Dive-lights saved couple on 38hr drift

It was only after drifting in the Gulf of Mexico for some 38 hours that a scuba-diving couple were rescued last week – just as the US Coast Guard was said to have been on the point of calling off its attempts to locate them. 

Nathan & Kim Maker, a carpenter and teacher respectively from Edmond, Oklahoma, had been boat-diving with a group on 24 July. All 16 divers had surfaced from their dive into a storm and had been waiting in a heavy swell and pounding rain to board the boat. The Makers were swept away but managed to stay together.

Also read: What, no chase-boat? A basic safety precaution

The Coast Guard says it was alerted to the incident that afternoon. Its stations at Corpus Christi, Port O’Connor and Houston sent out two helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft and two boats in response to the emergency. 

It was not until the following night (25/26 July) that the crew of an Ocean Sentry aircraft, making their last run outside the search grid, spotted two lights.

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The divers were directing their torches at the plane, and the crew were able to relay their position, some 25km off the coast at Matagorda, to a Coast Guard cutter.

The divers were picked up and taken to Freeport. Nathan Maker, a diabetic, was said to be on the verge of coma when recovered into the cutter, and his wife had sustained an infection.

Both divers were also sunburnt, severely dehydrated and had sustained multiple jellyfish stings, but after being taken to hospital they were reported to be in stable condition.

The Coast Guard reckoned that it had covered a search area of around 4,300sq km over the period of 36 hours between the incident being called in and the rescue.

Also on Divernet: DIVERS’ 18-HOUR DRIFT – WHAT WAS IT LIKE?, SIX-HOUR-DRIFT DIVERS ASKED TO PAY, DIVER ENDURES SEVEN-HOUR DRIFT AFTER SEPARATION, SOLO-DIVER ON 17-HOUR DRIFT ‘A BIT NAUGHTY’