Reunited again after a pretty horrendous day

We are at the dive shop bright and early and meet the other guys going on the safari with us - Juliette and Nico from France and Egoi from Spain. They are all doing the dive master course with the dive centre so are experienced divers. Andy thinks he'll be the runt of the litter but Fred reminds him she's snorkeling so there will only be one runt!

We head to the boat where Chiara and Lorena (our guide for the safari) are busy setting up. We have four crew members also - the captain, an engineer, one assistant and a chef. Off we go. Everyone seems really nice and we chat and get to know each other during the two hour journey to the first dive site which is Manta Point. Lorena does the briefing and explains about the strong currents, saying its a drift dive so the divers go with the current and the boat. Fred is a little worried about snorkeling on her own but is reassured as Lorena says the boat will follow her so she tells herself to stop being such a wimp. There are other snorkellers at the site in groups which also reassures her. Andy is a little nervous about the currents too but into the water we all get ... none of us had any idea what the next few hours would bring.

The divers go down and Fred begins snorkelling. The boat is following her. She's not been out long when it gets pretty deep and she's drifting and not seeing much and not having much fun so, even though she feels its a bit of a cop out, she thinks she'll give the guys in the boat a wave shortly - the boat's still close but not as close as she'd like so she starts to wave ... nothing. She waves some more and, although she can see the people on the boat, they are not looking at her and it seems to be getting further away ... and further away and then too far away. She quickly realises that they've lost her ... she shouts and waves at any passing boat but no one sees her and she has soon drifted away from the cluster of boats. After more than a few moments of panic, she decides that whatever the problem was, they will come and find her so keeping calm is the most important thing.

In the interim, it transpires that the Lorena and Chiara have come up early from the dive and the boat picks them up - the others have continued with the dive including Andy. When Andy comes up he is told Fred is not on the boat ... he doesn't quite believe it at first but then sees that Chiara and Lorena are deadly serious ... Chiara is on the phone constantly starting the search for Fred and Lorena looks after Andy. The others have their eyes on the sea looking out for her. Here there are two separate stories - Andy's and Fred's.

Andy's emotions are all over the place and he doesn't know what to think. He cries, shakes, smokes cigarettes to calm his nerves and tries to help with the search but isn't really seeing anything. He can see its serious because Chiara hasn't stopped on the phone and the police are coming out. There is even talk of a helicopter. What Chiara only tells him later is that the police have reluctantly agreed to come out but would like lunch on the boat before starting the search and the helicopter coming from Bali will be hours!!! One of the worst moments for him is when a speed boat comes towards them and they all think Fred's been found. It turns out its Chiara's boyfriend from another boat coming to say hi! They all head off in the speed boat to help with the search, leaving Andy on the safari boat with the crew and Egoi who is continually scouring the water. The time passes in a haze and Andy is thinking all sorts of things - he's fully aware of how serious it is by everyone's reactions and he's also seen the currents in the water ... he tries not to think about the downwards pulling currents. All sorts of things go through his mind, even considering he may have to return home alone - thoughts you try to block out but they're there nonetheless as is the thought that if Fred gets to land, there are dangerous Komodo dragons on the islands!

Fred's experience is of course completely different ... she's entirely on her own bobbing about in the sea with just a snorkel, mask, wetsuit and fins. There are some horrible moments early on when she sees the safari boat come to look for her twice and they just don't see her - she's waving and shouting, even takes her fin off to wave it in the air ... nothing. Other boats come what looks close to her but the same - they don't see her. She's completely on her own. She uses the snorkel most of the time, looking up regularly for boats, as its easier to breath that way. She goes through some pretty choppy water and some strong currents but tries to remain calm as the landscape around her is constantly changing. At least she can still see the islands of the National Park. Through moments of panic, she calms herself by thinking at least its early in the day, she knows they will be looking for her and the sea is warm. Its completely surreal and all sorts of things go through her mind including that she's heard drowning is not the worst way to go. Her thoughts keep going to Andy but she tries not to think too much about what he's going through as it upsets her. A few hours later, she's in an area of sea between two islands. She's starting to get cold and decides she needs to get to land. She tries to get towards one beach but the currents are too strong. She ends up in quite a choppy bit of water. She sees which way she's drifting so thinks the bigger island, which has a few beaches, will be her best bet. She swims hard into the current, drifting sideways but she thinks she's making progress towards it ... its difficult to tell though ... its probably further than it looks. This goes on for a while ... she's getting cold and tired but decides she's got to keep going as she can see its afternoon by the sun's position and being in the sea alone at night is something she's trying not to think about ... then she hears a speed boat ... its coming towards her ... she waves ... and finally someone waves back ... they've found her!! She gets into the boat with three Indonesian guys and tries to get them to contact Andy.

We pull up next to another speed boat with an English lady on board who's left her boat to help with the search - Fred is transferred onto that boat and she is assured that Andy will know they've found her ... she relaxes a bit and is taken to a very posh liveaboard called the Dewi Nusantara where the lady is a diver instructor. She's given sweet tea and biscuits and then served lunch which she doesn't actually want but they insist. She meets some of the wealthy passengers on board and is well looked after until the police speed boat arrives with Andy. Its a weird reunion as we're both ok now but have been through completely different emotional experiences. Andy says it was the worst four hours of his life but he also says it was dealt with brilliantly by the dive school. When they finally got the call that Fred was found he didn't know whether to believe it at first but, after descriptions, he realised it was definitely her and the relief was immense. 

To save this entry being too long we'll skip over the rest of the day but we decided to continue with our safari rather than go back to Labuan Bajo so are taken back to the boat, reunited with everyone and we head to the island of Padar in the early evening where we have a trek and see some amazing views. We later learn that during the four hours Fred was in the water, she drifted about 30km!

What happened? Apparently the boat broke down for a few minutes and that's where it all went wrong. We're not entirely convinced of this but whatever, the crew messed up and we know Chiara will deal with that. She and Lorena acted completely professionally at all times and have learnt some important lessons - one of which is that the police and emergency services in Indonesia are pretty crap! We also learn it could have been worse if the tide was going the other way Fred may have ended up in the open sea. Fred and Andy have learnt a bit about themselves too ... a day we certainly won't forget.