Dive Boat of 9 Rescued Divers retrieved! Mercury Marine Dealer, Milton, towed it in. Discovered North of Albert Head. It is approximately 20 feet long.
First hand account from Divers rescued from Race Rocks November 15th, 2015
Nine experienced Divers (all members of the same diving club)departed Pedder Bay in calm seas, heading to Race Rocks for an afternoon diving excursion. When arriving at Race Rocks there was an abrupt shift in the weather. They suddenly found themselves in 5-10 FT waves and heavy winds. They quickly made a decision to abort the diving excursion and either head to a safe cove to play or terminate the excursion altogether.
They proceeded to begin the journey back to safe waters and within seconds they were hit by 3 rolling waves. With each wave, the 24FT Vessel took on more water. By the time the 3rd wave struck, the water shifted to one side of the Vessel along with their diving gear, and in a split second the Vessel capsized and the 9 Divers found themselves in the water. 8 of the 9 Divers were wearing wet or dry suits. The exception was the person at the Helm, as he was not intending to Dive that day. The group immediately took action and hoisted the Helmsman onto the capsized vessel to get him out of the cold water. They began watching and hoping for a Vessel to pass by. Their gear was now on the bottom of the Ocean bed along with their mobile phones. The decision was then made to put 4 more of the Divers on top of the capsized Vessel. One of the Divers had purchased a marine radio only 2 weeks ago. A decision was made to use what gear they had salvaged and send a Diver under the capsized Vessel in the hope that the gear bag that contained the marine radio was still secure to the Vessel. This miraculously turned out to be the case. The radio was brought to the surface and a Mayday Call was made to JRCC and 2 Units from The Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Stations 35 Victoria and 37 Sooke were dispatched to the scene.
The Divers then saw a Spring Tide Whale Watching Vessel that was in the area, that spotted them and appeared to be heading their way. To their dismay the Vessel changed direction. They were unaware that the Captain of the whale watching boat was heading to a dock at Race Rocks to unload his passengers to return to the scene with the intention of rescuing the 9 Divers.
When he arrived back at the scene both RCM-SAR 35 & 37 had arrived on scene. You can imagine the sheer joy and relief that was experienced by the Divers of the Vessels that assistance had arrived to retrieve them from the cold water! They were safey transported to land by RCM-SAR 35 Victoria who had retrieved 4 of the divers and RCM-SAR 37 who had the remaining 5 Divers. EMR responders were waiting at Pedder Bay to assess their condition.
One person was transported to hospital with mild hypothermia and the remaining 8 were good to go home!
Divers recounted that the group remained in positive, jovial spirits throughout the ordeal. It was a great relief to them when they discovered the marine radio had not been lost at sea, as their normal routine after a day of diving was to head to the Pub until 8-9PM. Knowing that without the radio to make that call it would have been hours before anyone would have realized they were missing and they were uncertain if they would have lasted that long.
Great job by the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue crews from Victoria and Sooke who responded, along with a Spring Tide whale watching boat and other nearby vessels!
Interview by Jackie Cowan RCM-SAR 35 Media Liaison
Photo Creds MIke Graham Crew RCM-SAR 35
