Eight divers spent the night afloat after surfacing from a dive to find their boat had capsized.

The nightmare ordeal started as six of the divers were ascending from a 40-minute dive at Fowey Rocks off Miami. They realised that the dark shape above them was not the hull, but the deck of their 23-foot Seacraft boat. The two women who had remained onboard were floating in the sea, clinging to buoyant wreckage.

The group of friends, aged between 17 and 23 years old, were using a boat owned by the parents of one of the divers - 22-year-old Giovani Zamora. The sea conditions were rough, but several on board were experienced sailors.

With the boat capsized, they had no access to mobile phones, flares or radio, despite several dives by Zamora to try to retrieve items from inside the capsized boat. They cut the anchor line and hoped that the capsized boat would be taken ashore by the tide.

As darkness fell and the boat didn't appear to be moving, the group decided to swim for it, taking with them every buoyant object they could find. Progress was slow, and the stronger members of the group had to tow the less able. They eventually reached land at Stiltsville at 5am, having been in the water since 3.30pm the previous day. The exhausted divers took shelter at a deserted holiday house and slept, before flagging down a boat at 9.25am to break the news that they were all safe and well.

The US Coastguard described the divers as extremely fortunate but criticised the group for failing to inform them of their position and plans before the dive, and failing to leave any details of their planned trip ashore. This meant that it was gone 11pm before family members became concerned about the groups whereabouts, and even then they were unable to give the coastguard much clue as to the where to start a search. People are normally advised to stay with a capsized boat because it is an easier target for rescuers to spot than swimmers.

The capsized boat has since been salvaged.


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Maritime and Coastguard Agency (UK)

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