deansbluehole

Though somber, the daughter of Douglas McHardy is breathing a sigh of relief his body was found in the waters of Dean’s Blue Hole in Long Island, Bahamas.

After three days of intense searching, Nakita Headley grieves her father and remembers him as a “jokester and a prankster.”

“I’m going to lean on the laughter and jokes for comfort because if I think of anything else, my heart feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest.”

Douglas McHardy, a local fisherman and experienced diver, was found 600 feet below sea level after a search spanned several days. The Royal Bahamas Police Force, alongside the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, searched with the aid of an unmanned submersible drone, which ultimately led to the heartbreaking find.

The incident occurred shortly after McHardy attended the funeral of his mother-in-law, and went to the beach with Headley and his grandchildren.

Headley remembers he kept saying, “Now Kita hold on to my grand babies. Don’t let them drown.”

She then moved closer to the shore and soon left to retrieve something from her vehicle. Not long after she returned, he disappeared.

Headley said he was swimming in an area adjacent to the hole and swam across the blue hole to the other side, near the shallow edge.

“One minute he was on top of the water and the next minute he wasn’t.”

Headley said she cherished her father.

“I truly am so proud to be a product of your nurture and love. Not a man of many words but when you did, it would most likely be something you enjoyed talking about…once you start you would not shut up and would repeat the same things over and over. What I wouldn’t do to hear you now so I could roll my eyes to the sky,” she said in a social media post.”

The community of Long Island is also in mourning, as McHardy was a well-known figure, respected for his skills at sea and his jovial nature.

Agnes Write remembers, “He was a hardworking man, always busy and happy.”

Clinto Ritchie said, “He was a great man. Dougie was always humble, hardworking, and loved and supported by his family unconditionally.”

“Dougie was very full of life. Always joyful. You will be missed on Long Island,” Adrian Darville echoed.

Melshalique Knowles said, “He was one of a kind and always happy and pleasant, never a bad word said about him. I will miss Sundays with him and shopping and talking a bunch of foolishness. [He was] such a sweet soul.”

As the island grapples with this loss, the police are coordinating with deep water specialists to safely recover McHardy’s remains.

The family has expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support.

Feature picture credit: Nakita Headley FB page

One year after the OceanGate submersible imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing all on board, its cofounder is planning another adventure. This time, it is in the Bahamas.

Guillermo Söhnlein helped to found OceanGate with Stockton Rush– who died in the submersible implosion. Söhnlein left the company in 2013, retaining a minority stake, and founded Blue Marble Exploration.

Now, Blue Marble Exploration is venturing into Dean’s Blue Hole in Long Island, a sinkhole in the Bahamas using another submersible.

“Venturing into uncharted waters, our team will have to ‘expect the unexpected,'” its website reads.

Dean’s Blue Hole is some 663 feet deep and is the third deepest blue hole in the world. Blue Marble Expedition boasts that it “is an enigma for geologists studying underwater caverns.”

Söhnlein acknowledges that it may meet a few challenges as it descends into the deep hole, including currents, thermal layers, pressure, and visibility.

It is unknown what type of submersible will be used in the expedition since the minivan-sized vessel used by Rush imploded because it was made of carbon fiber composite, which could not withstand the immense pressure and cold due to the depth of the North Atlantic Ocean, some experts argued.

Rush used a video game controller to operate the submarine, which was missing for four days before it was found.

The five adventurers met their demise when they ventured to see the wreckage of the legendary passenger liner, the Titanic, nearly 13,000 feet below sea level. Officials later confirmed the craft imploded due to a “catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” instantly killing all people aboard and raising alarms about the safety of extreme tourism.

Rush once tested his vessel in Abaco, Bahamas five years before the implosion.