About a dozen years ago, four of us were on a boat, 100 miles from shore, hooked into a steel freighter wreck with a depth of around 200 feet. 3 of us decided to do the dive. I had not done that many spearfishing dives below 140 and was a little nervous and knew that everyone was going to be hunting and we were pretty much all on our own.
The fourth guy was asleep and as we prepared to dive, I thought it was appropriate to at least wake him up so he would know we were diving, what time we entered the water etc. so he would be better able to respond should something happen 100 miles offshore (say when he wakes up and everyone has been gone for an undetermined time period), but my concerns were viewed as being overly cautious. 10 years earlier, I had vowed to never again dive from an unattended anchored vessel, but somehow this didn’t really violate my rule, because someone was aboard. This added to my nervousness a little.
We dropped in and swam down the anchor line and found warm water, slight current and 50-70 ft visibility. The anchor was hooked into the wreck and I tried to make a mental note of its location, because it was obviously very important that I ascend up the anchor for my deco stops. I deployed some chum on the deck in the vicinity of the hook. It consisted of very small anchovies, as I swam away I looked back and made a mental note that the small silvery, shiny fish laying on the deck would be a good marker for the anchor location.
We had no set time we were supposed to be back at the anchor, but the other guys were diving single 80’s and I had a steel 125. I don’t remember much about the spearfishing, I probably took a few fish, but apparently nothing memorable. I swam a around the wreck and slowly worked my way back to the anchor. When I got “back”, I couldn’t find it. I was instantly really scared (because of my deco) and was pretty narced and pissed and then I remembered the anchovies. Well there they were, laying on the deck!
But I looked for a minute or two and was pretty sure this was the general location of the anchor. I was confused, the other guys had chum also, maybe they had deployed here and this was the wrong spot? I looked over the side, down to the sand and could see nothing to indicate it dragged off, but I was up around 170, so it was a ways to the sand. I layed there for a moment, trying to figure if I should cut my losses and begin a free ascent (I had no wreck reel) or should I keep accruing deco and searching?
Then all of a sudden I hear the most faint screaming…I look way out in the sand, down current, and right at the limit of visibility, I can just make out the other two divers. I couldn’t see the anchor or the line, but I shot over to them and realized that they were ascending up the ANCHOR LINE. If I had been another 30 seconds later, they and the boat would have drifted out of visual range. I was pretty damn happy to see them.
After the dive, I asked why the hell they pulled the hook off the wreck. They said we didn’t see you around, so we figured you already went up the anchor line and we didn’t want to do another dive to pull the hook, so we just threw it off into the sand and allowed the boat to drift off the wreck. My buddies!