My wife and I met Maurene Lalonde and her husband Pierre, at dinner the night before the accident. They invited us to join them because they liked to meet new people. Maurene and Pierre were on their 1st day of a 5 week trip (they come to Anthony Key numerous times a year). Maurene was set to hit her 700th dive on Tuesday. Pierre is not a diver.
The morning of the accident, the resort had all of the boats move to the other side of the island (by the airport) as that side of the island was much calmer. They bussed us over to the boats for 2 dives in the morning. Maurene was on my boat with 5 other divers. She had everything set up on the boat except for her weights. She had the dive master put them in as she directed. At least two were in non dump able pockets high on her rig. I think she had 14 or 16 lbs.
The dive master gave a good briefing after tying up at a buoy north of the airport. Maurene was going to be paired up with the dive master, as we were a throw together group. Myself and Clay (1st time meeting him) were in the water 1st. Went down the mooring line and waiting at 30' on the top of the wall. The boat was being pushed over the wall so the initial entry was off the wall. A father/son pair came down and then we were waiting for the last group. We were about 200' from the back of the boat so we could not see when the last ones got in. The DM was helping a guy equalize around 20' when we head him banging his tank. It wasn't just couple of bangs. He was in continuous banging. Our group of 4 started moving into the deeper water and I saw the DM on a nose dive motioning up with one hand and banging with the other.
The 4 of us continued the dive down to 80' as I lost sight of the DM continuing his downward dive. My partner Clay dove down until I lost sight of him. I went down to 100' and leveled off. I took out my flashlight and turned it on to strobe and followed the 3 bubble trails with the light. I moved back up to 80' and found that the father/son pair had split up. The son (18 yoa) came to me and I told him to stay with me. About 2-3 minutes later the father showed up. We stayed at 80' with all three of us using our flashlights for about 3-5 minutes longer. I then let them know we needed to get back to the boat as this was now a rescue and the DM didn't need any more issues to deal with.
At 15' we were doing our safety stop when the DM blew past us and ripped off his mask at the surface. He spoke with the boat Captain and then went back down. We got on the boat and Clay surfaced a few minutes later. I asked him how deep he went. He said 173' on his computer and it was flashing error messages at him. He had over 1,000 psi so I told him to get back down to 30' as I put my gear back on to be his safety diver for some in water decompression. The DM was coming up as I entered the water. He said he had gone down to 200'. He spoke with the Captain again, and again dove down (approx. 100' as we could still see him). We stayed in the water between 20-30' for about 16 minutes before the DM came up and we all got back on the boat.
The DM stated he saw Maurene and she had her arms folder and her head tilted to the side as she was dropping feet first. She never responded physically to his gestures or tank banging. He lost sight of her after he got down around 200'. We found out later that this section of the wall drops down to 400-500'.
We put Clay on O2 until a 2nd boat arrived and they gave us their O2 and we put the DM on it at that time. 2 DM's from another boat went into the water but came up empty. The Captain could not leave the scene, so we had to transfer to another boat that took us to shore and a bus ride back to our resort (they have a chamber at Anthony Key). DM and Clay were on O2 until they arrived. Clay was complaining of a headache and the DM of right shoulder joint pain. They were put in the chamber together for 2 1/2- 3 hours. Clay was cleared to dive 24 hours after exiting the chamber. He and I (and my wife) did his 1st dive together after the accident. The father and son switched to a new boat as the son was having problems with the death.
I've read three stories in the newspapers and thought I needed to get this off my chest. The last I saw of Maurene, she was on the boat with a great big smile on her face ready for that 1st dive of the vacation. That's how I will remember the lady who asked us to dine with them because they liked to meet new people.
