Coast Guardsmen drifting off of North Carolina rescued

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DandyDon

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No pilot left on boat, which left with their PLB...

Divers stranded 8 miles off North Carolina coast when boat separated from anchor
“The ocean doesn’t care if you’re in the Coast Guard. This kind of thing can happen to anyone.”

A loud pop startled two scuba divers exploring a wreck 50 feet below the ocean’s surface eight miles off Atlantic Beach on July 6.

Divers Michael Sparks and Samuel Ragsdale heard it, but neither man recognized its significance.

It wasn’t until later that the friends and fellow Coast Guardsmen realized they were in trouble.

“As we approached our anchor, I couldn’t see any line extending to the surface,” said Sparks. “My heart sank. On the end of the anchor chain we found the footlong frayed remains of the only line keeping our boat above us.”

Sparks’ unmanned 17-foot Seadoo Jetboat had drifted away, along with their emergency position indicating radio beacon, marine radio and cell phones.

The divers shot to the surface and looked around frantically for the boat. Sparks caught a glimpse of it as it rode to the top of a wave about three miles away. It was the last time he’d see it that night.

“At this point the gravity of our situation really hit me,” said Sparks. “We decided to drop our dive weights because they prevented us from floating properly.”

As nightfall began to set in, weather conditions deteriorated, and the pair began to realize that the survival plan they’d made before heading out to sea was now their only hope of anyone knowing something was wrong—or where to look for them.

“Before we went out on the dive, we told my roommate, James Sellers, where we were going and when we planned to return,” said Ragsdale. “Sparks sent a group text message to some of our Coast Guard friends at Station Fort Macon where we work. His message included the name of the wreck we were diving on, the wreck number, exact coordinates of our dive, and our intention to return by dark.”

As swells began to crash over their heads, the divers were thankful for what they did have with them. Their buoyancy compensators kept them afloat. Their wet suits helped maintain their body temperatures. A safety sausage—a three-foot orange tubular device that could help spot them in the water, along with knives and a high-powered flashlight.

“The adrenaline wore off after awhile,” said Ragsdale. “We both clung to that safety sausage in order to stay together. We tried to figure out where we were and if there was a chance we’d be drifting past a buoy we might be able to cling to.”

“Even with the water temperature at 81 degrees, we were both starting to feel chilly,” said Sparks. “My greatest fear was that we’d end up drifting southeast rather than northeast, which would send us around Cape Lookout into the Atlantic Ocean. This would greatly diminish our chances of being located. We just prayed we’d be found or that we’d wind up drifting onto the beach before the cape.”

Back on shore, Ragsdale’s roommate Sellers did not hesitate to take action once dark set in and the two had not returned. He recognized the potential severity of the situation and contacted Coast Guard Station Fort Macon.

The station’s officer of the day, Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Haywood, initiated a Coast Guard response that included a plan to involve multiple boats, cutters, beach patrols and air assets.

But back on the water, the divers’ optimism began to fade.

“Around midnight, we stopped talking and our hopes of getting rescued before dawn grew faint,” said Sparks. “We were exhausted. Sometime later I saw the running lights of a Coast Guard 47-foot Motor Lifeboat. I pointed my flashlight toward it. After a bit, I saw their blue light begin to flash. I knew they saw me. It turns out we were three miles away, but they saw my light. It took them ten minutes to get to us.”

It was Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler McGregor’s crew who spotted Sparks’ light in the distance.

“As the coxswain, it’s my responsibility to be as optimistic as possible to keep up the spirit of my crew, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried,” said McGregor. “The sea was rough, 8-10 foot swells. Searching for two people in the water during the day is the equivalent to searching for two coconuts bobbing in the waves—a near impossible feat in the light that becomes unthinkable in the dark.”

The Coast Guardsmen were pulled from the water after drifting four and a half miles in seven hours.

“As we arrived back at the station I went into the lower compartment of the MLB and saw two body bags down there,” said Sparks. “That really hit me hard. Our friends and coworkers, the same people who’d just rescued us and laughed and joked with us on the way in, had only moments earlier been preparing for the worst-case scenario.”

The following morning, Sparks’ boat was located. It drifted all the way to shore and washed up on a local beach, unscathed.

“The ocean doesn’t care if you’re in the Coast Guard,” said Sparks. “This kind of thing can happen to anyone. I’m going to invest in an EPIRB I can dive with. I’m going to use two anchors and be more cautious with how I anchor in the future. But I’m happy I had that flashlight on me, and that we filed a float plan. Those two factors drastically reduced the search time, and potentially saved our lives.”
 
I used to live on the Atlantic. I have the deepest respect for the USCG.

But these guys left a boat unmanned while they went diving, which is a terrible idea.

One has to wonder what USCG's SOP is, but I feel fairly sure it would not include leaving one's boat unmanned when diving. They must have been on their own time, on their own boat. I'll bet they never do that again!
 
I used to live on the Atlantic. I have the deepest respect for the USCG.

But these guys left a boat unmanned while they went diving, which is a terrible idea.

One has to wonder what USCG's SOP is, but I feel fairly sure it would not include leaving one's boat unmanned when diving. They must have been on their own time, on their own boat. I'll bet they never do that again!
Me too, but they screwed up. I suspect they may have felt above the standards for others.
 
What I find interesting is how it seems to be human nature to look for complex solutions for problems that other people deal with much more easily.

“The ocean doesn’t care if you’re in the Coast Guard,” said Sparks. “This kind of thing can happen to anyone. I’m going to invest in an EPIRB I can dive with. I’m going to use two anchors and be more cautious with how I anchor in the future.
OK, those are good ideas, but so is leaving someone on the boat, as has already been said.

It reminds me of the personal incident Bernie Chowdhury relates in his book, The Last Dive. He was diving a deep wreck, and he had a buddy who was, by his own admission, a "same ocean buddy" he almost never actually saw during the dive. IIRC, he was breathing air. When he descended on one of the lines to the wreck, he left his decompression bottle on the bottom of the line. When he went to the line to ascend at the end of the dive, he realized he was on the wrong line, so he did not have a deco bottle. He started to swim to the other line at the other end of the wreck, but the current was too strong, so he went to the bottom and used his hands to pull himself along next to the wreck. When he thought he had reached the end, he realized he had crawled all the way around the boat and was once again on the wrong line. He was by then out of air, so he had to ascend directly to the surface, where he got severely bent and was lucky to live.

Reflecting on the incident, he decided to do things differently on future decompression dives--from then on, he would wear a full face mask with a communication device that would allow him to talk to the boat and alert them when he was in trouble so they could send help. Now, Bernie is an experienced diver and a tech instructor, but most tech divers have made simpler decisions that would have been helpful, too.
  • Carry your decompression gas with you as you dive.
  • Use a mix of breathing gases on deep dives that will leave you less narced.
  • Use a real buddy.
  • If diving without a real buddy, be sure to carry everything you might need in an emergency, especially deco gas.
  • Carry a DSMB of a color that will indicate the need for help.
 
One has to wonder what USCG's SOP is, but I feel fairly sure it would not include leaving one's boat unmanned when diving. They must have been on their own time, on their own boat. I'll bet they never do that again!

If you are in the military, it is not your time. Although he was off duty, he is still subject to USCG rules of conduct. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when his skipper has him in for a chat, he will probably come out missing a cheek, and have some interesting assignments for a bit.


Bob
 
I have no issue leaving the boat unattended on a lake dive, but it would worry me to do that on the ocean.
Its a hard issue for many as lots of people just don't have that extra person to sit on the boat not diving.

Kinda reminds me of solo diving in a way, sometimes its your only choice for being able to dive and proper prep (in their case like ensuring lines are set to prevent chafing) can significantly reduce the added risk, but even with an epirb and properly set up lines and set anchors you still have to decide if the dive is worth the added risk.

For many people it is worth it and I just let people do their thing rather than judge them. Everyone has to judge risk vs. rewards for themselves.

That would be why I treat even buddy dives as a solo dive. A buddy is a backup for your own backups and someone to enjoy the dive with.
 
I’m going to invest in an EPIRB I can dive with.
A PLB is a good safety device for anyone. I'd be embarrassed to have to use it for myself, rather use it to help someone else, but I always have it - in my car, tractor, backpack, cargo pants pocket, or dive canister. Two different companies offer them with rebates twice a year: $250 - $50 = $200 good for six years of standy = 64¢ a week. After that, have the battery replaced by an authorized pro and extend the economy.

Add a nylon canister for $95 including shipping: Diver Locator Satellite PLB Canister from HDVSEATEK.
 
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Blank canister light cans aren't expensive. PLB's aren't expensive. Put it together and this type of thing goes down a lot differently.

Good video on hitting the big red button and hitting it sooner rather than later. Same same but different situation.

 
If you are in the military, it is not your time. Although he was off duty, he is still subject to USCG rules of conduct. I'd like to be a fly on the wall when his skipper has him in for a chat, he will probably come out missing a cheek, and have some interesting assignments for a bit.


Bob
Why??? What military order did they violate?

I bet their "skipper" gave them a hug and told them it's great to have you back!
 
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