Within about 30 seconds of me telling him to get ready I heard a loud voice say "Abandon Ship! Abandon the Fuçking ship now!" I assumed it was the captain but later I found out it was a paying customer who had the wherewithal to say something. I didn't hesitate. I said to my son, "Go now, stay on the surface and swim as far away from this boat as you can." Then I saw one of the most interesting entries I have ever seen. I've done the giant stride, the back roll, a shore entry, and even a ladder climb down, but he just bent over and swam forward off the stern. The way you would if you were sitting on the step of a shallow hotel pool with water up to your waist and then just bent forward and swam out. I followed his lead. Quickly others followed our lead.
Two other divers joined us and we made a group of four on the surface and bobbed a bit and watched the boat. My son and I held each other's BCs in turn and stayed close together. It occurred to me that I had a camera and I unclipped it and started taking photos. We'll see if anything is worth posting. (Long story short: my backpack with my wallet, car keys, mobile phone, cert cards, dive log, pens, pencils, and, of course, all cables that connect electronics to computers and chargers sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean so it may be some time before I can let my camera talk to my computer.)
A few minutes later a Broward County Sherrif boat pulls up driven by my hero, Deputy Sherrif Alex Beer, and rescues us. The deputy allowed my son to use his net to rescue things from the water. We managed to find a bunch of gear, including much of our own, floating. (I had taught him some boat etiquette so we both had things well stowed in our bags. And since we both had our mask boxes closed, our bags managed to float. Lucky that.) Of course my backpack, in the "dry" area in the bow, along with my other 100 CF steel faber cylinder, went to the bottom pretty quickly.
Eventually there were many boats in the area. coast guard and county sherrif boats mostly. We did make it on the evening news. Here's one that played that evening.
Over a Dozen People Rescued From Sinking Pompano Beach Boat
(Note the many inaccuracies. For the record, there were 13 people total on that boat. No injuries. And the only people who "saved" us were the United States Coast Guard and the Broward County Sherrif's office.
We had to spend a couple of hours filling out paperwork. Everyone pretty much agreed that some bad decisions were made by the mate, and by the captain as well, who did not radio sooner, or think to cut the line.
Eventually the authorities--the 13 of us were on different boats; some county, and some USCG--brought us back to the marina. The owner of the shop came out to meet us. He was very gracious and apologetic. He told us to go to the restaurant upstairs from the shop and he would buy us "a drink". We all looked at each other with that "you'll buy us more than that" look. I told the bartender "an IPA for me and a rum and coke for him." The bartender looked at me incredulously and said, "how old is he?" I said, "He just turned 21 today." The bartender was somewhat sympathetic and said, "well, just don't get me in trouble." He ended up pounding down three of them before my wife showed up. (Yes, I also got grief from her about that as well.) Suffice it to say that it may be a long time before I get to take him diving again.
I no longer have a cell phone and I think I'll have to stay on the phone with them for a looooong time to get them to get their insurance company to reimburse me for some things, but I'm just glad that no one is hurt. Things can be replaced. People cannot.
Stay safe.
