WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Scuba diving instructor Steve Oatman was safe tonight, thanks to a tracking device he and his wife were wearing that allowed Coast Guard and rescue crews to identify the diver.
Last Monday was a typical day for Steve Oatman. “I was looking for Megalodon shark teeth,” Oatman said.
Then the unthinkable happened off the coast of Bald Head Island.
“The chain was lying loose on the ground and then, within a few seconds, I realized something was disconnected from the boat,” Oatman said.
The end of the anchor line had broken, but instead of panicking, Oatman immediately took the initiative to find a solution and get to safety.
“I grabbed the piece of anchor line, tied a knot in it to have a loop to attach it to, and then started to rise to the surface like I normally do,” Oatman said.
Just when he thought he was safe, another challenge arose: high seas and strong currents in the water. “It was really a lot more pressure than earlier that day,” Oatman said.
Using the tools from his dive, Oatman managed to reach the surface, but his boat was nowhere to be seen.
Although he had enough equipment and knew how to survive, he faced another, potentially fatal challenge: his GPS tracking device broke.
“I don’t know how, but when I pulled it out of my pocket, the clip on the Garmin broke and it fell off. Losing the tracker was the worst thing that could have happened,” Oatman said.
Just as Oatman was giving up hope, “pretty quickly I saw a boat on the horizon and I realized it was my boat. I knew my wife was on the boat and would be looking for me because I hadn’t been showing up for a long time,” Oatman said.
She also made a distress call for her husband and within minutes the coast guard began searching for him.
“When I saw the tip of the helicopter move, I was stunned,” Oatman said.
A wave of relief with a rescue that saved Oatman’s life.
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