Two days in an underwater cave running out of oxygen
By Claire Bates
Three months ago, Xisco Gràcia experienced what he describes as every diver's worst nightmare - he found himself in an underwater cave, relying on an air pocket for survival. As hours turned into days he realised he might not be found in time. On Saturday 15 April, Xisco Gràcia slipped into the water in Mallorca for a routine dive. The geology teacher spent most weekends exploring and mapping the island's complex system of underwater caves. "Mallorca is much more beautiful underground than above ground," he says.
He and his dive buddy, Guillem Mascaró, wanted to explore Sa Piqueta, a cave with numerous chambers 1km from the entrance of the labyrinth. They swam underwater for an hour to get there.
While Gràcia spent time collecting rock samples, Mascaró swam off to chart a nearby chamber.
It was as they headed for home that several things went wrong at once. Gràcia met Mascaró by chance at a junction, and they stirred up silt from the ground, making it difficult to see.
They then realised that their guideline - a narrow nylon wire which led back to the entrance - had either broken or slipped.
"The wire is for guiding purposes. It is left behind once you enter the cave and you can follow it out again afterwards," Gràcia, 54, says.
"We can only guess some rocks had fallen on it. We spent a precious hour trying to find it by touch, but without success."
By this point the pair were in grave danger. They had consumed the air they had brought to get them in and out as well as most of their emergency air.
Luckily, Gràcia remembered that other divers had talked of an air pocket in a chamber nearby. He tugged Mascaró to it, and there they talked through their options.
Both knew they only had enough air for one of them to make it out.
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