Oklahoma Diving Couple Spends 39 Hours Adrift

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Not many divers carry dive lights on day dives, but if it weren't for the lights carried by Kim and Nathan Maker, a retired fireman, while diving off Texas in the Gulf of Mexico on July 24, they would not be here to tell their story.

Carried away from their dive boat, the MV Fling, in high seas and bad weather, they drifted 39 hours in the open ocean until Kim flashed her dive light at 1 a m toward an overhead Coast Guard plane While the Coast Guard was about ready to give up the search, a crew member spotted the SOS, and not long after, a Coast Guard boat plucked them safely from the water.

It all began on a dive off Matagorda, Texas, when their group of 16 divers worked their way head down the line. Nathan said, "A person who had gone in before us lost a weight pocket," That person was Lisa Shearin, who had a GoPro camera recording the entire situation. She turned around to head up the line to the boat but had to let go of it to get around other divers heading down....

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