[Andy Lawrence]

Hi everyone As the Skipper of Goose and senior skipper at Breakwater diving centre I thought I better reply to the suppositions speculation and the armchair critics about the lost divers from Goose, here are the facts.
While on a private charter for a film company filming a promotional video for the BBC an incident occurred which resulted me informing the Portland Coastguard of two overdue/missing divers.
Conditions at the time where wind NW 23 Knots with 2-3 metre waves.
Two of the divers did not go in as one was being violently sick and it was decided there would be too much of a risk of dehydration and the possibility of DCS.
All the divers were told to come up on delayed DSMBs.
So the team of 4 divers entered the water at the time the wind was around 18 knots NW.
After approximately 20 minutes I expressed concern to the film director and the two not diving that I had not seen any DSMBs.
After a close pass next to the shot it was noticed that their where bubbles on the line.
From this I deduced that the team had decided to come up the shot instead of DSMBs
So I concentrated on the shot.
After some time two divers appeared on the shot and where picked up. When questioned where the other pair where their answer was they had last seen them on the wreck just before they started the accent. When asked why they had come up the shot they replied the current was still slack and they thought it would be better

(At this point I would like to explain the reason I wanted everyone up on DSMBs was that we where on spring tides and once the tide turned if every one was on DSMBs it would keep them all drifting together in an approximate area and not some on the shot hanging like flags in a gale and the others half a mile away thus easier to monitor.)

Getting back to what happed.
After several passes over the wreck searching for bubbles, none of which could be found I decided to look half a mile down tide with all four of us scouring the sea.
With no sighting of the missing divers I decided to return to the shot (steaming away)
For one final look in case they where still on the shot.
After reaching the shot the tide had really picked up and was running at about 11/2 to 2 knots. At this point I decided to look farther downstream and to put out a mayday.
The wind then picked up to 23 knots.
The divers where eventually found 2.8 miles west of the shot by the chopper fit and well.
They had indeed put up a DSMB, which puzzled not just me but the rest of the divers.

After being repatriated with my two missing divers back on Portland they decided they still wanted to go back and do the before tide later that evening to finish their filming sequence.
It was on this second dive I twigged what might have happened.
When the first DSMB came up on this dive I decided to track the other pairs bubbles.
The bubbles continued for approximately 250 metres before the DSMB hit the surface.
They had come off the wreck and launched the DSMB at their first gas switch by which time they would have been outside my area of concentration.
They where not to blame it was merely an omission in my briefing to launch their DSMBs from the wreck. That detail was critically important giving the conditions.
They where a great bunch of guys and would have no hesitation in taking them out anytime.

I am disappointed about the innuendo in Bob Cooper posting.
It would appear to put a slur on dive boats and skippers in the area.
Those of you that know me will know that I take a pride in my job as a dive boat skipper as I know all dive boat skippers do.
It is a difficult job sometimes and made worse by the fact that some divers take it upon themselves to be Judge. Jury, and executioner on internet forums if a skipper makes a mistake.

Remember it is the easiest thing in the world to criticise.