We leave the dock ready for two of us to scuba dive (Curt and John), and the rest of us (7 in total) to enjoy a nice day on the water 50 miles away from Hilton Head and the scorching heat most of the country is experiencing this weekend. It was a breezy morning, and bait was hard to find, but we managed to find enough to do the job at South Beach. A little sloppy on the ocean at 3 ft and 4 seconds on the seas, but the Yellow Fin cuts through on the troughs nicely.
We have a great late morning catching sea bass, vermilion snapper, red snapper (released), and some other assortments, and me with too many sharks and a few nice sea bass. Now that we think we've located decent bottom, Curt and John deploy the buoy marker (jug line) for the dive. It's a nice dive with probably 20-30 foot visibility or so in 82 feet of water. Curt goes in near the buoy and John thereafter at 1:37 PM. Curt is up around 2:00 PM with a nice snapper and beautiful lobster.
John is not up yet.
The planned dive is 35 to 40 minutes. At 40 minutes we all begin to be concerned why John has not surfaced.
At around 50 minutes we call the Coast Guard Charleston Group with "Diver Overdue". They begin to ask for all our info while we begin a search pattern of the area without leaving the buoy too far. Curt wants to make sure John is nowhere on the bottom or diving the ledge and returns under some certain personal risk of diving on a short interval. Although he would say not, I think he is even with the nitrox mix. Curt says he will only be 5 minutes, but he departs on the buoy and his dive last at least 10 minutes or more... Captain Curt, now back on board says the bottom is clear and no sign of our lost diver, John.
We continue to be in constant contact with Coast Guard Group Charleston while they work to place "Assets" in the area and put their teams to work calculating drift, wind, currents and search distances and direction. They are now communicating with us through 2 different teams, one doing calculations, and the other appeared to be central coordination. Our tax dollars at work, all seeming to be "gearing up" as quickly as possible! There is some slight degree of reassurance knowing serious professionals are at work towards the same cause. Finding John. Their list of questions continue. I'm sure to partially assess that this is a legitimate call and others we can't now understand but have a purpose.
I ask when they think they will have a Helo available for assistance. They say they will have a helo ready for departure and on scene in 40 minutes (clearly on another search and rescue or just not ready yet).
The crew is quiet, listing to the radio discussions but searching intently in the distance in all directions for any sign of a dive gun waving in the air, or a listening for whistle in the distance.
The ocean is large.
We begin a logical search direction based on our boat drift estimates and Curt's analysis of current drift from his last and final dive. As we continue a search pattern, we see a boat coming directly towards our dive position. Did they hear our broadcasts and position, or were they a smaller Coast Guard boat? We move towards them to see if they are here to help and they turn their bow away. I begin waving my arms. They towards us.
I inform them of our missing diver, our need for assistance and that all efforts involved in the search are tuned to 22 Alpha. They are nice fellas fishing out of Beaufort and as soon as we tell them of our emergency, they begin to lend a hand and search intently, with clear purpose standing on the gunnels and searching in the distance. We indicated to them their current direction of travel was also the direction we thought most likely John's direction of drift and that he could be anywhere their way within a 3 mile radius.
We continue to discuss the matter with the Coast Guard group on 22 Alpha and request several times their calculations on expected drift and direction assuming the diver was on the surface at the dive site around 2:00 PM. Our estimates of direction of drift from the dive site are approximately Due North to 350 degrees. We now hear a young man from another Coast Guard radio which indicates our search should be on about a heading of 050. I ask if they have a distance calculation yet. The answer is "Negative", but assets are working on the task. We're thinking, how long can this take? I know they are doing their best and using the most current information available from all types of sources. So we should be reassured. They ask us of our position again and a description of our vessel and to speak to a family member. Our thoughts are screaming loudly in our heads about all the possibilities for our diver and friend John, but all we hear is the wind, ocean and the intermittent radio broadcasts as we're now told the Coast Guard will contact us every 15 minutes.
On the radio we now hear the Helo pilot contact us to let us know he is about to depart. We all know this asset on scene will improve our chances of finding John 10 fold, but as time goes by we think the search area is enlarging 2 or 3 miles per hour, which means exponentially expanding. Within 1 hour we're probably looking at almost 15 square miles, and in 2 hours we're now 40 square miles. The ocean is a large place. Time is of the essence.
Radio broadcast 22 Alpha. "We think we have your diver" ! JOY! Our hearts are all lifted from this momentary break of silence on the radio. The boat from Beaufort had continued their search after our brief meeting, and they caught the "Best Catch" they could have possibly had this day. They saw our diver, and immediately called us on the 22 Alpha. They are now on their way to pick up John who was waving his dive emergency flag on his dive gun and realized he is saved this day!
Diver is in good health and on-board! I don't think we even saw another boat offshore this day but the one that mattered. This one. A small single engine newly purchased boat, heading back to Beaufort, and on the wrong course, but at the exact RIGHT place. It was indeed the one boat John and all of us needed to see today.
Some things are just beyond coincidence. This couldn't be just chance. If you'll see the attached map, John's drift was right at 2 miles from the dive site. The yellow line is the expected search direction provided by the Coast Guard. Our previous search directions were more due North. As we searched, John saw us coming in his direction, and as you can see by our estimates, at 3:04 our position was probably .83 miles from John at it's closest. As we discontinued our search in this direction, I was only thinking, as we turned back towards the dive buoy, what John must be thinking seeing us leave him and going back in the other direction. I'm sorry John. We knew you could be further out, but we couldn't search that far until we returned with a distance and direction provided by the Coast Guard. But that would not have taken us to him.
Our original search direction was based on the boat's drift, but windage can play a key role, it was suggested later we place a person in the water to check the drift, which was done with our diver, but we could have checked that drift longer to obtain a more direct drift and lessened the margin of error in our search. We learned the boat crew seeing John was the crew of Brad Smith. He said, " If John had not been signaling constantly, they would never have seen him. At first we thought is was a bird on the water, but after continuing to see it, they decided to check it out anyway."
Lesson to be learned: "Go down the Jug line, come up the Jug line, blow a whistle!"
2 comments:
Wow what a story. God was with you guys today
What a great day!
Post a Comment