Idiot Proof?
Now, as best as I can determine, those were among the most idiot-proof instructions I or anyone else could have given. The problem with making anything idiot-proof, however, is that, once you do, someone always seems to come up with better idiots.
Time passed. I got four groups of instructors and divers in and under the water. Byrd’s people surfaced and left. One by one, my instructors and their divers surfaced and got back on board.
By the time the third group was back on board, I asked, “Did anyone see ‘Joe’ and the divers he was guiding?” No one had. The little voice inside my head said, “Okay. You can start to worry now.” I started to scan the horizon to the west — the direction opposite where “Joe” and his divers were supposed to be.
Sure enough, 35 minutes after descending, “Joe” and his people surfaced 1,200 feet to the west of us. I pulled anchor and picked them up. “Joe” was bewildered. “I never found the cavern,” he said. His divers were simply pissed. They’d spent the past 35 minutes swimming back and forth across a dead, desolate bottom, seeing no fish, no coral and no “breathtaking, cathedral-like formations” as I’d promised them. I gave them all a free day of diving the next day; however, I don’t think it really made them happy.
As far as “Joe” was concerned, I chalked the entire incident up to bad luck. After all, no human being could possibly be so stupid as to fuck up the incredibly simple directions “Joe” had been given…right?” Guess again. (Here’s your sign.)
And it gets worse. (To be continued, next issue…)
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