Getting Left Behind At Sea

Good day Shrek!  I’m a Noobie to the podcast from South Georgia, USA!!  I have thoroughly enjoyed your channel since finding it several months ago!  Brilliant, funny and very helpful content!!  Keep up the good work!

I agree with Eric……getting left behind is the worst!!! (listen in to the lost at sea segment below)

It’s happened to me on my own boat! I was adrift with my buddy off of Cudjo Key in Florida last year for several hours!! It started out a beautiful day! No current and no wind and no clouds!  However that changed in the afternoon. Wind, clouds and current seem to appear out of nowhere. Our boat driver quickly lost sight of us and due to the winds and seas picking up, could not see or hear us!! We were just off the reef which is about 3km from shore and quickly being pulled further out!! We started swimming to a light house structure on the reef with our guns, floats and fish! I knew we would not starve as mother ocean had provided for us that day, but nonetheless it was frightening wondering if we would be able to make it in the current to the lighthouse structure on the reef for safety.

This pic from Craig Seadog illustrates how easy it is to get separated from the boat

After swimming for about two hours and not making much progress, I finally saw a boat heading in our direction. I put the fish stringer on the end of my gun and waved it in the air as high as possible and fortunately they saw us and came to us. Once on board, I was able to call my boat which was about 7 miles from our original location. The day ended well but the pucker factor was real!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣.

I grew up on the water and looking back at that day I realize I made several mistakes.

Number one: I had gotten too comfortable and not prepared from a safety standpoint for getting separated from the boat.

Number two: In hindsight, I had a person on the boat that wasn’t experienced enough to pay attention to wind and current to know which way we would have drifted.

Since that day I have prepped for safety better. I found a company out of Canada that make a personal locator beacon. This is a great little device and you can wear it on your weight belt. There’s no monthly fees and you change the battery every couple of years! Now I keep four of these devices on my boat and every Diver gets one for the day. I’m not sure if this company has services in Africa but it is worth looking into if you could pass it along to Eric! I will be purchasing some of the inflatable floats like this one (aka Safety Sausage) or this Neptonics Safety Signal Inflatable Float you mentioned.

Neptonics Safety Sausage. Neptonics Inflatable Safety Signal Float

Thank you for all of the helpful information on your podcast!  I’ve been scuba diving since I was 10 but I have only been free diving for two years,  I’m 50 and I can’t believe I’ve been missing this stuff!!

 – Scott Rowell

Sapelo Outfitters/Rowell Organic Berry Farm!