Sylvester Muller
Registered
While on a very easy dive in 65' of calm water, grabbing some hogs and snappers for dinner, I noticed a visibility change and a current shift. The little voice in my head, of which there are many, sent me back to the anchor line. Going up the line, I noticed the boat going up and down violently. Apparently, in a very short time the conditions had changed dramatically. Getting back on the boat was difficult in 6-8' seas with a washing machine-like chop.
Once on board, I did a head count, only to realize there were still four divers down in the water. Moments later, we spotted some divers yelling at us from a distance, and it appeared the current was pulling them away. We attached a big float ball to the anchor line, unhooked it from the boat, and went to pick up the divers. As we started pulling the divers on board, it became obvious that these were not the divers we were looking for! As soon as we got the first two on board, we saw more divers. They had a little trouble getting on board as they were very young and needed to be pulled up; one kid was only 12 years old and diving a huge steel tank.
As soon as the father and his four children ages 12-17 were on board, they told us the large boat they were on had apparently broken anchor and was drifting away... and they pointed to a very distant boat drifting into a lightning storm on the horizon. Apparently, the mother and sister who were left on board had no clue how to operate the vessel, were unaware they had even broken anchor, and were dragging the anchor across the bottom while drifting towards the thunderstorm.
At this point, we still had our four divers in the water. While radioing the other boat to let them know we had all their divers, we headed back to the floatball/anchor line. We saw a lift bag pop up and followed it; once our divers surfaced, we pulled three of them on board. The look of astonishment on their faces, as they noticed almost an entire family on board, was priceless. We got back to the float ball, and there was our last diver-- exactly where he should have been, hanging on in the very rough seas. Although rumor has it that (after surfacing in the gale to see the boat was gone) he was planning our deaths.
With everyone accounted, for we went into the thunderstorm to find the drifting boat. We tracked it down, and it was a huge triple engine yellowtail. We sent dad over in snorkel gear to pull the anchor, and the call was made (due to the storm) to head inshore, get to the dock and unload the kids and their gear. Everything worked out the way it should have... but we did have a little talk with the very grateful mom and dad.
Some lessons the family learned that day,
1. Always have someone on the boat who knows how to operate it, including recovering drifting divers.
2. Dive Alerts(signaling devices), Saftey Sausages(Inflatable markers), and Nautilus Lifelines(diveable GPS encoded radios) are not optional equipment.
3. There is no such thing as a routine dive 25 miles offshore! Especially when conditions change quickly.
Once on board, I did a head count, only to realize there were still four divers down in the water. Moments later, we spotted some divers yelling at us from a distance, and it appeared the current was pulling them away. We attached a big float ball to the anchor line, unhooked it from the boat, and went to pick up the divers. As we started pulling the divers on board, it became obvious that these were not the divers we were looking for! As soon as we got the first two on board, we saw more divers. They had a little trouble getting on board as they were very young and needed to be pulled up; one kid was only 12 years old and diving a huge steel tank.
As soon as the father and his four children ages 12-17 were on board, they told us the large boat they were on had apparently broken anchor and was drifting away... and they pointed to a very distant boat drifting into a lightning storm on the horizon. Apparently, the mother and sister who were left on board had no clue how to operate the vessel, were unaware they had even broken anchor, and were dragging the anchor across the bottom while drifting towards the thunderstorm.
At this point, we still had our four divers in the water. While radioing the other boat to let them know we had all their divers, we headed back to the floatball/anchor line. We saw a lift bag pop up and followed it; once our divers surfaced, we pulled three of them on board. The look of astonishment on their faces, as they noticed almost an entire family on board, was priceless. We got back to the float ball, and there was our last diver-- exactly where he should have been, hanging on in the very rough seas. Although rumor has it that (after surfacing in the gale to see the boat was gone) he was planning our deaths.
With everyone accounted, for we went into the thunderstorm to find the drifting boat. We tracked it down, and it was a huge triple engine yellowtail. We sent dad over in snorkel gear to pull the anchor, and the call was made (due to the storm) to head inshore, get to the dock and unload the kids and their gear. Everything worked out the way it should have... but we did have a little talk with the very grateful mom and dad.
Some lessons the family learned that day,
1. Always have someone on the boat who knows how to operate it, including recovering drifting divers.
2. Dive Alerts(signaling devices), Saftey Sausages(Inflatable markers), and Nautilus Lifelines(diveable GPS encoded radios) are not optional equipment.
3. There is no such thing as a routine dive 25 miles offshore! Especially when conditions change quickly.
