Pair survive shark waters ordeal

A BRITISH diver thought he and his American girlfriend would be eaten alive by sharks as they spent a long and traumatic night floating over Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Dick Neely, 38, and Alison Dalton, 40, were plucked by a helicopter rescue crew from the ocean on Saturday off the eastern coast after an overnight air search.

The couple tied their wetsuits together and huddled to share body heat during their 19 hours adrift in 75-degree waters.

“I truly thought we were going to die. Sharks were on our mind the entire time, but neither of us mentioned the ‘s’ word,” Neely said. “We had to stay positive and calm to help each other through and not think about being eaten alive.”

Neely is from Norfolk, but recently lived on a boat off Phuket, Thailand, where he worked as a diving instructor.

Dalton, his girlfriend of nine months, is a qualified dive master from California.

The pair became lost at sea on Friday when they resurfaced after diving on a reef and found themselves 200 yards from their chartered dive boat and out of sight of crew.

With the couple having been winched from the ocean, the helicopter pilot said they were in good humour when rescued.

“Considering they were out there for 19 hours, they were in very good spirits,” David Williams told Australia’s Network Seven television.