By Richard Luscombe In Miami

Last updated at 3:33 PM on 5th October 2011

Stranded: Paul Kline and fellow diver Fernando Garcia Puerta were abandoned miles from land when their charter boat left without them

Two terrified divers were left stranded in shark-infested waters when their charter boat disappeared.

Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta had to cling to a buoy for two hours after surfacing from their late-afternoon dive in the Atlantic Ocean three miles from Miami and finding no trace of their boat.

'We were in shock. We could easily have died,' Kline, 44, told the Miami Herald.

'If night had fallen, the situation would have turned into panic.'

He said they kept talking to each other throughout their ordeal 'to try to keep up our high spirits'.

Mr Kline, a married father of six from Texas, told WSVN-TV that he could only think about getting back to his family while stranded in the water.

He said: 'I wasn't giving up anytime soon.'