‘Held us together’: Couple speaking out about 38 hours at sea after arriving home
After a harrowing ordeal following what was supposed to be a fun diving trip
By Alyse Jones
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EDMOND, Oklahoma (KOCO) — After a harrowing ordeal following what was supposed to be a fun diving trip, an Edmond couple who spent 38 hours at sea recounted the hours that led up to their rescue.
Wind, storms and hours of swimming, Nathan and Kim Maker survived what would be some people’s worst nightmare, stranded in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico after a current swept them away from their group.
“I don’t think either one of us could’ve made it alone out there,” said Kim Maker.
Nathan and Kim Maker were swept away while scuba diving off the Texas coast. The couple recounted when they realized the boat they had been on was no longer in sight.
“That’s what held us together,” said Kim Maker.
Tethering themselves together with whatever they could find, hours later, they saw a glimpse of hope.
“I saw the white and orange color and knew it was the Coast Guard, and I was like they know we’re out here, they’re gonna keep looking, we’re good,” said Nathan Maker.
Seeing planes from every direction, but none of them seemed to be pointed at the couple stranded in the water.
“They were just to the south of us or just to the west of us, and we were thinking, ‘We’re gonna be next, they’re gonna check our section next,’” Kim Maker said.
The couple said they used their dive watch to try to tell time and as a compass, and they began swimming toward an oil rig. But after hours of swimming and fighting for their lives, their hope began to fade.
“I’d wake up and realize my eyes were closed,” Kim Maker said.
“I told her I know my body’s starting to shut down I can feel it,” Nathan Maker said.
They said their confidence in being rescued was wavering.
“If I go, you need to cut the tether and let my body go, and you just gotta get home,” Nathan Maker said he told his wife.
“I had no interest in surviving without him, I had a plan of my own that I didn’t tell you about, but we were gonna go together,” Kim Maker said.
Encouraging each other not to give up, nearly 40 hours after the ordeal began, they once again saw hope in the middle of the night.
“I hit them with my flashlight and started doing SOS,” Kim Maker said of a plane flying overhead.
A plane had spotted them and her SOS, a survival tip she said she learned from her dad years ago.
“Then all of a sudden, we see that speedboat coming right toward us,” Kim Maker said.
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the couple, clothing, feeding them and keeping them company.
“I remember hugging her saying, ‘We’re gonna live, this is it, they found us,’” Nathan Maker said.
They said members of the U.S. Coast Guard are who they owe all their gratitude to.
And for the gear that kept them afloat, the couple said they’re trying to honor the heroes who saved them and preparing for the day they can get back in the water.
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