Two divers have survived becoming stranded in the ocean after losing their boat while diving in a popular fishing spot in Western Australia.
Ryan Chapman and his mate were free diving and scuba diving about 5km off Mindarie, a coastal suburb north of Perth, when they resurfaced to find their boat had disappeared.
“We went out, anchored up, and originally things were all good for 45 mins,” he told Guardian Australia.
“I didn’t really pay attention [to the boat]. I just started getting into it, really enjoying it.
“But I think the wind might have picked up, and I was overly eager to get into water so I didn’t tie my knot properly. When we resurfaced, the boat was completely out of sight.”
In his GoPro vision, provided to Guardian Australia, Chapman can be heard saying “Where the fuck is the boat?” and “Oi the boat … it’s come off anchor” to his friend.
At the time, Chapman said the main thing going through his head was “superficial”.
“Originally I thought the boat had sank,” he said. “So we were looking around for the presumed sunken boat, and then decided to swim to a boat we could see in the distance, about a kilometre away.”
Chapman and his friend, both athletic men, attempted to hail them down before managing to get picked up at a closer distance about one-and-a-half hours after surfacing to find their boat missing.
Their rescuers told them they had been concerned after seeing the boat drifting out at sea.
Chapman, though, says he “wasn’t too worried”.
“I was pretty confident in our ability to make it back to shore if we needed to, but it would’ve taken a few hours and the boat would’ve been long gone,” he said.
After being picked up they knew which direction the boat would have drifted, and found it 2km away. Chapman and his friend returned to the boat, and went for another dive.
“I didn’t take it too seriously,” he said. “We found the anchor, re-anchored and had another dive. But this time we had one person on the boat and one in the water.
“In hindsight we probably should’ve taken a moment to reflect on the decision-making but we figured we’d just continue to send it.”
Chapman has gone public with his footage to raise awareness of safety while diving. In particular, he stressed how important it was to always go out with a “decky” so there is someone in the boat at all times, and double-check anchorage.
“I knew I was going to cop a lot of flak,” he said. “The reason I agreed to air it and own up to stupidity was for awareness – it’s easy to get complacent and think everything’s all good.
“But in hindsight, it could’ve been a lot worse. It takes courage to own up to your stupidity.”
