Wife: Scuba Diver's Attempt For New Record To End Saturday
(CBSMiami) – Florida scuba diver Allen Sherrod is on the second day of his second attempt to break the record for the longest saltwater scuba dive and his wife says he's on track to complete the task even though he'll leave the water earlier than anticipated.
Sherrod, who is from Groveland, Florida, went into the water Thursday morning just before 10:00 a.m. off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. He's in about 15-feet of water and is also eating, drinking and sleeping underwater.
"All I have to do is stay three days," said Sherrod on Thursday before he began his lengthy dive. "Just think about this when you get a three day weekend off from work, it is never long enough."
Friday afternoon, Sherrod's wife Debby told CBS4 News that Allen is "doing wonderful and the safety divers are doing an impressive job." However, she said, Allen has made the decision to come out of the water on Saturday at noon instead of Sunday due to expected rough surf which makes it difficult for safety divers to bring him air tanks.
She stressed, however, that even though he's coming out of the water earlier than expected, he'll have already broken the record.
The current record for the longest saltwater dive is held by William Gordon. Set in 2010 in Indonesia, it's 48 hours, 8 minutes and 7 seconds.
Click Here to watch his attempt live.
If Sherrod does indeed make it until noon Saturday, he'll have been in the water for about 50 hours, which breaks the record.
Sherrod had planned to be in the water for 72 hours.
Rough surf also ended his record-breaking attempt early in October. He'd been in the water for 12 hours before he was forced to end his attempt.
