9 Lost Divers Found - South Africa

[DandyDon]

Missing divers located - NSRI - KwaZulu-Natal | IOL News | IOL.co.za

Johannesburg - Nine scuba divers who went missing off Shelly Beach in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday have been found safe floating in the ocean, the National Sea Rescue Institute said.
“A medical triage centre has been set up at the NSRI Shelly Beach rescue base in order for medical personnel to triage for casualties, but NSRI can confirm that all nine divers are safe,” spokesperson Craig Lambinon said in a statement.
They had been missing for about three hours at the diving spot, about 130km south of Durban, and were found shortly after noon.
A charter boat, from which the nine had been diving, lost sight of the group in rough seas on Sunday morning.
Three NSRI rescue craft, two helicopters, the police, and owners of private boats took part in the search. - Sapa

Follow up story: Divers tell of miracle at sea - Times LIVE

Scuba divers Roland Mauz and Stuart Skene survived a three-and-a-half hour ordeal separated from their boat and drifting further out to sea Picture: THILU DLAMINI

Swept more than 40km out to sea, nine divers trod water for nearly four hours off KwaZulu-Natal's south coast until a passing charter boat spotted them and came to their rescue.

The nine - eight South Africans and a Belgian - had been diving at Protea Banks, off Shelly Beach, yesterday when they were separated from their boat.
Unbeknown to the skipper of the boat, the Black Tide, the rope securing the marker buoy was severed and floated off with the boat following slowly behind.
When the group surfaced they were far out to sea with the skipper unable to detect their radio calls for help.
With the alarm raised, the police - along with the National Sea Rescue Institute and Transnet Ports Authority, paramedics and private boat owners - immediately launched a sea and air rescue operation.
Dive master Ronald Mauz, 40, describing the ordeal, said that when they surfaced they were 40km from land with no boat in sight.
"We had a radio and we called for a boat but nobody could hear our coordinates.
''We were drifting with the current, going south and into deeper water," he said.
"Fortunately nobody panicked. We kept saying positive things to each other, which is important, especially when you are in a situation like ours.
"During the first hour you keep telling yourself that things will be okay, that you will be rescued.
"But in the second hour, it starts sinking into your mind that the situation is actually serious.
"But, even during that time, we kept hoping that we would be rescued. I must say, it was hard. The sun was burning us."
Mauz said that when they were rescued all he wanted to do was see his wife.
"Thank God" were the first words she said when she saw him.
Even after the ordeal, Mauz is adamant that he will not hesitate to go back into the sea.
Fellow diver Stuart Skene, 42, thanked the community for standing together in the search.
"Being lost in the sea is not fun and being more than 40km away is definitely not fun.
"What is important when you are in that situation is to keep the group together and keep their minds occupied," he said.
The NSRI's Shelly Beach station commander, who oversaw the rescue , Mark Harlen, said the search began at 9.35am after the dive boat skipper reported that the whereabouts of nine scuba divers were unknown.
"It appears that the Black Tide's skipper followed the dive marker buoy, not knowing it had been separated from the divers who were under water.
"The cause of the rope snapping is unknown.
"It would have been impossible for the Black Tide's skipper to have known that the buoy had been separated from the divers," he said.

 

[ocdiver1]

wow! I dove with Roland and his operation Africa Dive Adventures several times on a trip earlier this year. Glad everyone was ok

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Wow, crazy story.

The site has a reputation for big, big currents.


Here's the question, it's a drift dive and the line to the marker buoy snaps. Sure, the boat would not realize and therefore follows the buoy away from the divers.

Surely the diver holding the line to the buoy noticed it was gone. Why not either thumb dive, or send up a second SMB?

 

[xyrandomyx]

Wow, crazy story.

The site has a reputation for big, big currents.


Here's the question, it's a drift dive and the line to the marker buoy snaps. Sure, the boat would not realize and therefore follows the bouy away from the divers.

Surely the diver holding the line to the buoy noticed it was gone. Why not either thumb dive, or send up a second SMB?

I was wondering the same thing. On a dive at Aliwal Shoal, my buddy and I ascended before the rest of the group. I accidentally unhooked the line from the buoy by gripping a little too hard on the safety stop (I was meaning to just hold on to it as a reference). I let the line sink, cut my safety stop short and ascended. I let the skipper know what happened as soon as I surfaced. He told me he'd already figured that out after he saw a DSMB pop up on the other side of the boat. It must've taken the rest of the group at most a minute to realise that the line was no longer attached to the buoy.

Are there conditions in which you might not notice that the line was no longer attached to the buoy? Or did they notice fairly shortly afterwards (the news reports don't really say), but had already been lost by the boat in that minute or two? 5 knots would mean they'd drift just over 300 metres in two minutes, which is quite a distance (especially in four metre swell). You'd imagine the buoy would drift in the same direction, but I know that the surface current doesn't necessarily even run the same way as the current at the bottom, nevermind the same speed.

 

[herbdb]

Every marine GPS that I have ever seen has an anchor alarm that will sound if a mooring line breaks or an anchor loses purchase. Setting it might be prudent in high current areas.

 

[xyrandomyx]

Every marine GPS that I have ever seen has an anchor alarm that will sound if a mooring line breaks or an anchor loses purchase. Setting it might be prudent in high current areas.

The boat wouldn't have been anchored -- this would've been a drift dive. The line that apparently snapped was attached to an SMB which was being towed by the dive leader.

 

[DandyDon]

I wish that someone with access to the dive Op would try to find out about the radio failure, as well why the divers didn't abort when their SMB line broke.

 

[vancouverdiver]

Story sounds strange. If the line had snapped, the DM would have felt it immediately. I can't believe none of the other 8 divers diving a wind/current swept dive site did not each have a smb. If so, to continue a dive with no smb, doesn't make sense either.

In this report below, it states the skipper was treated for shock. Perhaps, he didn't see the second smb, assuming there was one, go up since he would be monitoring the first smb and not looking for another smb say behind him. Giving the skipper the benefit of the doubt.

I've not heard of a smb line snapping off. Anyone ever encounter that?


The Citizen Online | Nine divers rescued after search - Local News

 

[xyrandomyx]

Here's another article on the topic, straight from South Africa's National Sea Rescue Institute: Scuba divers found safe | nsri.org.za. From the article: 'When the divers surfaced they realized that they no longer had the dive marker flotation buoy and they also had no sight of the dive boat.' That seems to suggest that they did not realise that the line was no longer attached to the SMB. It sounds strange to all of us, but I guess we won't ever know for sure unless someone with access to the dive op has more info. I'm glad, though, that all nine divers are safe.

 

[DandyDon]

I am more interested in the radio that failed.