Wrap up

Another funny story we heard is the story from another dive shop, Coconut Tree Divers. Apparently they were on their way by as our boat was sinking and offered to rescue us. Instead of accepting we gave them the bird and told them to get lost. This was a dive shop that we did not get along with exceptionally well, but we all agreed that we would have gotten on any boat that had been in the area and that none of us had even seen another boat out on the ocean until after we had made it into the inlet. But no we would rather have risked our life crossing sharp rocks then let them help us. You have to love outside perspectives.

The last piece of this story revolves around the engine. We finally get a day with calm enough weather to make a recovery of the engine. We are collecting the lift bags and rope and gearing up when an instructor from another dive shop comes in and tells us that our engine was spotted on another dive shops dock. This opens up a whole can of worms.

Our dive shop is not exactly the dive shop that you want to mess with. On the staff we have three ex-military, one American, one Canadian, and one Slovakian. On top of that we have two ex professional boxers. So a rather riled up group walks down to Pura Vida to demand the engine back. They claim that they had salvage rights since the engine was leaking oil into the ocean. The folly with this argument is that it was a two stroke engine with separate gas containers, that we had recovered. So there was maybe a teaspoon of oil left in the engine once it was disconnected from the gas tanks.

Somehow, cooler heads prevailed and we went to get the police to come with us to recover the engine. After a lot of translating and arguing, we finally are told that we can see the engine. It is fairly apparent that they have started stripping the engine for parts for the other engine of the same brand and horsepower right next to ours. As we walk away from the engine, one of the people from Pura Vida thinks it is a good idea to take pictures of us so that they can press charges later. This almost gets him beat to a pulp until he escapes into the dive shop and locks the door behind him.

We finally get to take the engine away after quite an ordeal. So we get three people on the engine and carry it down the street and back to our shop. The captain and instructor that recovered the engine wanted us to pay them for the salvage of the engine. For quite a while after we recovered the engine, there was a lot of tension. As I had to walk past the dive shop everyday to get home, I got lots of dirty looks and a few threatening gestures. For the most part I would walk home with people from the dive shop so nothing ever happened. The speculation is that Pura Vida found more then just the engine, i.e. my SCUBA gear because it was never found.