Driving rain and crushing waves swept over the Jascon-4 because the tugboat navigated via turbulent black waters round 30 kilometres off the coast of Nigeria.
Its mission: to safe a big oil tanker loaded with gasoline from the close by Chevron oil platform.
The 12-man crew did not comprehend it then however the small boat was crusing to its doom.
For Harrison Okene, the boat's prepare dinner, the date of Might 26, 2013, is one he'll always remember; it marks the beginning of his ordeal trapped 30 metres beneath the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
Okene instructed 9news.com.au he had simply woken up and was on the bathroom when catastrophe struck.
A towering wave smashed into the aspect of the boat simply earlier than 5am, inflicting it to capsize.
Water began to pour into the vessel, filling the cabins and winding passageways.
"Earlier than we knew, we had been sinking," Okene stated.
"It was very dangerous climate.
"We had been crusing for a few years, we knew the ocean, we had by no means had any challenge earlier than."
Okene pulled up his boxers and began to tear via the ship, however escape was made troublesome by the actual fact all however a few doorways had been locked in a bid to discourage potential assaults from pirates.
He sought refuge within the ship's officer's cabins.
There, a wall of water pressured him into the room's adjoining bathroom.
One thing akin to a miracle occurred because the boat settled in its watery grave.
An air pocket fashioned, giving the then 29-year-old valuable oxygen to breathe.
"Underwater it was so, so, so, chilly," he stated, explaining he tried to discover a method out a number of instances, tracing his method again to the air pocket with a rope he had discovered.
"I used to be struggling to remain alive, questioning how lengthy it (the air pocket) would final me.
"I used to be interested by my household, my spouse, what would occur, how would she stay, how can I get out, interested by my life as properly.
"I used to be praying rather a lot."
Hours ticked by as Okene sat within the pitch black, wedged up towards a wall.
At one level he heard a sound that terrified him.
It was the "chew of fish" consuming one thing within the vessel.
"I by no means knew in the event that they had been sharks or not, it was so darkish," he stated.
"I heard them biting one thing.
"I used to be scared, I needed to keep and hold watch to see if one thing would are available my course."
And so Okene waited and he watched at nighttime and chilly.
After 60 hours, he heard extra knocking.
Then he noticed one thing he had given up hope of ever seeing - gentle had pierced via the black water.
The 'lengthy and troublesome ' rescue
That gentle belonged to the torch of South African diver, Nico van Heerden.
He and a crew from DCN, a world diving firm, had been despatched by Chevron and West African Ventures to retrieve the our bodies of the crew.
In whole, ten our bodies had been recovered - the eleventh was by no means discovered.
Very gently, Okene reached out to van Heerden and tapped his gear, cautious to not startle him.
"When he got here I used to be simply crying," Okene stated.
"He by no means knew what I used to be pondering.
"I used to be not afraid at the moment. I had already determined if it is to be alive or lifeless, no downside.
"I had been able to go (however) God heard my prayers."
Alex Gibbs, a life assist technician on responsibility on the floor, remembers the second their restoration mission was a "lengthy and troublesome" rescue.
"I used to be shocked after which a bit excited," Gibbs instructed 9news.com.au.
"It was definitely sudden, particularly after almost three days and seeing all of the our bodies developing.
"No one thought there was anybody alive.
"(However) there have been a variety of considerations."
The diving bell, decompression chamber and a first-time diver
Although Okene had been found, his ordeal was removed from over.
Because of the time he had spent at depth, he wanted to do prolonged decompression stops to keep away from decompression illness - also called the bends - when nitrogen bubbles kind inside the physique's tissues and bloodstream.
Okene had additionally by no means dived earlier than, and there was one other medical complication unfolding.
"He was near dying once we discovered him," Gibbs stated, explaining Okene was within the first phases of hypercapnia.
"Opposite to standard perception, when persons are trapped in confined areas it's not the oxygen working out that may kill you, it's your personal exhaled breath inflicting a build-up of CO2.
"By the point he had been discovered, this was at a clearly excessive stage.
"You may see him panting within the video and his barely glazed eyes attributable to this.
"We instantly put down an air hose and actually blew contemporary air over him (however) one other concern was he had been saturated by air so we now needed to change him onto an oxygen and helium combine, which isn't normal follow."
Regardless of being exhausted and overwhelmed, Okene in some way proved a pure diver.
On the floor he was transferred to a diving bell, below stress, then locked inside a decompression chamber, the place Gibbs tended to him for days.
"I sorted him your complete three days earlier than he was decompressed and out," Gibbs stated.
"I delivered his meals, modified his mattress linen, gave him medication and acted because the go-between from him to medical doctors, managers and shoreside workplace.
"He was consistently monitored.
"It should have been an enormous shock and bewildering expertise for him."
9 years on, Gibbs stated he has by no means skilled a rescue like Okene's.
"Not one the place somebody has needed to be transferred right into a diving bell," he stated.
"It's a freak prevalence.
"The very fact he lived, he discovered an air pocket, it held for almost three days, we occurred to be in an space with a deep sea diving boat.
"So many coincidences needed to occur to make this attainable."
Practically a decade on, Okene is again within the water
Final month, Gibbs and Okene reunited "unexpectedly" on a diving job.
Okene has a newfound love for the ocean and is now an IMCA Class Two Industrial Air Diver.
He can dive to a depth of fifty metres.
"I am having fun with diving, it is life for me, it is enjoyable," Okene stated.
"I imagine the ocean is my world. I really feel extra comfy, relaxed there.
"I like being within the atmosphere."
Okene has a message for anybody who finds themselves preventing for survival.
"The worry alone can kill you," he stated.
"I took worry off me, and I believed that 'what can be, can be'.
"Consider in your self and hold your religion and your thoughts sturdy."
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