On Nov. 2, Melody Engle joined Michael Yagmin aboard his 42-foot boat. Engle, a proficient diver and extreme sports enthusiast, was targeting red snapper for the last weekend of their mini season. She knew the weather would be ideal until late afternoon before a cold front approached.
The crew, which included a third unidentified diver, headed out about 25 miles west of St. Petersburg in the Gulf of Mexico to the popular pipeline bottom where they anticipated grouper and snapper. They set anchor, suited up and headed for the bottom to see what was below.
“We knew there was some bad weather coming, so our last words to each other were let’s not push the envelope,” Engle recalled. “It was just after 2 p.m. when we went down. We said, ‘Let’s just go down quickly.’”
When they reached the bottom, Yagmin checked on the anchor. He moved it from sand into the large boulders present along the pipeline.
“We went one way down the ledge and immediately shot a beautiful grouper and some snapper,” Engle said. “We came back toward the other side of the ledge and the anchor was still there. We then went in the other direction feeling comfortable.”
After heading back to where they started, an issue developed that is a diver’s worst nightmare.
“I saw the jug line and didn’t think anything was wrong, but Mike noticed something,” Engle said. “The anchor was missing. We started to head up and after decompressing we could see the boat was drifting off.”
During the dive, conditions had changed and the wind had picked up. The anchor pulled and there was no one aboard to assist; the three were alone with rapidly growing seas and only open ocean around them. Engle, the best swimmer, told the others she was going for the boat.
“It was far,” she said. “The boat acted like a giant sail. I told them I would come back and I’m going to do this.”
Engle began swimming. As the seas got rougher she often lost track of where the boat was. She swam on her back to kick, using the clouds to keep her heading. To distract her mind she would make four kicks and count that as 1. After counting to 50 she would try to locate the boat once again.
“Sure enough there were times I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I made a few deals and I promised to do some things and my luck seemed to change after that.”
Using the growing height of the seas to her advantage, she kicked and surfed when the wave height offered assistance. She eventually started to make up some ground. After spending over three hours in the water, Engle caught up to the boat 2.6 miles away from where they originally anchored, exhausted and nauseous.
“When I got into the boat I started vomiting pretty bad and wasn’t able to immediately get on the radio,” Engle said. “When I did it was around 5:30. The coast guard told me to stay there as much as I wanted to go search for them. It appeared the boat anchor had finally caught on something as the coordinates were static.
“Around 6:15 the Coast Guard made it out. It looked like the cavalry had arrived. I got on the stern and gave them a heading and within five minutes I could see them hovering over Mike. It took them about 30 minutes to get him in the cage, the seas were rough. I was really impressed by how coordinated the effort was from the Coast Guard. They didn’t question my headings and the radio communication was exact.”
With two of the three safe and darkness setting in, the third unidentified diver was found nearly a mile further away. A second helicopter and a C130 located her using heat seeking in the nearly dark water. She had a thin wet suit and signs of hypothermia had begun to set in when she was picked up.
If Engle hadn’t reached the boat, all three would have been in a tough position of survival overnight in the open ocean.
“I knew they were depending on me and I told them they could,” Engle said. “The concept of me spending the night in the water is not for me. Dark water is not something that appeals to me and similar stories have happened to others. That would be a mental breaking point for most.”
The group was able to return home safely that night. As the week went on their story began to spread on social media. Most questioned the decision of not leaving a person on the boat for safety.
“The spearfishing community does this all the time,” Engle said. “We get complacent. It’s wrong, but it’s something we do. I’ve heard from others who have had people stay on the boat that fall asleep or don’t know how to use it if something goes wrong. I think it’s time for all of us to adopt safety procedures that include an occupied boat with someone capable of driving and assisting in an emergency situation. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
