Coast Guard, good Samaritan rescue divers near Beaufort, NC

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Coast Guard, good Samaritan rescue divers near Beaufort, NC


PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The Coast Guard rescued two people after being separated from their recreational boat, approximately 10 miles off the coast of Beaufort, N.C., Sunday.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector North Carolina received a report over VHF-FM channel 16 from a crewmember aboard the Sand Tiger stating they had missing divers.

While on routine patrol, bridge watchstanders aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous overheard the distress call and immediately launched its Cutter Over the Horizon Boat and within 20 minutes had recovered two of the divers approximately a half mile from their boat.
A good Samaritan aboard the Outrageous V, aided in the search and recovered two more divers.

"This case highlights the value of our medium endurance cutter fleet and persistent off-shore presence,” said Cmdr. Greg Magee, the commanding officer of the Vigorous. “Our specialized small boat is not only well suited for law enforcement, but also for search and rescue."

Crewmembers aboard a 47-foot Motor Life Boat and a 25-foot Response Boat – Small from Coast Guard Station Fort Macon in North Carolina, who were already underway, were diverted to the dive incident and escorted the vessel back to the station.

 
Ok, this is the real story. I was on the Outragous with a group from Hollywood Divers when we found all 4 on the stranded divers.
We were returning from a 3 dive day when a crew member informed us we were diverting to get to the Indra to aid in the search of lost divers. It took us 30 MINUTES to get there. Capt Terry ( who totally rocked prior to yesterday) piloted the boat to about 300 yards from where the 4 were and told us to start looking....it took us less than 1 minute to spot the 4, all with sausages deployed and bobbing up and down together on the surface. All were in good spirits (didn't even drop their game bags). We got two of them on our boat when Coast Guard pulled up and said they'd take the other two.
Hall Wells (owner of Hollywood Divers) is the eagle eye who spotted them but in reality Capt Terry would have ended up running them over cause he was headed in the right direction (Capt Terry afterwards...."I kno them boys, theys good divers, I knew where they'd float to, figured I'd just go pick em up".
Great day...with a good outcome.
Tracy
 
and now the rest of the story...

As we were helping them on board one of them handed up a stringer with some very tasty look catch.
Did they leave it for us to say thank you? NO

LOL!

Your heart kind of sinks when you hear "lost divers". There was a huge cheer on board when we spotted them.

After this event some of our dive group bought larger SMBs. Its really amazing how easy even 4 divers, all together, with 2 SMBs is to spot on the surface.

PS. If I am ever lost at sea, please send Capt. Terry to find me!
 
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Im very glad to hear this worked out well for everyone.


Does anyone know if the divers were on a charter or private boat and if they were drift diving - or was the boat anchored? Was it a matter of drifting away from an anchored boat - or - drifting with the boat and the underwater current being different than the wind pushing the boat?
 
What if all four of those divers had Nautilus Lifelines in their pockets? Would a simple call out, to their own boat, with GPS coordinates have saved the Coast Guard and other boats even being called in? SMB's are great as are signal mirrors and noise making devices, but today a two way communication device (radio) is superior.
 
So glad there was a happy outcome to this story. I learned wreck diving in "the graveyard of the Atlantic" where these divers were rescued and went out with Capt Terry many times. Cheers to him for going back for them and to the divers on board for spotting them.

PS: My surface marker is 6 feet tall and 8 inches wide. I would also take a signal mirror, air horn (dive alert), whistle and light when I would go out that far.
 
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Most people seem to be missing something. If your going to dive in the open ocean buy and take a PLB (personal locator beacon) in addition to the other passive items that put the responsibility upon others to secure your rescue or non rescue.

If nothing else think about the cost of the fuel and manhours to others that will be spent searching for you when you say you can't afford a $300 +/- investment in a PLB.

John
 
Most people seem to be missing something. If your going to dive in the open ocean buy and take a PLB (personal locator beacon) in addition to the other passive items that put the responsibility upon others to secure your rescue or non rescue.

If nothing else think about the cost of the fuel and manhours to others that will be spent searching for you when you say you can't afford a $300 +/- investment in a PLB.

John
Agreed! Great thread on them below.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...rsonal-locator-beacon-how-never-lost-sea.html
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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