Working together, captains find missing diver
By Dorie Cox
June 27, 2011
The scuba diver could see his boat, but could not swim to it. He saw his wife onboard as she searched for him, looking in the opposite direction.
Within minutes, Capt. Mike Galgana heard the wifes radio call reporting her missing husband. His mind immediately shot back to a similar call years ago, a call he didnt answer, a call he thought other boaters would help with.
I'll never forget the time. Guys were trapped in an overturned boat and they didn't survive, he said. I regret not going to help.
He didn't want that feeling again, so he conferred with Capt. Baron Rohl on M/Y Texas Star II who immediately put a call out for nearby vessels to help in a search.
Capt. Russ Grandinetti aboard M/Y Jade Mary heard that call and jumped in his tender.
It was late May near Bimini. Sara Cesbron had called for the U.S. Coast Guard about 4:30 p.m. when her husband, Jean-Jacques Cesbron, failed to return from a dive. She, their 18-month-old son and his 81-year-old father had remained onboard.
"She was on the radio and calm, but you could tell she was getting frantic," Grandinetti said.
When Grandinetti arrived at the rendezvous spot, he found Rohl, a friend he had known more than 20 years.
"If you hear a call, you go," Rohl said.
"Professional captains have a brotherhood," Grandinetti said. You help others and they will be there for you.
The three yacht captains each had many years at work at sea and on boats and they pooled their knowledge to conduct a search. They defined the area using location and conditions, with calculations made from the coordinates of the diver's anchored vessel, the Jacques Angelo, between Turtle Rock and Gun Cay, about two miles off of Cat Cay.
"All the boats fish there," Rohl said. "It's shark alley."
To figure out which direction the diver might have drifted, Rohl filled a water bottle with sea water and enough air to keep it above surface and tossed it in the water. Grandinetti used the same idea to verify the wind was pushing his tender south as the current flowed north.
Radio contact between the tenders was limited because of technical issues, but the three instinctively made the right decisions in how to proceed with the search.
"We all knew what had to be done," Grandinetti said.
For a couple hours, Rohl and Galgana ran their tender parallel to the beach a mile from shore and searched with binoculars while Grandinetti ran a zig-zag from shore to their tender and back to shore.
As dusk fell, the winds picked up to 15 knots out of the northeast. The tenders were running low on fuel. With the setting sun, objects in the water were harder to see against the choppy sea.
It was a little after 7 p.m. Cesbron had been in the water several hours and had ditched his air tanks. He was tired and getting dehydrated. He spotted a tender and held up his mask. The last glints of sunlight caught it and alerted Grandinetti.
"I saw what looked like a little black coconut in the water," Grandinetti said. "I literally almost ran into him."
Pulling him aboard, the diver asked "How did you find me?
"By the grace of God, Grandinetti said. Now get in the boat."
Hours after the rescue, Grandinetti was somber when thinking about the waning light and time. If they had not found him when they did, he said, the outcome would have been much different.
"It would have been the difference between a celebration and a funeral," he said.
The captains all said this divers tale should remind boaters to check safety equipment and to realize that the coast guard won't always be there to help. Alone in the islands, even a radio call -- which many people can hear -- might not result in a rescue party.
For Cesbron on this May afternoon in Bimini, it did, thanks to the skill and compassion of three yacht captains.
And thanks to Ben Madill, owner of M/Y Texas Star II who was vacationing with guests when the call came. Without hesitation, he sent his captain and mate off in the tender.
"I wouldn't have expected anything less from these guys."
This excellent article was copied from:
Working together, captains find missing diver | The Triton
Kudos to the searchers and the journalist for great story.
This article illustrates the reason why the call for help should be as soon as the problem is recognized.
By Dorie Cox
June 27, 2011
The scuba diver could see his boat, but could not swim to it. He saw his wife onboard as she searched for him, looking in the opposite direction.
Within minutes, Capt. Mike Galgana heard the wifes radio call reporting her missing husband. His mind immediately shot back to a similar call years ago, a call he didnt answer, a call he thought other boaters would help with.
I'll never forget the time. Guys were trapped in an overturned boat and they didn't survive, he said. I regret not going to help.
He didn't want that feeling again, so he conferred with Capt. Baron Rohl on M/Y Texas Star II who immediately put a call out for nearby vessels to help in a search.
Capt. Russ Grandinetti aboard M/Y Jade Mary heard that call and jumped in his tender.
It was late May near Bimini. Sara Cesbron had called for the U.S. Coast Guard about 4:30 p.m. when her husband, Jean-Jacques Cesbron, failed to return from a dive. She, their 18-month-old son and his 81-year-old father had remained onboard.
"She was on the radio and calm, but you could tell she was getting frantic," Grandinetti said.
When Grandinetti arrived at the rendezvous spot, he found Rohl, a friend he had known more than 20 years.
"If you hear a call, you go," Rohl said.
"Professional captains have a brotherhood," Grandinetti said. You help others and they will be there for you.
The three yacht captains each had many years at work at sea and on boats and they pooled their knowledge to conduct a search. They defined the area using location and conditions, with calculations made from the coordinates of the diver's anchored vessel, the Jacques Angelo, between Turtle Rock and Gun Cay, about two miles off of Cat Cay.
"All the boats fish there," Rohl said. "It's shark alley."
To figure out which direction the diver might have drifted, Rohl filled a water bottle with sea water and enough air to keep it above surface and tossed it in the water. Grandinetti used the same idea to verify the wind was pushing his tender south as the current flowed north.
Radio contact between the tenders was limited because of technical issues, but the three instinctively made the right decisions in how to proceed with the search.
"We all knew what had to be done," Grandinetti said.
For a couple hours, Rohl and Galgana ran their tender parallel to the beach a mile from shore and searched with binoculars while Grandinetti ran a zig-zag from shore to their tender and back to shore.
As dusk fell, the winds picked up to 15 knots out of the northeast. The tenders were running low on fuel. With the setting sun, objects in the water were harder to see against the choppy sea.
It was a little after 7 p.m. Cesbron had been in the water several hours and had ditched his air tanks. He was tired and getting dehydrated. He spotted a tender and held up his mask. The last glints of sunlight caught it and alerted Grandinetti.
"I saw what looked like a little black coconut in the water," Grandinetti said. "I literally almost ran into him."
Pulling him aboard, the diver asked "How did you find me?
"By the grace of God, Grandinetti said. Now get in the boat."
Hours after the rescue, Grandinetti was somber when thinking about the waning light and time. If they had not found him when they did, he said, the outcome would have been much different.
"It would have been the difference between a celebration and a funeral," he said.
The captains all said this divers tale should remind boaters to check safety equipment and to realize that the coast guard won't always be there to help. Alone in the islands, even a radio call -- which many people can hear -- might not result in a rescue party.
For Cesbron on this May afternoon in Bimini, it did, thanks to the skill and compassion of three yacht captains.
And thanks to Ben Madill, owner of M/Y Texas Star II who was vacationing with guests when the call came. Without hesitation, he sent his captain and mate off in the tender.
"I wouldn't have expected anything less from these guys."
This excellent article was copied from:
Working together, captains find missing diver | The Triton
Kudos to the searchers and the journalist for great story.
This article illustrates the reason why the call for help should be as soon as the problem is recognized.
