The Coast Guard is conducting an investigation into an October diving incident where several divers drifted away from a dive boat off Anahola. Coast Guard officials are trying to determine whether Kauai Divers’ owner Peter Bonfiglio has a Coast Guard
The Coast Guard is conducting an investigation into an October diving incident where several divers drifted away from a dive boat off Anahola.
Coast Guard officials are trying to determine whether Kauai Divers’ owner Peter Bonfiglio has a Coast Guard license for his boat and whether his employees have gone through drug testing.
Bonfiglio and two visiting divers drifted away from his dive boat off Kahala Point on Oct. 30.
Bonfiglio said his only thoughts were the survival of his two charges, who he claims were out on a non-paid dive.
He strapped his buoyancy compensator onto one of the divers, a woman visitor from Japan, as she panicked under overcast skies and choppy waters more a half mile from shore.
The device kept her afloat for six hours before she was rescued.
The other diver, a female visitor from Portland, Ore., was separated from them by strong currents, and was lost from sight.
By late afternoon on Oct. 30 Bonfiglio and the Japanese diver were spotted off Donkey Beach by local fishermen aboard a fishing boat and were taken to the Waika‘ea Canal in Kapa‘a.
The other woman diver swam safely to shore at Flat Rock Reef, four bays north of Donkey Beach, which is located about a mile north of Kealia Beach.
Two other divers, a man from Germany and a man from California, were aboard Bonfiglio’s 25-foot dive boat and searched unsuccessfully in choppy waters and overcast skies for the threesome.
A Coast Guard search and rescue craft from Nawiliwili Harbor found the dive boat and escorted the men back to Waika‘ea Canal in Kapa‘a the same afternoon.
In an interview with The Garden Island, Bonfiglio said the incident could have ended in tragedy had it not been for luck and the will of the divers, particularly those in the water, to survive.
“No one died,” Bonfiglio said. “It was something that happened. But it turned out OK.”
Bonfiglio said he committed no infraction because he was not licensed by the Coast Guard at the time.
He said the tour on Oct. 30 was a non-paid one, and that drug tests given to him his three employee turned out negative.
Commercial divers have e-mailed The Garden Island to say that the incident probably could have been avoided had Bonfiglio had another company employee aboard his vessel, as required by the Coast Guard for commercial dives.
Lt. Mike Lendvay, a Coast Guard investigator in the case, said a “licensed master” or the boat’s captain, must never leave the boat during dives.
Before they went on the dive on the morning of Oct. 30, Bonfiglio said he explained to the divers that he had no plans to dive, because ocean conditions seemed unsafe.
He said he told them that he was only going to “check out” dive spots as they made their way northward on the coast of East Kaua‘i.
Aboard Bonfiglio’s 25-foot dive boat, the Makuamana, they left the Waikea Canal in Kapa‘a before 10:30 a.m. They motored to Kahala Point, a distance of between four and five miles north of the canal, an came to rest about half mile off shore.
Bonfiglio said he was concerned when he dropped anchor in a depth of 50 feet, and it swayed, indicating a strong undercurrent below.
As a precaution, Bonfiglio informed the diver about the location of emergency equipment aboard the boat and steps to take in case of an emergency.
After talking further with Bonfiglio about diving conditions, the four divers decided to make the dive.
Bonfiglio said he wasn’t going to accompany them, partly because all of the divers had told them they had diving experience.
The two male divers from Germany and California dived into the water, but they came back to the boat after realizing the current was too strong, Bonfiglio said.
The female visitor from Portland, Ore., dived in and “went straight to the bottom” Bonfiglio said.
The woman diver dived with confidence and seemed to be in her element, Bonfiglio said. But the Japanese woman diver had problems almost immediately after diving in, Bonfiglio recalled. Her mask fell off, her regulator came out of her mouth and “she had panic in her face,” Bonfiglio said.
The current pulled her 25 feet away from the dive boat, and that was when Bonfiglio decided to jump in.
He said he was cognizant of Coast Guard rules requiring the dive captain or a “license master” remain on board during commercial dives.
But his was not a commercial dive, and he wasn’t going to let a rule get in the way of “saving someone’s life,” Bonfiglio said.
Bonfiglio donned his gear, jumped overboard, swam to her and help her put her mask and regulator back on. They attempted to swim back to the boat, but the strong currents kept them from doing so.
To try to escape from the pull of what seemed to be rip current, they both dived to the bottom.
Bonfiglio said he had thought of bringing the Japanese diver back to the boat, but if he had done that, then he might have lost sight of the other female diver, Bonfiglio said.
He and the Japanese diver saw the other woman diver on the ocean floor, and went to her to make sure she was safe, and she was, Bonfiglio said.
All three then swam to the surface and surfaced near the back of the boat, Bonfiglio said, but the Portland Ore., diver “spun around” and became separated from the Bonfiglio and the other diver.
The relentless current pulled them farther away from the boat, Bonfiglio recalled. “At one point, we were 200 yards south of the boat, and the Japanese girl was getting “more scared within each passing minute,” Bonfiglio said.
The other diver was drifting south as well, and Bonfiglio lost sight of her.
Bonfiglio said he decided to swim farther out to sea as a way to avoid the current and get back to the boat with the Japanese woman diver.
When Bonfiglio was 40 feet aft of the boat, he saw the two men on board start up the boat’s engine and drive away, heading north.
Bonfiglio said he thought the men were leaving, but they were actually looking for him and the two female divers, “although we didn’t know it at the time.”
To try to attract their attention, Bonfiglio and the Japanese diver blew whistles they had with them, and “yelled and screamed.”
“The Japanese woman was very, very panicky at this point,” said Bonfiglio in recalling the scene. “She panicked when she saw the boat leave.”
At times they could see the boat circling, but those on board couldn’t see them, Bonfiglio said.
At some point, the Japanese woman diver tried to take off her buoyancy compensator and started crying, Bonfiglio said.
He said he tried to comfort her, telling her that “at some point the men will find us.” At that point, the boat took off again, northward, as he and the woman diver drifted about a mile offshore from Kahala Point, Bonfiglio estimated.
To prevent themselves from drifting farther out to sea, the couple swam south, Bonfiglio put his buoyancy compensator under the woman diver, serving as a mattress that helped keep her afloat for hours before their rescue at 4:30 p.m. that day, Bonfiglio said.
He towed her south along the coast, headed toward Donkey Beach, which they saw around 4:30 p.m. With the current moving to the shoreline, Bonfiglio figured they would be safe on shore in no time.
“I was five minutes from making it to shore,” he said. “I was tired, but I kept going. It was all adrenaline.”
At that point, they were in 25 feet of water, were spotted by fishermen aboard a fishing vessel and put aboard. The Japanese woman diver was later treated for hypothermia.
The fishermen had good news for Bonfiglio. “They told me that Connie (the other diver) had been out of the water for two hours,” he said.
The Coast Guard boat had arrived, and once onboard the craft, the couple was taken back to the canal in Kapa‘a.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
