When Nathan and Kim Meeker of Edmond, Oklahoma, decided to take a three-day charter boat trip and dive in the Gulf of Mexico, they had no idea it would be the beginning of a horror story for them. They had been married for 12 years and were experienced divers. However, nothing had prepared them for such extremes.
As the Daily Mail described, on the last day of the trip, the morning of July 24, strong currents separated the couple from a group of about a dozen people they were diving with to see the artificial reefs that had grown on former oil rigs. The rope they were using to get on and off the boat slipped from their hands.
Once in the water, they inflated their “surface marker buoys,” designed to make divers visible from a distance. “We were about 150 meters behind the boat and they couldn’t see us,” Nathan Meeker tells the portal. The current began to carry them away and soon they were too far from the boat to swim to.
“We both thought that when he realized we were gone, he would call the Coast Guard,” they recall, without hiding their feelings. However, this did not happen. Hours passed and no help arrived.
Nathan, a retired firefighter, knew how important it was to stay calm. He made a makeshift rope out of his scuba gear and tied it around himself and his wife to make sure the waves wouldn’t tear them apart. They drifted that way for the next few hours.
When they heard a plane overhead and saw a bright spot in the sky, their hopes of rescue were lifted. “We were so excited, even though it was so far away,” Nathan says. They thought it was only a matter of time before rescuers noticed them. Meanwhile, darkness was falling.
They drifted in the water waiting for rescue for 36 hours.
The couple decided to try to swim to the oil platform whose lights they saw in the distance. They did not know if there were people there, but they were convinced that they would find shelter and a moment of rest there. Then the storm came.
Nathan and Kim clung to each other to ride out the violent waves. They opened their mouths to catch some rain to drink. By sunrise, as the weather cleared, the oil rig was nowhere to be seen. Once again they were left to their own devices and fate. Their hopes of rescue were fading.
“We alternated between frustration and panic,” Kim recalls. When one of them had dark thoughts, the other tried to cheer him up and motivate him to fight. Over time, the couple became cold, exhausted and dehydrated. When Nathan began hallucinating about his dead father, the couple began to come to terms with the fact that they would not make it out alive.
“Nathan has diabetes and is on heart medication, and we both knew that if one of us had to go first, it would be him,” his wife Kim told the Daily Mail. “When he died, I was going to cut the rope that was binding us and set him free.” However, she had no intention of keeping her word.
“I didn’t want to live without him and I had a plan to take off my diving gear and drown with him,” the woman confirms.
“I tried to be realistic, but I also thought, ‘This can’t be the end of our story,’” Nathan adds. Miraculously, that wasn’t the case.
They started to say goodbye to life. Suddenly they heard the sound of a plane in the dark.
The next day, after midnight, the couple heard a plane flying overhead in the darkness. It seemed to be getting closer and closer. Kim began to shine her flashlight at it, trying to send a distress signal. Soon they saw a Coast Guard lifeboat racing through the waves toward them.
“We started hugging and kissing,” Nathan says. “I’m not exaggerating when I say these people saved us from death’s grip.”
Rescuers immediately covered the couple with blankets and gave them electrolyte drinks, and once they reached the ground, doctors treated them. The couple were so excited that they couldn’t sleep. They recall that all we can do is thank them for the rescue.
When they returned home, Kim and Nathan were welcomed as heroes. “There were over 200 people in our driveway clapping and holding up signs that said ‘Welcome home,’” Nathan told the Daily Mail.
Although the couple escaped without major physical injuries, the psychological effects of this extremely difficult experience are still felt. “When we close our eyes, we go back to those two days,” Nathan says, adding that he and his wife plan to seek psychological help.
Surprisingly, despite their traumatic experiences, Nathan and Kim Maker have no intention of giving up diving. They plan to go underwater again sometime. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard crew that rescued them is scheduled to visit them in Edmond next week to celebrate their extraordinary rescue. “We’re lucky,” Kim Maker says, smiling as she hugs her husband.
(Source: Daily Mail, New York Post)
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