Hey Greg,
The rescure was me, I was lost at sea and had to react quickly to be found. I remembered my special training in the SSI manual of Open Water.
When we all gathered to drop down the anchor at this site I was last to descend. Mike Mill and the other diver made it down and then I vaguely saw you dropping down the line.
The current was strong and as I went to equalize my nose I lost grip of the anchor and the current started pulling me out into the middle of the big expansion blue sea.
I fought hard to reach the anchor and the more I tried the more energy I was losing. I calmed down because I was beginning to go into a panic. I could see you guys at the bottom of the site so I wasn't lost, not yet.
I calmed down and began my descent down to about 80 feet of water, I looked around the reef and didn't find you guys at all nor did I see the anchor. I then started swimming in a square pattern to see I could find any divers and I did.
Unfortunately I found the two divers that were not part of my convoy they had their expensive cameras and had what appeared to be DECO bottles and both were breathing Nitrox.
I stayed with them hoping that they new where the return anchor was and as I started running low on Air I went up to one and asked if he new, he looked at me and said, sorry bye bye.
So I swam up to his buddy and asked him if he knew where the anchor or boat was and I got the same response.
As I knew I had to ascend by myself I started to leave them and then he looked up and said are you okay, I had enough gas to come up and do my safety stop so I said yes I'm okay.
As I started my ascent the current pulled me further and further away from the site and I knew I was going to be far from the boat. That didn't help me any as I started to feel a panic attack engulfing my body.
I was out in the middle of the ocean maybe the boat was near maybe not, and there was no anchor to be found.
I blew right through my safety stop as my computer started telling me I was ascending too quickly but I wanted up and I wanted to find that boat.
I finally made it up and I start to look for the boat and it's behind me more than what appeared 50 to 60 yards and the current was continuing to pull me out to sea.
I tried hard to swim against the current and no way was I making any ground closer to that boat. I could see Mike Mill sitting on the boat and Matt the deck hand.
I yelled as hard as I could, "Diver down and I need assistance, I cannot swim back to the boat, the current is pulling me".
There was this loud mega phone that said, "Diver we see you, are you okay".
I quickly felt around for my safety sausage and mananged to detach it from it's D-ring, thank god I got the one with a metal bolt release,
I got it to my hands and I started to inflate it, and do you think that 7 feet sausage would inflate, hell no, I was blowing to no avail. My lips were cold and I couldn't get anything in. So I calmed down and think this out.
I need to warm my lips and not yell and blow up this sasauge. I finally get the air I could muster and blow into the sausage and it starts to inflate to full capacity, I felt so relieved when I got that thing fuly erect at 7 feet of length it is an impressive site.
I then reach over to my whistle and start blowing it several times, the boat then sees exactly where I am and they in what seems like forever arrived in just 10 minutes.
I was so happy to see that boat, you guys don't know the feeling unless it has happened to you. It rips around me and says, diver hand me your sausage and I do, then he asks for each leg up so he can pull off one fin at a time and then he gets both fins up and my shaky legs start to climb up the stairs.
With the swells much higher I had a hard time getting on the boat with all my gear. Once I got on the other divers were still under the water waiting to get picked up.
The boat went back for them and got them out of the water, so that must of been you Greg, wondering where the boat went?
It was rescuing me, later the Captain said, "Mike you did it right, you inflated your BC and then pulled out your safety sausage made us aware where you were. I was just happy to be on the boat.
So lesson learned, never go down the anchor line without your buddy within site, and always but always get a heading off of the anchor with your compass and right it down on the slate.
If I had the compass heading I would have found the anchor and this wouldn't have happened.
Never go to other divers thinking they can bring you back to the surface, they have there own agenda and you are a problem for them to baby you back to the boat, I learned the hard way and will never make that mistake again.
Just stay calm and remember that help is on the way and don't take the current so lightly, it was a very strong current, Mike Mill even mentioned how strong it is.
I barely moved with my Scuba pro Jets on my feet, with all that drysuit material on the surface I wasn't moving an inch. I did fine under the water but on the surface it's another story.
This adventure calls for a rematch against the ocean and I have that date set for this Saturday aboard the Escapade, I will not make the same mistakes again.
I need to get back on this horse that threw me down on the ground.
Mike G
