It is 40 minutes, or 1200m, to our next pair of scooters. With 450m to go, the yellow battery-low indicator light illuminates and my speed diminishes. I signal to Gary that my batteries are burning out. He whips out the tow clip and begins pulling the depleted scooter, and me, through the cave. Over the years, this has happened on several occasions.
All batteries have their limits.
Our deco time is still ticking down. As we approach the next surface pool we rise to 3m of depth. I signal to Gary to tow the scooter I'll swim the 350m to our next scooters, just keeping below the 3m decompression obligation. Tired and worried about the batteries in my next scooter failing, I pick it up and pull the trigger for the last 1300m home. My scooter runs well.