LOST AT SEA FOR 40 HOURS

They were left behind on a dive in the Gulf of Mexico and battled storms, dehydration and sunburn before being rescued

- JANICE BECKETT-MSIZA

THEY'RE experienced divers with more than 500 plunges into the inky ocean depths, so celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary by exploring new waters seemed like the perfect thing to do.

Their destination was the Gulf of Mexico where oil rigs have been converted into natural reefs teeming with marine life.

"We saw sharks and eels," Nathan Maker says. "All sorts of cool fish and crabs."

But the trip of a lifetime turned into a nightmare when Nathan (49) and his wife, Kimberly (44), were separated from their diving group in the chaos of a sudden storm. What happened next is the stuff movies are made of.

For nearly 40 hours they drifted alone in the open sea, tossed about by currents, scorched by the sun, nibbled by jellyfish, and so desperate for water they floated on their backs with their mouths open when it rained to catch a few drops.

They could hear rescue aircraft searching for them, but they were smaller than pinpricks in the vast expanse and hope was running out fast.

Nathan, a diabetic, was almost in a diabetic coma and had started hallucinating, believing his late father, Dwight, was with him in the waves.

"That was scary for me," Kimberly says. "I knew his body was deteriorating, his mind. We were exhausted."

And then a miracle happened. A coastguard plane spotted them and rescuers "literally plucked us from death", Nathan says.

They'd later learn the search was almost called off eight hours earlier and the ocean they loved so much would have likely become their grave.

"I really believe we saw the hand of God that day," Nathan says. "And it was the hand of the coastguard."

NATHAN and Kimberly, who live in Edmond, Oklahoma, in the US, left for the Gulf of Mexico on a charter boat that set off from Freeport, Texas.

They were part of a group of 16 divers with varying levels of experience.