June 2009    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 24, No. 6   What's this?

Divers Survive 24 Hours in Open Waters of Gulf of Mexico

from the June, 2009 issue of Undercurrent  

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After drifting helplessly in the Gulf of Mexico for more than a full day, a Florida couple had to face a grim truth: If they weren’t rescued soon, they’d end up like the couple in Open Water, the film about two divers who are left behind by their dive boat and end up as shark bait.

After being caught in a current during a dive that separated them from their own boat, the pair had drifted in increasing desperation, suffering from hypothermia and dehydration, with hallucinations playing tricks with their eyes. Finally, they saw an anchored boat they thought they could get to. “I told my husband this is our last chance. If we don’t do it, we’re going to die,” Paula Allen, 48, told Today show host Meredith Vieira. ...