Scuba diver surfaces to find himself all alone

Lost at sea, in the middle of the ocean, 18 miles from shore -- a GoPro camera captured the moments of uncertainty shot by a stranded scuba diver. 

"I got to the surface and looked around, and kind of did a pirouette on the surface looking for the boat and there was no boat, there wasn't a boat in sight," said scuba diver Randy Fales of Satellite Beach.

Fales said he was spear fishing Sunday morning near Sebastian inlet -- his daughters were in the boat while he was scuba diving down below.  

But about 30 minutes later, he came up to find the boat was gone after the marker disconnected from the weight below causing the boat to drift nearly three miles unbeknownst to his daughters.  "The biggest thing is not to panic,  and just figure okay, if I'm going to be here for a long time, then what am  I going to have to do," Fales said.

So he blew a whistle, trying to get the attention of other boaters, he also used his dive bag to create makeshift  flag to signal for help.  "I used my dive bag as a kind of a flag to hook it on to my spear gun handle," Fales said.

The calls for help would continue for about an hour and a half, and pretty soon Fales had company – two sharks.  “The longer I was on the surface, the bolder the shark became, and the closer it came so I was kind of watching the shark and also watching for boats around to see if I could signal one of the boats," Fales said.

Finally, a boater arrived rescuing Fales and bringing him back to shore.  "Definitely I was pretty happy to see that boat," Fales said.

Randy said in 35 years of scuba diving he's never experienced something like this, but says it won't stop him from doing what he loves.  "I just really truly enjoy it, and have no problem about doing it again," Fales said.
 

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