quimbers
Registered
Hello All!
My husband and I used this site prior to our trip to Aruba this past September since we found it very helpful I thought i'd join to warn you about a scary experience we had. I'm new here so I apologize if this is not in the correct forum topic....
On Wed Sept 3rd, my husband and I (along with a man named Bill and an older gentleman who logged over 600 dives) chose to dive with Pelican/Unique (there was a 2nd group on the boat too, another man named Billy, a diver named John who was trying to complete certification and a young woman). Each group had our own dive master. A storm was brewing and we dove on Arashi/Malmok reef, a drift dive.
When we surfaced after a 20 minute high speed drift dive, the dive master told our group he had to abort the dive. The dive boat was a very long distance away from us and going in the opposite direction, eventually it disappeared completely. The waves were a fair size by now, we were drifting away from the island.
The dive masters emergency inflator tube was so tattered and fraying that it could not be inflated but only held horizontally between his arms over his head (useless due to the size of the waves).
Thankfully a small fishing boat spotted Bills inflator tube and rescued us. From the fishing boat we spotted the 2nd group of divers also heading out to sea and no dive boat to be seen. The fishermen radio'ed our dive captain to come back for the divers left in the water.
We trusted this 5* gold palm dive operation to make clear calls on behalf of us and in the interest of our safety but i'm left wondering if they had the skills or training to make those calls (a drift dive near the tip of the island in an oncoming storm? we might not know better but perhaps they should have?) In hind sight i remember they did not drop a drift line to check the current which is probably why the boat went in one direction and the current took us over a mile in the other direction.
Upon late return to the pier no one knew there had been a problem. We were asked if we enjoyed our dive!!!
We were surprised that a 5* facility didnt insist that their dive masters have functioning emergency signalling equipment (just in case you're curious, I had a whistle, the older man had a horn and Bill had a functioning inflator tube. When I got into the fishing boat I asked if they heard us/horn/whistle and he said no, they saw the tube!)
I later learned the police were called to the other pier after we were dropped at the first pier. A report was filed and the captain warned.
This incident also made the local paper (in their language, we were told if it was in the English paper it would scare away tourists) but we have a copy in case they deny the incident. We tried to follow up with pelican/unique but were surprised when they pretentded not to know us and said nothing had happened!!
I cant believe we paid for that experience!!
We were very lucky to be spotted when most boats were already safely back in their marinas.
Unfortunately, looking back on this dive, would I still get into the water? yes, I would, it was much safer bobbing on the surface of the water instead of staying in the tossing boat.
We dove with another gentleman who knows aruba like the back of his hand - Dive with Clive - I would trust him with my life and recommend him hands down!!!
My husband and I used this site prior to our trip to Aruba this past September since we found it very helpful I thought i'd join to warn you about a scary experience we had. I'm new here so I apologize if this is not in the correct forum topic....
On Wed Sept 3rd, my husband and I (along with a man named Bill and an older gentleman who logged over 600 dives) chose to dive with Pelican/Unique (there was a 2nd group on the boat too, another man named Billy, a diver named John who was trying to complete certification and a young woman). Each group had our own dive master. A storm was brewing and we dove on Arashi/Malmok reef, a drift dive.
When we surfaced after a 20 minute high speed drift dive, the dive master told our group he had to abort the dive. The dive boat was a very long distance away from us and going in the opposite direction, eventually it disappeared completely. The waves were a fair size by now, we were drifting away from the island.
The dive masters emergency inflator tube was so tattered and fraying that it could not be inflated but only held horizontally between his arms over his head (useless due to the size of the waves).
Thankfully a small fishing boat spotted Bills inflator tube and rescued us. From the fishing boat we spotted the 2nd group of divers also heading out to sea and no dive boat to be seen. The fishermen radio'ed our dive captain to come back for the divers left in the water.
We trusted this 5* gold palm dive operation to make clear calls on behalf of us and in the interest of our safety but i'm left wondering if they had the skills or training to make those calls (a drift dive near the tip of the island in an oncoming storm? we might not know better but perhaps they should have?) In hind sight i remember they did not drop a drift line to check the current which is probably why the boat went in one direction and the current took us over a mile in the other direction.
Upon late return to the pier no one knew there had been a problem. We were asked if we enjoyed our dive!!!
We were surprised that a 5* facility didnt insist that their dive masters have functioning emergency signalling equipment (just in case you're curious, I had a whistle, the older man had a horn and Bill had a functioning inflator tube. When I got into the fishing boat I asked if they heard us/horn/whistle and he said no, they saw the tube!)
I later learned the police were called to the other pier after we were dropped at the first pier. A report was filed and the captain warned.
This incident also made the local paper (in their language, we were told if it was in the English paper it would scare away tourists) but we have a copy in case they deny the incident. We tried to follow up with pelican/unique but were surprised when they pretentded not to know us and said nothing had happened!!
I cant believe we paid for that experience!!
We were very lucky to be spotted when most boats were already safely back in their marinas.
Unfortunately, looking back on this dive, would I still get into the water? yes, I would, it was much safer bobbing on the surface of the water instead of staying in the tossing boat.
We dove with another gentleman who knows aruba like the back of his hand - Dive with Clive - I would trust him with my life and recommend him hands down!!!
