Dangerous Crossing

[VooDooGasMan]

Sounds like scuba mau was attracting sharks instead of going to dive them.

 

[mjatkins]

Glad to hear everyone is ok. Kevin and Curtis, looking forward to hearing your story.

 

[Karibelle]

Glad to hear everyone is okay.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

It really is unpredictable what happens on a voyage, looks nice when you leave then all of a sudden. It looks nice for my dive today, but who knows?

 

[cvchief]

Whoops, already posted Por Esto

 

[underachiever]

From some first hand info (divers on the sunken boat) they were rescued by the Navy and the ICE yacht. Drifted 15 NM for 4 hours and were getting close to Isla Mujures.

Kevin (Firstdive2005) was one of the divers. They are all OK just a little sunburned. One of them was even singing the Gilligan theme sone and got some pictures of the rescue boat ICE from the water as it approached.

Kevin also has commented that many operations sent out boats looking for them (including Opals Dream sending out 2 boats). And thanks to them all. Glad everyone is OK.

 

[redacted]

I guess it's fair to say they won't try that again but they just might want to thanks whatever God they believe in for the help.

Or they could thank the Yacht (note the cap) that did help them. Did they see any sharks?

 

[TomZ]

Looking forward to the firsthand report.

 

[underachiever]

The possibility for an accident exists equally for all dive ops no matter what and there is nothing they can do about that. The probability is what they can directly effect. Single outboard increases your probability of an accident, taking it out from a close distance to shore such as crossing a channel further increases it again. Single motor goes down and you lose the ability to point the bow into the weather, waves and wind will automatically turn the boat and expose the broad side which can destabalize you to the point of capsize.

I was told more than once that the reason the harbor master closes the port so often and quickly is because the safety margin for so many of Cozumel's dive boats is so razor thin. I think it got exposed if you were paying attention a few years ago when that storm blew in so quickly during the afternoon and so many dive boats had big troubles very quickly and some got swamped and sank. You just have to be aware outside the US that the same levels of regulations and protections don't exist and lax safety is all around you.

Just be careful of the 'what me worry?' syndrome on vacation, just as we are supposed to be smart enough to avoid 'trust me dives', we have to apply the same thinking to other things we are going to do.

I am positive that one of the divers on this boat (possibly 2) was on a boat that got got caught in a sqawl (storm) either last year or the year before. (a few boats sank in the storm and may be the same storm you mention)) The boat she was on had 2 engines but one of them went out in the storm and the captian and DM did a wonderful job of getting them back in safely with one engine. Both DM and captian had put on masks to see due to the downpour and wind. I gonna think seriously before getting on another boat with this girl. And by the way she is the one that starting singing the Gilligan song yesterday. Agian, glad we can joke about this alittle.

 

[Ron Lee]

From some first hand info (divers on the sunken boat) they were rescued the Navy and the ICE yacht. Drifted 15 NM for 4 hours and were getting close to Isla Mujures.

I doubt that 15 NM would have them anywhere close to Isla Mujeres.