What are some stuff they could've done to get back to shore apart from following the boat during the beginning?
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tuttt — 18 years ago(May 31, 2007 06:06 PM)
I never leave shore without mine.
Teresa
http://MermaidLady.com -
arthurloveday — 18 years ago(June 01, 2007 11:20 AM)
"the best comment i heard was swim, just pick a direction and start swimming."
-which direction?
the sea has no reference points, so, (like the desert) you surely would just swim in random circles without getting any nearer to anywhere?
thats without the pull of the current they were inno, i think one of these sausage things is the answer, although at the risk of sounding rude i'd want mine to inflate bigger than 6ft -
GoodbyePorkPieHat — 18 years ago(June 04, 2007 04:57 AM)
I have ten year-old gear, but one of my three gauges is a compass. At least swimming toward shore would have had the illusion of a goal and perhaps given them some hope.
They also should have tied themselves together with their weight belts.
A lot of people have survived longer in warm water without the gear they had.
So it goes. -
mrvolvo — 18 years ago(June 05, 2007 03:54 AM)
GoodbyePorkPieHat wrote:
I have ten year-old gear, but one of my three gauges is a compass.
At least swimming toward shore would have had the illusion of a
goal and perhaps given them some hope.
The real incident which this movie is based on, took place on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia, in 1998. The real people (Tom and Eileen Lonergan) were reportedly taken 40 miles off-shore to the dive site. What happened to them after the boat left, is purely conjecture. Some of the problems involved in swimming to shore are:- The distance of 40 miles.
- Open ocean currents in the area likely exceeded their swimming speed. (Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Spitz could only swim 4.3 mph for 100 meters.)
- Normal surface current maps of the Great Barrier Reef area indicate that they could have been swept Northward, Southward, or out to sea in circles.
- Since they were in the water and not on a boat, their visible horizon was less than 2 miles, assuming they could raise their eyes 2 feet above the water for a quick look. This prevented them from obtaining a visual reference from anything that wasn't very close to them.
- Aside from needing the correct magnetic declination dialed into their compasses for that area, they would need to remain very still for a few seconds to get an accurate bearing; difficult in anything but calm water. But without any stationary surface references to guide on, taking bearings would be almost useless.
- They were diving in January, which is the middle of the summer in Australia. At that latitude, the sun would be nearly overhead at mid-day, giving them no directional reference for much of the day.
- Actively swimming would likely attract more attention from sharks than just floating motionless.
The bottom line is that they were screwed. Their only hope was to be rescued, or that a swift current would sweep them into shore, while they were still intact.
They also should have tied themselves together with their weight belts.
There are some problems with doing that also:- Have you ever tried to swim while tied to another person?
- If one person panics, he/she is likely to drown the other.
- If either is attacked by a shark, the other will be pulled into the melee.
A lot of people have survived longer in warm water without the gear they had.
Some people may just be luckier than others. Weeks after their disappearance, their gear (tanks, BC's with their names, a female's wet suit) started washing up on Queensland beaches, but it gave no indication of a violent end. Some figure that the tropical heat and delirium from dehydration caused them to shed their gear and they just rant out of energy to stay afloat. It appears we'll never know.
One thing is for sure; events like this are entirely preventable, but errors will continue to happen. A little insurance in the form of an EPIRB for open ocean diving would be well worth the expense. -
carpediem2020 — 17 years ago(November 21, 2008 02:26 AM)
when it reaches NIGHT time, look for the North Star. picture a map in your head and now you know which direction to swim.
when the sun starts to rise, look to see which direction the sun rose from. rises in the east, sets in the west.
using your watch which he did have in the movie, he can look at the sun. at noon, the sun is due south. etc
now you know where to go and swim to land. -
jobunney — 16 years ago(August 02, 2009 02:06 PM)
The regulator on their dive most likely had a compass. I am pretty certain that all regulators come with a compass. You are techincally supposed to set your compass to a landmark when you get in the water (in case you get lost).
I dont about you but I am not relying on the dive crew to keep me safe. I am going to keep me safe. -
pikeopike — 18 years ago(February 15, 2008 03:11 AM)
There's might have been a few things could have done, but would require an unreasonable amount of skeptisism or paranoia towards the divers ("the divers" being the people taking the group out)
One thing for certain they could have done was to make sure the divers had a reliable roll call. I would not go if I knew their roll call was just a head count with NO NAMES <(wtf). No, it wasn't even a head count, it was a
. -
damasiorodrigues — 18 years ago(March 14, 2008 03:04 PM)
"move away" from the sharks is the last thing they should have done. they had to wait for the sun or the Southern Cross to tell them west/east directions and then swim with minimum splash and pray to not meet a shark. sharks are attracted by movement. once the guy got bit once, they were dead. sharks are attracted by blood too. that's why there were about 6 or 7 sharks around her in the end.
one thing they could have tried was separating themselves a little bit after he got bit. (though that probably wouldn't work too). but imagine yourself there! the guy was in panic and the girl was just trying to remain positive.
some people have survived in similar situations, but there is just a matter of whether you'll run over a shark or not. that film was very realistic regardind one possibility of what happened. -
embracing_silence — 16 years ago(October 14, 2009 05:47 PM)
That's what I was thinking. They made tally marks, even though people kept coming and going from the boat. They should have written down all of their names, and called roll to make sure everyone was there.
Not to mention two of the oxygen tanks weren't on the boat. You would think they wouldn't want their expensive equipment lost. -
tuttt — 18 years ago(June 04, 2007 05:07 AM)
The current had already carried them too far away by the time they realized that they were abandoned.
Teresa
http://MermaidLady.com -
Mccadoo — 18 years ago(June 04, 2007 11:15 AM)
Everyone knows that this movie is based on a true story, the Lonergans, and they didn't survive, but you may not know that this happens more often than you'd think it would.
I was on a dive a year ago in the Gulf of Mexico and they did so many head counts that it became annoying after awhile because it just seemed excessive. When I asked the divemaster about it he said that a boat in the gulf had left some people behind the previous season so they had stepped up the safety precautions. Those people were never found either.
A lot of people I know carry flares on them, and now the new GPS tech stuff is coming out, but honestly, I never really thought about it until the Lonergan's story got so much play in the media from the resulting law suits. Before that I never carried anything that would help in this type of situation. Now I do. It's an awful way to go.