In June of 1998, Captain Bob joined his friends on their boat for a trip to the Florida Middle Grounds. As many of you know, this is an area about 100 miles off the west coast of Florida. It is arguably one of the most prolific marine habitats near Florida. The 37′ Trojan was provisioned and loaded for a 3 day dive trip. We had a crew of five: John, the ship’s captain; Sally, his wife; Ben, Trudy and me.

We started around 18:00 and our heading was 240° from John’s Pass. The big orange ball that was disappearing in front of us was impressive. At about 5 miles, we put on autopilot, set our watch shifts, and settled into life on board.

We arrived at our first dive site at 0900. We anchored and left for breakfast. We were all eager to get wet and quickly set up scuba gear in the dive order. I was in the last team. I had forgotten how spectacular the Middle Grounds are. The size of the fish, the number of fish, and the height of the ledge was overwhelming. I knew that this dive was for acclimatization. I would leave them dead on the next dive.

Coming up from my second dive I had a 2 minute decompression obligation. During the stop I thought about modifying my techniques to ensure more fish on the next dive. When I got to the diving platform, I noticed my friends moving around the salon and aft deck. As soon as I surfaced, Sally started yelling at me, “Get in the boat, we’re sinking.” Now why would you want to board a sinking ship? I listened to her orders and took off my diving gear. I moved to help rent. I didn’t think this was happening. There was water up to the stern plates and still rising.

We removed all the cover plates to access them and try to determine the source of the leak, all to no avail. By this time another private ship had arrived and was ready to help. John had contacted a charter fishing boat, which in turn radioed the Coast Guard. Remember that VHF transmission and reception is in line of sight. The Coast Guard was on the way. Meanwhile, the chartered boat approached to run over a hand pump. Ben, Trudy and I pump in and out (5 gallon buckets) just barely keeping up with the flow. Sally and John read an abandon ship bag and inflated the life raft on the foredeck. A crew member from the chartered boat even swam in to help find the leak. Thank goodness for calm seas! After what seemed like forever, I heard the clap of a helicopter. Now I have a deep appreciation for that sound.

The Coast Guard radioed instructions on its procedures for dropping gasoline bombs. They stressed that the stanchion wash would blow on anything that wasn’t stowed or tied down. John, Ben, and the charter crew member were on the aft deck, Sally was in the life raft holding it up, and Trudy was in the saloon. I moved forward to stay out of the way of the bombs. As the helicopter got closer, I heard Sally yell for help. I stepped forward and found the life raft attached to the forward rail. The first pump was installed and the second pump was on its way. It took me about 15 minutes for both pumps to drain the water.

We found the source of the leak. The generator had been removed before the trip and the overboard port plug had come loose. To compound this, the forward bilge pump was stuck with a wire and the stern pump had failed. Mechanically, water leaked into the transmission and block. With the hole plugged and the water pumped and no propulsion, we set up a trailer with a commercial fisherman. It would be three hours until he arrived.

We can’t go anywhere; we are still anchored to a great ledge. Let’s do another dive!!!

You can find this site in most GPS coordinates. I’m sure there are still fish in there.