great dives, lousy trip home,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[reefman]

2 early morning dives @ carysfort reef today, winds <10kts early increasing to 15+kts, seas 2-3ft, water 78-79F @ 75ft, light-mdt NE current, viz 30-35ft. 3 reef sharks, goliath grouper, scamp and black grouper, turtles, eagle rays, amberjack and african pompano. nice dives. i live in the winston waterways community(mm102 oceanside) and enter south creek just past dangerous bend. normally i depart and arrive via south creek. however today due to the increasing SW winds i elected to return via north creek(concrete ship)-largo sound then south creek. just as i was passing(1200RPMS as its a minimum wake zone) the entrance to pennekamp(around 1330Z), i observe sanctuary officer scotty larousa inbound from dangerous bend @full throttle(minimum wake zone), he yells to me that there is a dive boat in trail, suddenly the pennekamp snorkel boat(47ft newton) appears also @full throttle with another FMP vessel in trail. as the snorkel boat passed we observed the divemaster and another person performing CPR on a individual at the stern. the "encounter" appeared at or near capacity(50+) with patrons. needless to say it was a sobering sight to us all. upon arrival at my dock i was informed that the victim(female) had expired. damn,,,,,,,,,,,


reefman
key largo

 

[deepstops]

Wow, that sucks. Condolences to her family, friends, and loved ones.

On bright side, glad you had nice dives.

 

[Reel Crazy14]

I just got home from there today after camping and diving out of Pennekamp. Any word on what exactly happened? Its always sad to hear of a fellow diver passing away under those circumstances. Good visibility and calm seas my friend.

 

[DebbyDiver]

I'm sorry to hear that.

Many years ago my first spouse and I were in the Keys for a couple of months with our fast boat and heard a call from that same snorkel boat needing a fast boat to pick up and deliver a heart attack victim to Pennekamp dock...we were nearby so we picked up the victim and his young sons and he made it and survived, I will never forget it and I'm sure his kids will never forget the exciting ride through South Sound Creek on an ocean racer at full throttle. This was probably about 1979-ish or so.

I'm very sorry that this particular victim didn't make it.