When Adrian Winchell surfaced from a dive and faced a powerboat 50 feet away going 60 mph, he did the only thing he could do.
He tried to dive back down to the bottom.
Winchell, 63, of Hollywood, almost made it.
The hull of the go-fast boat, which Winchell estimated to be 32-35 feet long, hit Winchell in his left hamstring, which spun him around.
The propeller on one of the boat's two inboard engines then fractured his right ankle while slashing him just under his ankle bone and cutting off a chunk of his heel.
Winchell felt lucky to be alive.
"When I dove down, somebody was helping me get out of the way," Winchell said.
A commercial lobster diver, Winchell was free-diving this past Saturday in 30 feet of water off Hollywood. A buddy had dropped him off in his boat, then headed a few hundred yards away and out to 45 feet to scuba dive for lobsters.
By noon, Winchell had caught about 10 lobsters and shot some groupers and snappers with his speargun. He was submerged when he heard the sound of boat engines nearby.
The wind and current were out of the south, so Winchell's truck tire inner tube that held a blue-and-white cooler with his catch and a 4-foot PVC pole with a 20-by-24-inch dive flag and was tied to a 75-foot line, was floating north of him.
"When I surfaced, the boat was even with my float, coming dead at me," said Winchell, adding that the boat was 3-5 feet away from his dive flag. "I had literally two seconds to get out of the way. It was scary. It was really, really scary.
"I don't know if this guy even realized he bumped something or hit something. He never hesitated, he just kept going."
Winchell said he was in the water for an hour after getting hit before his friend, who did not know what had happened, picked him up.
"It was a long hour," Winchell said. "My first reaction was, 'Do I have all my parts?' I was not in bad pain."
Winchell didn't know he was bleeding until he climbed in the boat and his friend pointed out the blood on the deck. He believes the waterproof dive socks he was wearing kept him from losing too much blood.
His friend immediately went in
Port Everglades Inlet and rushed back to his waterfront house in
Fort Lauderdale, then drove Winchell to the Holy Cross Urgent Care and Imaging Center in Fort Lauderdale.
On the way there, Winchell said he started to go into shock and the pain was intense. His foot and ankle were x-rayed and he got 11 stitches and was given antibiotics.
Winchell, who is on crutches and has his bandaged right foot in a protective boot, returned to the doctor, who told him his wounds were healing and he doesn't need surgery, on Wednesday.
A diver for almost 40 years, Winchell has had his share of close calls. In 1992, he was diving with paramedic David Lindsey off Fort Lauderdale when Lindsey was hit by a boat and lost both of his legs. That day, Winchell put Lindsey in his inner tube and started swimming him to the beach until a
U.S. Coast Guard boat arrived and transported him the rest of the way. A helicopter flew Lindsey, who survived the accident, to the hospital.
Last year, Winchell had a 45-foot Sea Ray going 40 mph head for him while he was in the water and cut the line to his inner tube. He said the operator had his head down and was steering with his knees because he was texting on his phone. His dive buddy Mike Hickey has similar stories.
"I've seen props go right over me," Hickey said. "Luckily I could quickly scramble to the bottom."
Florida statute mandates that boats offshore "must make a reasonable effort to maintain a distance of at least 300 feet from any divers-down flag."
Because there were no other witnesses to the accident and Winchell doesn't know who was driving the boat, no charges can be brought even if the boat is eventually located.
In Winchell's case, the boater could have likely been charged with reckless operation of a vessel, which is a first-degree misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.
