Troubled waters

Matt Lauer: Did you make the attempt now to swim your way back to the boat?

Rich Neely: We realized that we couldn't swim back to the boat, we realized the waves, the wind is coming towards us.

Matt Lauer: But so no biggie. You'll just sit there, and you'll wait for that yellow dingy to—

Rich Neely: Yeah. They know we're coming up at 3 o'clock, and they just picked two other divers up.

Ally Dalton: My first hint of worry was when the dinghy driver got off the dinghy and went up the stairs back onto the boat, because I thought "Well that's strange." I joked that she's probably having a cigarette and then when she didn't come back down, you know no-one was getting back on the dinghy.

The minutes ticked by. 3:10, 3:15, 3:20. And, they say, the current picked up - pushing them away from the boat.

Matt Lauer: Some people who maybe don't understand what it's like in the water or understand diving might say, "Well, at that point, whether you think it would be hard or not, I'd start swimming for that boat. Even against the current. Even against the waves." Was that an option?

Rich Neely: We tried, didn't we?

Ally Dalton: We did.

Rich Neely: Within, what, five, 10 minutes, we'd realized that even if we wanted to swim very, very hard, we would use up too much energy, so we'd have to stop and drift back again. The waves were then picking up. Wind was then picking up. Our small legs were just not powerful enough.

Matt Lauer: At this point, should someone on the boat be worried, counting heads? It was an hour dive, and we have two people who aren't back yet?

Rich & Ally Dalton: Yeah. Absolutely. Because we were the first ones in the water.

Matt Lauer: But you're looking at the boat, and you don't see anyone with binoculars. You don't see people running back and forth business as usual on the boat?

Rich & Ally Dalton: Yeah.

Why didn't anyone notice them? Rich had already inflated his 4 foot long marker buoy, which should be visible a mile away.

Rich Neely: All the time, I'm holding above my head the surface marker buoy to make as big a visual triangle as possible. And we are both shouting. I'm whistling. Ally's waving her arms.

Ally Dalton: I'm getting angry. I'm pissed off and I'm thinking about "When I get back on that boat, I am going to chew these people out," because, such disregard. "How can they not be coming to pick us up?"

It was 4 p.m. A full hour had passed. Rich pulled out the small waterproof camera he always carries on dives.

Rich Neely: I just took a picture of the sea state I wanted to document it. I knew that whatever happened, even if they picked us up before sunset we've got complaints to make about this - this is dangerous.

The couple's life jackets kept them afloat, but they say their dive expertise was no match for the powerful current. They were rapidly being pushed out into the vast Pacific Ocean.

Ally Dalton: Even though we're getting further away, we can still clearly see that the boat hasn't moved. It's moored, so you can see that it's holding fast in one set position.

It wasn't until 4:15 - 75 minutes after they surfaced from their dive - that Ally and Rich say there was noticeable activity on the boat's top deck.

Rich Neely: "Are they looking for us? Are they looking for us? They must be. Look. Look. Look."

The Pacific Star was on the move. Finally, it appeared a search was on.  But the boat didn't come anywhere near them -- and by 5:30, it had anchored again.  Ally and Rich were gripped by fear. After all, these are shark waters. And, there's that terrifying movie.

"Open Water" is based on the true story of Americans Eileen and Tom Longergan, who were left behind by a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef 10 years ago, and never seen again.

Matt Lauer: You had seen the movie and you start to think about it, but you didn't say anything to Ally?

Rich Neely: No. I want to talk to Ally about it, but at the same time, I don't potentially want to make it worse by mentioning the movie, which instantly is going to make Ally think about sharks.

Matt Lauer: By this time, Ally, had you been thinking about sharks?

Ally Dalton: Before then I had been thinking about sharks.

Matt Lauer: But you didn't say anything to Rich either?

Ally Dalton: No, for probably the same reasons.

If they were too scared to say the "s" word out loud, other dangers were all too apparent. During their dive, the water temperature had been 75 degrees. Now, as Rich took this photo of Ally, darkness was setting in, the waves were swelling, and even in wetsuits, the couple was shivering.

Rich Neely:  The wind felt biting cold.

Matt Lauer: How cold were you, Ally?

Ally Dalton: I actually find myself shaking right now when you start talking about it because as the wind blew and hit my head, I could feel myself losing even more body temperature.

It's dusk, the weather is disintegrating. It seems that about this time, anger gives way to a sense of "We've got to survive."

Rich Neely:  I know that we're probably now going to be in this for the duration of darkness, and there's wind. There's waves. First thing I've got to do is keep us in contact all night, physical contact.

Matt Lauer: And possibly prepare for the long haul?

Rich Neely: Yeah.

Matt Lauer: To make themselves more buoyant and conserve energy, they dumped their weight belts and air tanks. Then, using his diver's knife, Rich cut off ten feet of rope attached to his marker buoy, and tied himself to Ally.

Rich Neely:  I knew that throughout the night we would never be more than 3 meters apart. And we could also pull each other together if we were taken apart by the waves.

Matt Lauer: Can you both just describe for me the emotions of the sun going down? Of darkness settling in?

Rich Neely:  For me, it was resignation.

Ally Dalton: For me, it was terror. It's bad enough being out there on the open ocean and no-one coming for you. But to be out there in the dark, I didn't think I could make it through the night.

Ally Dalton: I got very panicky. And Rich came right up to me and you know, we have the buoyancy jackets on, and grabbed the jacket, and looked me in the eye. And he said "We're going to get through this. You've got to be stronger than you've ever been before. But we will get through this."

Matt Lauer: Their nightmare on the open seas was just beginning.

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