Eight divers rescued after their boat capsizes

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050507-1354-diversrescued.html

SIGNONSANDIEGO NEWS SERVICES
1:54 p.m. May 7, 2005

SAN DIEGO – Eight scuba divers were rescued after the boat they were on capsized in the ocean off Mission Beach, a lifeguard lieutenant said today.

The divers had been exploring the 366-foot Canadian destroyer Yukon, which years ago was sunk to a depth of 100 feet as an artificial reef, San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma said.

They had just come off the Yukon – about a mile off the San Diego Coast – and boarded their own boat about 11:30 p.m. Friday, when the boat started taking on water, Lerma said.

One diver managed to send a distress call before the boat capsized, Lerma said.

Lifeguards in a boat found the divers clinging to the capsized boat, Lerma said.

The divers were unhurt, said Lerma.

that was joshs boat at dive pro. real bummer, especially about all that gear. at least noone was hurt.

That really sucks. Josh is a great guy, he just got that boat recently. Good thing no one was hurt.

I did my advanced certification off that boat at the Yukon! I'm glad I didn't get capsized

Scott

Was it his private boat? I thought he used the Dive Connection boats.

He bought a boat and was running a 6-pack charter service. I was never on the boat but heard it was nice and very diver-friendly. We were heading out from Shelter Island to San Clemente island and the Horizon(a big boat) was rocking more than I expected. The next evening when we were returning the seas were very calm. Probably not a good night to be out on a small boat.

Sean

We dove the Yukon on Saturday morning. The capt told us the story and that 2 sets of doubles and 2 scooters were dropped. He said a they were offering a salvage reward of $100 per item, seems a bit low considering the cost of configuring new doubles.

We hit the water with 50+ vis and searched along the bottom edge for the missing items. Later as we ended the dive, we ran a spool off the bow and did a sweep without any luck. Good diving though.

Got this in my email (from divebums):

Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 19:33:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill Reals <wreals@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Divebums] Eight divers rescued after their boat capsizes

To: Divebums <list@divebums.com>
Message-ID: <20050508023355.75691.qmail@web50302.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

We did a night dive on the Yukon, when we came back up, we loaded the boat and the wind waves starting pushing water into the boat. We tried to rebalance it but the bildge couldn't keep up and we started taking on water. The boat quickly started listing, with the stern going under and the engines completely flooded. We were all still in our dry suits and it was clear that it was going under. We radioed the Coast Guard with a distress call and after what seemed like 2 mins, the boat started to go under. The boat listed strongly to the stern, and then turned turtle, it ejected most of us from the boat, into the water pretty quickly.

We were picked up about 30 mins later.

We are still in a state of recovery.

There is technical dive gear off the Yukon that we are trying to recover, if any of you find it, we are offering $200 a setup, double tanks, tanks, wings, lights, etc. Also, there are two Oceanic Mako Scooters out there on the bottom as well, same offer. I would appreciate if anyone finds Jet Fins with springs straps to contact the list as they might be ours.

Let's just say that thank god for the life guard/coast guard and we were lucky that we sent out that distress call or we would have been in the water all night.


Richard Burns <sddiver@cox.net> wrote:
OK, one of you eight, fess up and give us some of the details.

Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 19:47:04 -0700
From: "Roger Bly" <roger@project.net>
Subject: RE: [Divebums] Eight divers rescued after their boat capsizes

To: "Divebums" <list@divebums.com>
Message-ID: <64F704C5ABCD23498CEDA5B480EFB62A09F2E7@LION.project.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

We lost a boat and around $50K of dive gear near the Yukon last night.
No one was hurt, but thank God for drysuits and Baywatch. We are
looking for lost dive gear now including several double tank rings, two
Mako scooters, and other affects. More info when time permits.

Bummer. Surely insurance covers this kind of thing?

KingStroke:

We dove the Yukon on Saturday morning. The capt told us the story and that 2 sets of doubles and 2 scooters were dropped. He said a they were offering a salvage reward of $100 per item, seems a bit low considering the cost of configuring new doubles.

We hit the water with 50+ vis and searched along the bottom edge for the missing items. Later as we ended the dive, we ran a spool off the bow and did a sweep without any luck. Good diving though.

Click to expand...

Diving the Yukon, salvaging gear at 100+ fsw, running lines off the bow and doing sweep patterns - doesn't sound like someone with 0 - 15 logged dives.

Welcome to the board, KingStroke. Aside from your test post, your other 4 posts seem to express an interest in international diving and wreck diving. Maybe you can complete your profile so we can say hi and get to know you better.

Thanks

---
Ken

I'm surprised that this has not been posted earlier - there has been a LOT of discussion of this on the divebums list.

By now, all of the gear and the boat has been recovered by various people and a bit of finger pointing has begun. The good news is no-one was hurt.

Peter


Eight divers rescued after their boat capsizes



SIGNONSANDIEGO NEWS SERVICES

1:54 p.m. May 7, 2005

SAN DIEGO - Eight scuba divers were rescued after the boat they were on
capsized in the ocean off Mission Beach, a lifeguard lieutenant said today.

The divers had been exploring the 366-foot Canadian destroyer Yukon, which
years ago was sunk to a depth of 100 feet as an artificial reef, San Diego
Lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma said.

They had just come off the Yukon - about a mile off the San Diego Coast -
and boarded their own boat about 11:30 p.m. Friday, when the boat started
taking on water, Lerma said.

One diver managed to send a distress call before the boat capsized, Lerma
said.

Lifeguards in a boat found the divers clinging to the capsized boat, Lerma
said.

The divers were unhurt, said Lerma.