Diver found safe after 18 hours at sea
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Hawai'i Kai man who lost his bearings off Ka'ena Point Saturday evening while diving for tropical aquarium fish came ashore at Mokule'ia Beach at about 3 p.m. yesterday after more than 18 hours in the water.
Except for a sunburn, Michael Splittstoesser, 33, was in good condition when he struggled out of the water at Mokule'ia and borrowed a beachgoer's cellular phone to call relatives to say he was safe.
Splittstoesser told police he was diving from his 19-foot power boat about half a mile off Ka'ena Point when he became separated from his diving lead line sometime during the evening.
After trying in vain to return to the boat, Splittstoesser let the current carry him around Ka'ena Point, he told Honolulu Police Officer Phil Camero of the missing persons detail.
The Coast Guard, alerted by the man's wife, launched a helicopter search around 3 a.m. yesterday, and was joined at dawn by a Honolulu Police helicopter, Fire Department rescue swimmers and divers, lifeguards and the missing persons investigator.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Another boater spotted Splittstoesser's vessel at about 8:30 a.m. and alerted the Coast Guard. The boat was then returned to the Wai'anae boat ramp, where Splittstoesser's distraught wife waited for word.
The wife of missing diver Michael Splittstoesser talked with Honolulu Police Officer Phil Camero yesterday at the Wai'anae Boat Harbor. Splittstoesser was found alive and well later in the day.
Searchers set up a command center at Yokohama Beach at the end of Farrington Highway and searched throughout the day for the missing man.
Splittstoesser told Camero he was able to stay afloat because of his buoyancy compensator, an adjustable flotation device used by divers.
He said he floated around Ka'ena Point yesterday morning and then made it to shore at Mokule'ia.
Fire Department spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said the man apparently floated in the open ocean for about 15 miles in a "Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not" story.
"At least this one had a happy ending," Soo said.
Chief Petty Officer Gary Openshaw, Coast Guard spokesman, said the search was called off after the Coast Guard learned from relatives that Splittstoesser was safe. Apparently unable to reach his wife, who was at the search command center, Splittstoesser "called his sister in Georgia and got word to us that he was all right," Openshaw said.
Openshaw said the Coast Guard received its original call at about 1 a.m. yesterday from the man's wife, who said he had gone out at about 6 a.m. Saturday but did not come back at 6 p.m. as planned.
