Text and photos by Mary L. Peachin with Jack and Steve Snow and Mike Sweet
Vol. 12. No. 10
The current is sweeping me faster and faster, then swifter, deeper, and downward. My depth gauge reads 100 feet. As my life begins flashing before my eyes, I try to focus on not panicking. As I am being swept to sea, I fin upward to abort this dive at Indonesia’s Fia Bajet Island’s Black Rock in the Ceram Sea. Trying to accelerate out of the forceful down current, my conservative dive computer barks “slower.” It requires me to make an extended open water safety stop.