Equipment Lost at sea and survived

[MBPrairieDiver]

Me and my wife were doing a 45 foot dive, several miles off the coast. We hired our trusted guide and his boat Capitan who we dived with for several years. We encountered heavy current and had a wonderful drift dive, over an hour long. When we surfaced, the boat was not on site. We had 3-4 foot waves. We could see the shore, but we were out several miles and had significant current, almost parallel to the shore, but angeling us slightly to more off shore. We all had our own 5 foot smb and deployed them. Our whistles were useless. There where no vessels in site. We had a heavy surface current parallel to shore, but also slightly carrying us out. The guide recommended we swim to shore and self rescue. We estimated it would be a 5 hour swim. During the swim we could get glimpses of our boat several miles away and up- current doing a grid search, but we were too small for him to see us. Then we got glimpses of several vessels searching for us in the wrong area, as we bounced up and down on the waves. After 1 hour we managed to swim into a shipping lane, we made it past a huge shipping buoy. Then a fishing trawler came straight at us and did a U around us and kept going. I guess he radioed the search party our location as our rescuer drove straight to us 10 minutes later. All the rescue boats then converged on us and escorted us to shore. It was a good day. Never leave your smb at home.

 

[johndiver999]

You were not towing a float on the dive? Did you expect the boat to follow bubbles in rough seas for over an hour; what was the dive plan?

 

[Altamira]

Me and my wife were doing a 45 foot dive, several miles off the coast. We hired our trusted guide and his boat Capitan who we dived with for several years. We encountered heavy current and had a wonderful drift dive, over an hour long. When we surfaced, the boat was not on site. We had 3-4 foot waves. We could see the shore, but we were out several miles and had significant current, almost parallel to the shore, but angeling us slightly to more off shore. We all had our own 5 foot smb and deployed them. Our whistles were useless. There where no vessels in site. We had a heavy surface current parallel to shore, but also slightly carrying us out. The guide recommended we swim to shore and self rescue. We estimated it would be a 5 hour swim. During the swim we could get glimpses of our boat several miles away and up- current doing a grid search, but we were too small for him to see us. Then we got glimpses of several vessels searching for us in the wrong area, as we bounced up and down on the waves. After 1 hour we managed to swim into a shipping lane, we made it past a huge shipping buoy. Then a fishing trawler came straight at us and did a U around us and kept going. I guess he radioed the search party our location as our rescuer drove sartraight to us 10 minutes later. All the rescue boats then converged on us and escorted us to shore. It was a good day. Never leave your smb at home.

I am very happy you are safe. Excellent and educational post. Perhaps you will consider carrying a PLB and/or a satellite communicator like the Inreach Mini line on future ocean dives. DSMBs, whistles, and mirrors are great to have, but as you found out, they can be hard to spot/hear with waves involved.

 

[DandyDon]

Perhaps you will consider carrying a PLB

A real bargain buy when you spread the cost over the years. Gets cheaper when you replace the battery the first time. I carry mine in my car when not farming, hiking, or diving.