Three of us were on a high current dive off of Boynton Beach in 200 feet of water last month. The dive boat lost us.
We had two wide six foot DSMBs and one narrow 45 inch DSMB.
They did not do any good. The boat could not find us. We could see it a couple of miles away searching for us. I thought the USCG was going have to be alerted and we would be on TV being rescued.
The dive leader asked me if I had a whistle. Instead I pulled out my stainless steel signal mirror and to my surprise successfully signaled a private recreational fishing boat that was a bit closer. Fortunately, the boat was in the correct direction, to allow me to signal it due to the suns angle while our dive boat was not. Make sure you know how to use your mirror.
The fishing boat actually came over to check on us. Unfortunately, they did not have a working vhf so we could not call our boat. However, our boat saw what was happening and eventually reached us.
When our boat approached us, the dive leader said something that I thought to be immensely funny give the situation. He said:
“You guys need to make sure you are nice to the Captain when he picks us up, because we still need to use him tomorrow!”.