‘Deal’ with God

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 1

‘Deal’ with God

PA Wellington A diver, Rosemary Keating, made a deal with God during her cold and lonely 18 hours adrift in Cook Strait

“I made this sort of plan with God — ‘l’ll kick and get back to shore and you look after the sharks,’ ’’ said Miss Keating, of Wellington. “It worked,” she said at her parents’ Silverstream home last evening. Miss Keating, aged 21, a Forest Service assistant advisory officer, crawled on to Lyall Bay beach about 7 a.m. yesterday, about 18 hours after she went diving at Red Rocks on a sunny Saturday morning. She was suffering only from mild hypothermia. Amazed rescue officials attribute her survival to a cool head, strict adherence to diving safety rules, and a southerly change which probably saved her life. Miss Keating became separated from her diving companion and caught in a strong rip shortly before noon on Saturday.

It swept her six to eight kilometres into Cook Strait in a choppy sea to where she could see the South Island “quite well” and the strait ferries passed between her and the North Island coast.

She used the diving distress signal and held up her knife to reflect the sun in attempts to catch the attention of three ferries, a small boat, and a searching helicopter.

By late afternoon Miss Keating began lying on her back with a buoyancy comG insator for support and eking towards the North Island because she had decided searchers were looking in the wrong places — near the shore — and would not find her. After sunset the lifesaving southerly change came and the sea began taking her in the right direction.

Throughout the night she alternated between kicking with flippers on her back and stomach and taking rest breaks to conserve strength. “I wasn’t really frightened. No, I just thought I don’t want to die.

“I thought this is ridiculous. I have just finished varsity, just bought a new car, just started a new job — I thought what a waste.”

“I think it was all in my mind. I had to concentrate and keep alert all the time. I had to kick for the last three hours and that was really hard but I just sort of programmed it,” she said. Miss Keating thought about dying, the effect it would have on friends and family, and about being run over by a boat or attacked

by a shark — "I’m terrible about sharks.”

But she also prayed, remembered a news report about a fisherman who had swum ashore after an accident at sea, and told herself there was no point in pan-

icking. “I just thought, ‘l’m here and I’ll just have to cope’,” she said.

She coped by fully inflating her buoyancy compensator for support, trying to keep hands and feet in the water which was warmer than the air, and trying to avoid exposure to the wind. Miss Keating also had a mask, a hood, and a new wetsuit for which she had paid extra for some warmth-giving features. Now Miss Keating’s parents are threatening to chop the wetsuit up to stop their daughter going diving again. Miss Keating, who has done a full diving course since beginning the sport last December, wants to continue diving but said she will now be Y ‘super, super cautious” instead of just “very cautious.”

She said she believed “everyone else went through far worse” than she did. “Mum and Dad were really upset.” Two brothers in London were preparing to return to New Zealand.