As Chapman surfaced from his dive, a sense of disbelief washed over him. “Where on earth is the boat?” he exclaimed, capturing the moment on his GoPro.

Noticing the absence of their vessel, he urgently called out to his companion, “Hey, the boat… it’s drifted off anchor!”

In an interview with 9News, Chapman recounted his initial thoughts during the incident. “At first, I feared the boat had sunk, so I was frantically searching for it,” he explained.

He continued, “Then reality hit me hard. What are we supposed to do now? It’s every diver’s worst nightmare—losing your boat.”

“Like what do we do here? It’s probably a diver’s worst nightmare, losing their vessel.”

The pair spotted another boat but it was about a kilometre away.

“I reckon we just try and swim closer to them, bro, and then we’ll yell,” Chapman says to his mate.

An hour and a half after first entering the water the pair were finally spotted.

They were brought safely on deck and eventually tracked down their own vessel.

“A lot of swear words of relief … I think that came from everybody,” rescuer Tahnee Forster said.

The rescued men have since realised they made two major mistakes yesterday: not securing the anchor with the correct knot and diving without a skipper on board.

“Especially in hindsight thinking about … like all jokes aside, it could have gone terrible, it could have been a lot worse than it actually was,” Chapman said.

“If you are gonna go out without a decky, make sure you know how to tie knots I guess.”