7 divers missing off Indonesian island

[divewench1]

ONE DIVER FOUND, ONE STILL MISSING.

This is the latest from my friend Putu, who is in one of the search teams in Bali waters today:

This afternoon around 5 pm.. The Boat of Serangan dive notice there is a floating BCD from a distance.. on the reef of Serangan Island.. then the captain ride the boat closely to the spot..then found that is a dead body and still wearing a wetsuit.. then the captain ask for evacuation to "BASARNAS" and also informing to other searcher boat..
once the boat and the team near by..the team lifting up the body and found : she was one of the divers who are still not found..the condition is very tragic..the forhead had a big wound..probably crash during climbing the cliff.. fight for survive.. i feel very..very..very sory.. when one of the team informed this to me... hope family could stand.. for this situation.. the evacuation is not in the same place as another 5 divers found yesterday..due to many paparazi..the evacuation was done at Srangan village then,, the body send directly to Hospital by the Ambulance of BASARNAS..
I up date this news just want to tell you "buddy" the right story of the Missing divers"
There is still one left in the sea..either still alive or not.. SHOKO.. where are you...??? my friend..
please send a clue for us.... wish you the best...

Very sad news indeed, and still one person to find. God bless them.

 

[zivva]

I'm still very confused about locations. Some reports say they were diving Crystal Bay, others say they were diving at Manta Point, still others say they were at Mangrove Point at Nusa Lembongan...which was it?

I'm trying to follow this story carefully, as I'm booked to dive Crystal Bay and Manta Point in the next few months, and have dived both before, but I keep hearing about more and more incidents at Crystal Bay.

Incident happened at Mangrove.

Diving the area in the near future ?

One piece of advice : ask some dive centers about their plans for a specific day (let say ... a full moon or half moon day) pretending you are a novice diver with no drift / current experience. If the DC plans a trip to Crystal Bay on that day and feel comfortable to bring novice divers, run away from it.

If they did dive at Crystal for the last dive, I think I read somewhere in the forum that according to local guides, it is best to avoid diving in CB few days before and after a full moon because of the tides and currents.

It is indeed best to avoid Crystal Bay, Toyapakeh & Blue Corner during full moon as the moon phase amplify tidal effects, creating bigger waves & chances of stronger & still unpredictable currents.

However, Full moon & Half-moon & the 2 days before & after each are also supposed to be the best time of the month to see some Mola² (no scientific data on this one, pure local believes).

Thus being said, many divers & operators decide to dive Crystal Bay, Toyapakeh or Blue Corner during full moon & half-moon.

It is not the most conservative practice but it might be doable - with local guides (I mean a guy diving the area everyday for years, not a guy diving Tulamben on Monday, Padang Bai on Wednesday & Crystal Bay twice a month ...), small ratio & experienced divers only - at one point and at one point only : during slack tide.

Slack tide on Friday was about 9AM.

I know the group entered Mangrove at about 2PM (high tide + weather already stormy since the morning, not really a conservative planning), I'm not sure if they dove Crystal Bay or Manta Point (or Manta Bay ?) first that day. Maybe they dove Crystal Bay during slack tide ... may be not.

 

[gee13]

All well and good Zivvya and sound advice...however..this unfortunate incident was a combination of other causal factors, if true some could be avoided namely 1) the boat was low on fuel at the start 2) freak squall reduced sighting visibility at surface when divers were scheduled to surface.

Its because of this that led them to A) Not being picked up and B) Drifting out to sea

C) Fortunately for 5 of these divers, the current took them to Manta PT where they managed to scale a rock out of waters reach

 

[dorkito]

I'm really glad that it looks like a happy ending here, and I appreciate the reporting with pictures, etc. But the whole "shark infested waters" thing is really frustrating.


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[matts1w]

...this unfortunate incident was a combination of other causal factors, if true some could be avoided namely 1) the boat was low on fuel at the start 2) freak squall reduced sighting visibility at surface when divers were scheduled to surface. Its because of this that led them to A) Not being picked up and B) Drifting out to sea

You forgot they were (allegedly) not reported missing for almost four hours as the sun was going down. I still cannot get over that.

 

[gee13]

Yes we can add that as 3) should that be what happened and not exaggerated by the media

 

[divewench1]

I'm really glad that it looks like a happy ending here

Can I bring your attention to post #103, today's updated report?

 

[dorkito]

What does post #103 say about sharks? Says the diver had a forehead injury from rocks??

EDIT: Oh, perhaps you mean the "happy ending" part. I somehow missed these last posts. Sorry, yes, this is very sad.

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[divewench1]

you mean the "happy ending" part. Sorry, yes, this is vey sad.

Yes, one dead diver found today hardly warrants a 'happy ending' :depressed::depressed:

 

[gee13]

Its not quite a happy ending when any one of our fellow divers die.. regardless of the circumstances