Real-life Whidbey Island pirates dig for diamonds on television

They are a bunch of self-proclaimed pirates from Whidbey
Island, that
can now add “reality television star” to their resume.

Captain John Aydelotte and his crew sailed from the
Washington coast
to Africa’s “skeleton coast” where a legendary untouched
treasure trove
of diamonds is said to be buried just below the ocean
floor.

Aydelotte hand-picked his crew from Whidbey, and headed to
Africa, a
place where he said it helps to be “a little crazy.”

When they docked, sometimes death was just moments away.
“It wasn’t
unusual to see automatic weapons in the street and towns
[…] It’s as
lawless as any place I’ve ever been, and that includes
Arizona.”

When the crew isn’t staring down the barrel of a gun, they
are
encountering danger along the high seas, and Spike documented them for the series
“Diamond
Divers.”

Aydelotte said he envisioned the place where they searched
was
“chalked full of diamonds.”

“So we’re diving on the ocean floor with this giant suck
machine and
pulling the gravel and rocks up, looking for shiny ones,”
he explained.

The area is renown for shipwrecks and legendary storms.
Spike won’t let
Aydelotte talk about what they did find, still the journey
hasn’t been
without some frightening moments.

During one storm, survival was out of their hands. “It was
up to the boat
and its integrity; in the motor to keep running and I was
as scared as I’ve
ever been on the ocean.”

Cornet Bay on Whidbey was sounding pretty good about then.
“The
thoughts of home are pretty much what kept me going.”

The show is almost halfway through its six-part series.
Aydelotte and his
crew will be at the Swinomish Casino Wednesday to
celebrate their third
episode and chat with fans.

KIRO Radio’s Tony Miner contributed to this report.