ADRIFT ON AN ENDLESS SEA

WHEN THE CURRENT SWEPT NATHAN AND KIM MAKER FAR FROM THEIR DIVE BOAT, ALL THEY HAD WAS EACH OTHER

- BY Nick Hune-Brown

FROM HIS PERCH at the edge of the dive boat, about 30 miles off the Texas coast, all Nathan Maker could see was a gray expanse of water. Clouds hung heavy over the gulf, and waves swelled against the hull.

It wasn't a great day for a dive. But for Nathan and his wife, Kim Maker, any day spent in the water was a good one. The couple from Edmond, Oklahoma, had discovered the wonders of the ocean on their honeymoon in Cozumel, Mexico, 12 years earlier and had become instantly hooked. Since then, they'd spent every vacation that they could scuba diving.

That morning, July 24, 2024, the final dive of their excursion was at a site where coral gardens had formed around an abandoned oil rig, bringing parrot-fish, turtles, manta rays and sharks. An earlier dive had been slightly underwhelming, with few signs of marine life, but the Makers were eager to give it another try with the rest of their dive group. At about 10:30, they entered the water with a splash.

A thin cord, or down line, stretched from the boat to the site, guiding divers to about 80 feet below the surface. As Nathan and Kim descended, however, they could see another group of divers from their boat making their way back up the line. Suddenly, one of the women lost her grip and began drifting away. Kim gestured to her husband—a silent “go help her”—and Nathan swam over to the woman. But as he helped her back, making sure she had a grip on the down line, he couldn't quite reach the line himself, struggling against the current. Kim reached out to him with one hand. But at nearly the same instant, another diver from the ascending group reached her and accidentally grabbed her arm, pulling her hand off the line. Suddenly Kim, too, was drifting.