. He knew he'd made a bad decision and put himself in jeopardy. He said he saw me hanging back for him and was trying to get some shots of the sharks and, when he looked back again, he looked he couldn't see anyone. He'd never practiced shooting his SMB and when he tried to shoot it during his safety stop, he ending up losing it. There went his best chance and being spotted on the surface. He had no other signaling device.
Why am I posting this? To ask if there's anything I should have done differently. Should I have just let him go right at the outset, when he dove back down to the reef, and stayed with my wife? Should I have stayed with him and allowed my wife and DM out of my sight? Anything else that I can use as a lesson for the future?
