Yacht captains rescue missing diver in the Bahamas

[DandyDon]

"I saw what looked like a little black coconut in the water." Maybe he should consider carrying some signaling devices.​

Captains rescue diver in the Bahamas | The Triton

Three yacht captains used their nautical expertise to find an overdue scuba diver in the Bahamas on May 22.

Capt. Baron Rohl and Capt. Mike Galgana, of M/Y Texas Star II, were joined by Capt. Russ Grandinetti, of M/Y Jade Mary, in a search near Bimini in response to marine radio calls for assistance. Sara Cesbron had called for the U.S. Coast Guard about 4:30 p.m. in reference to her husband Jean Jacques' failure to return from a dive.

"She was on the radio and calm, but you could tell she was getting frantic," Grandinetti said.

Grandinetti said his crew on Jade Mary was monitoring the communication about the missing diver on the radio. When he heard a request for boats in the vicinity to join at a specified area to begin a search, Grandinetti jumped in the tender and headed toward the area requested by the voice on the radio.

When he arrived at the rendevouz spot, he found the organizer Capt. Rohl, a long-time friend. The two had known each other for more than 20 years.

Rohl and Galgana defined the search area using location and conditions. The calculations were made from the coordinates of the diver's anchored vessel, the Jacques Angelo, between Turtle Rock and Gun Cay, about two miles off of Cat Cay.

To simulate in which direction the diver might have drifted, Rohl filled a water bottle filled with sea water and enough air to keep it above surface and tossed it in the water. Grandinetti used the same idea to verify the wind was pushing his tender south as the drift headed north. Rohl and Galgana determined the gulfstream was flowing about three knots to the north and organized the search at the south end of South Bimini.

Each of the searchers had many years at work at sea and on boats and they pooled their knowledge. Grandinetti said they had limited radio contact between the tenders because of technical issues, but that the three made the right decisions in how to proceed with the search.

"We all knew what had to be done," Grandinetti said.

Rohl and Galgana ran their tender parallel to the beach a mile from shore and searched with binoculars while Grandinetti ran a zig-zag from shore to their tender and back to shore.

The seas were beginning to pick up to one and a half to two knots with winds to 15 out of the northeast and the tenders were running low on fuel. The sun was setting, which made it harder to see on the choppy water.

Shortly after 7:00p.m., just before sundown, Grandinetti saw something other than the fish he had seen jumping. "I saw what looked like a little black coconut in the water," Grandinetti said. "But he held up his mask and the sun caught it. It was the diver. I literally almost ran into him."

Grandinetti alerted the diver's wife, the other tender and a sailboat, Moon Dancer, that was searching on their own, that he had found the diver. Next, they were navigated to the Jacques Angelo to reunite the diver with his wife, 18-month-old son and his 81-year-old father.

It was fish feeding time and the diver had been in the water for several hours. He had ditched his air tanks and was getting tired and dehydrated. It was getting darker, and, since they were running low on fuel, the tenders could not have searched much longer, Grandinetti said.

As they were heading in, Grandinetti told the diver what the outcome would have been if they had not found him when they did.

"It would have been the difference between a celebration and a funeral," Grandinetti said.

 

[Scott L]

One lucky diver.

 

[gsk3]

Sounds like he at least used his mask to signal, though, which was smart. Something like the Halcyon One Man Life Raft would be helpful in this kind of situation for hypothermia, and a small supply of fresh water. Of course, a VHF radio would have been even more useful probably.

 

[BKP]

Was there any word on how he got lost? Buddies? Solo diving off his own boat? No SMB?

 

[DandyDon]

Was there any word on how he got lost? Buddies? Solo diving off his own boat? No SMB?

I'd be surprised if we got more info than is given in the article, but since blame is not a goal on this forum, yet learning is - I'd say it sounds like he private boat solo diving without a smb based on the info given. I've always been amazed at divers who will go to sea without one. A couple I know got swept away on a Bonaire boat dive, eventually found, and I asked if they had smbs? "Yes, but they were in our dive bags."