It was to be a simple dive to take pictures and collect some shells but this dive turned out to be an experience worth sharing. I was on a liveaboard cruise during the break between Christmas and including New Years. My memorable dive began from a boat, anchored just southeast of Port Lucaya in the Bahamas. Having made several solo dives on this trip, I made sure that all my equipment was operating properly and then started my southerly trek, with 3200 psi of air, towards the 'Wall' ( a drop off into the abyss...).

    I planned to head straight towards the 'Wall' until I used up 1000 psi, then return on a reciprocal course, just 50 feet or so just east of the path I had taken. I had plenty of photo opportunities on the way to my destination, and the entire roll of 24 pictures was used up by the time I reached the wall. I even found a couple shells.

    At the edge of the 'Wall', I found a field of shells.  I picked up more than an armful of the best shells I could find. I noted that my air pressure had reached 2000 psi. I hung around a few moments more looking at shells, then decided to head back. I had to compensate for the added weight by adding air to the BCD, but my mind was mostly concentrating on all the missed photo opportunities. There were frequent stops to marvel at something and to curse the fact I hadn't loaded the camera with more than 24 exposures!.

    At 1100 psi, I ascended to 20 feet but kept my heading. Gauges were being checked more frequently now, since air pressure was getting lower. I had already started looking for the boat and/or anchor line. At 700 psi, I really started wondering why I hadn't found the boat yet, but decided to keep looking (underwater) for it a little longer, instead of rising to the surface. It was pure vanity that I didn't rise to the surface. It would have been too embarrassing to admit I 'missed the boat'. At 400 psi I still had not found the boat, so I had no choice now but to surface. So with arms still full of shells and my camera dangling on my BCD, I rose to the surface, and easily found the boat.

    I don't know how I could have missed it, but I had. It was probably 250+ feet back to the boat, and surely 400 psi was more than enough to get back on. And just maybe, no one had seen me rise to the surface. I made the unwise decision to swim back underwater, being careful to monitor the gauges. Another justification to swim back underwater was that it would be much easier with all those shells.

    While swimming back, at the intended depth of 15 feet, and after what seem only 2 minutes, I exhaled, then inhaled, but there was NOTHING to inhale! My first thought was a vulgar word that I'll leave out of this story… I immediately headed towards the surface, dropping one armload of shells, and checked my gauges. I was curious to see what the 'deal' was, and sure enough the psi registered ZERO, and to top that off, I was at a depth of 20 feet. I was experiencing something close to panic, but managed to remain somewhat calm enough to function reasonably well as I headed to what I considered to be the 'safe surface'...

    By the time I reached the surface, which was the longest 20 feet I ever traveled, I had my snorkel in my mouth, and I was able to inflate my BCD just a bit with some expanding air in the tank. At the surface I tried to clear the snorkel with the very little air I had left in my lungs, but couldn't, so I spit out the snorkel and tried to gulp some air, but the waves were just a bit choppy, so I got a drink of salt water instead… I finally got a breath, and attempted to use the snorkel again, but it just wasn't working. Though I considered myself better than average at using a snorkel, I had never trained or practiced snorkeling at sea, with full scuba gear, with waves, and with one arm full of shells. I never even thought about dropping my weight belt, which luckily turned out to be unnecessary. After some struggle and after drinking more saltwater, I rolled onto my back, pointed my snorkel backwards and discovered that this method would work fine.

    I headed to the boat, and with my back to the boat I heard someone yell out 'Are you okay!'… I replied with the okay signal of holding my free arm over my head. I realized just then that this embarrassment of 'missing the boat', was nothing compared to the fright just experienced.

What lessons did I learn?

• When low on air, RISE TO THE SURFACE

• Vanity and being Macho can kill you – common sense should always prevail.

• If you dive solo, you must have a redundant air supply. That means it has it's own independent regulator (either a pony bottle or spare air).

• Practice swimming with gear at the surface under varying conditions.

• While in the water, practice inflating your BCD manually.

• Load the camera with a 36 exposure.

tj