I know there are some divers here so I thought I'd share this story.
This was my first big wreck dive, so I was kind of nervous. I was warned that the currents were strong so I decided to take a Nitrox tank, to have that extra oxygen help me fight my way thru it.
If you have done dives in St. Thomas, you know it can get treacherous (and I'm not talking about the cheap booze and accompanying cheap potatos by the harbor), so I called a buddy with plenty of experience to do the dive with me, and to serve as a mule to carry a small extra tank, just in case.
Two flashlights - check
My trusty watch - check (xoxoxo Pulsar)
Titanium knife - check
Dramamine pills - check
Since I don’t have a boat, and renting a plane, landing, and then diving, is not a very good idea, we booked spaces with a diving school that makes expeditions for tourists. It was actually a good idea, since most tourist divers actually have a LOT of experience and are very good at it.
...not the case with this group.
On the two hour trip from Fajardo to St. Thomas, I think I saw like 9 different shades of vomit flying past me, and the symphony of gags and moans was taking its toll on my stomach, so I decided to go chit-chat with the cap'n, who turned out to be a pilot for the Puerto Rican Police, so we had a lot to talk about.
We finally get to the dive site, and I prepare myself, double check my equipment and that of my buddy, and we decided to be the last ones to jump so we can have some extra air in case something bad happens.
As predicted, the current was very strong. You had to hold on tight to the anchor line, and use it to dive. We did so and swam directly to the sunken ship, which was MUCH bigger than I expected. Two experience tourists who were also using Nitrox tanks tagged along with us. Before we creeped into the ship, we checked our flashlights and made sure everything was OK. Now everyone turned to me and expected me to go first. I wouldn’t normally have a problem with this, but to get inside the ship you had to make your way into the ship thru a chimney-like hole on the deck.
It was pitch dark inside, you could only see what you were pointing at with your flashlight, very creepy and cool. I was expecting to find some corpses or treasure, but all I could find was some tires, ropes, and empty beer bottles
That is the only picture I have of the boat inside as all others didn’t come out well.
It was an awesome dive all around. The sealife was very healthy. We encountered rays, turtles, and barracudas, among other less interesting creatures. Here are some pics of the boat. I didn’t take these.
After a while I began asking myself where the hell was everyone else. There was only four of us enjoying the dive. So I signal that we go back to the school boat and find it where the hell everyone go.
Going up the current was INSANE. Holding on to the anchor line was hard, I thought all of my equipment would detach from my body and be swept away by the current. All other three were also trying to hold on and pull their way up into the boat. It didn’t occur to me that if we were going thru so much trouble, this was the reason none of the inexperienced divers managed to make their way.
After a good 15 minutes we finally made it to the ship, and out of 40 divers, only 25 were on board, and all of them were either sitting down moaning, or yelling names trying to communicate with the other divers.
The current had swept them away more than a mile from the boat, and they were moving away fast, the ones we COULD see.
The captain could not raise anchor and go rescue them until he was sure the remainder divers that DID manage to complete their dive were inside the boat. We explained to him that we were the last ones down there who weren’t swept away, but he decided to stay longer just in case. He was calling other boats nearby by radio for help and only two small yachts responded, one of them had already rescued three divers. The other had spotted a few who were holding on together and was on the way to pick them up. In total they rescued about 8 of them, who where scared toejamless, even more pale than hblair in an Assassin convention.
We found another two who cleverly used their camera flashes to signal us their position. That was a good idea on their part and I recommend all divers do that if they don’t have a dive flag like they are supposed to. Problem was, that they were so tired fighting the current that they could not swim their way back into the boat, so we had to jump into the water to help them in. First time I saw a group of grown men cry like lost children in a mall.
We couldn’t find the other five, so the Dive Master for the school decided to dive to look for them, I decided to go with him. We actually found them underwater, they were not even aware that the current had swept them away. They were idling around admiring some corals and turtles, taking pictures like happy Disney goers. We signal them to follow us up. When we make it to the surface, the dive master fired a flare for the boat to pick us up, as we were already about half a mile away. I wasn’t expecting the flare, let alone the lost divers who began to panic immediately. I checked and they were almost out of air. These are the kind of divers that need a dive master down there to baby-sit them the whole time. If we hadn’t found them on time, they would have run out of air in the middle of their picture taking tour.
Everyone was OK miraculously, so we headed to island so that they could sit on some firm ground and shake their panic off.
On the island we ate at Hard Rock cafe, where all these tards were enthusiastically cheering and telling their wonderful tale of adventure, sharing pictures from their digital cameras, which was what almost caused their deaths. Most of them got swept away as they verified and prepared their cool super expensive cameras. You lose grasp of the anchor line for two seconds and you are already out of reach.
This was the dive of their life. My friend wasn’t enjoying himself as much, He still could not understand how happy and cheery they were after they were so close to death.
I was cool about it, I’ve done my share of idiocy both diving, driving, and flying, so I just laughed and smiled as they bought me beers and slapped my shoulder as a hero
"GOOD WORK AMIGO!"
