Marissa had posted a comment that they were at cruising speed, they were thrown out of bed, the liferaft was bashing against rocks and there were thoughts of abandonig the liferaft - can't imagine being woken up like that.
Socorro Liveaboard Grounding
- Thread starter Manatee Diver
- Start date
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Soloist
Contributor
Dan
Contributor
When you say liferaft, do you mean the liveaboard itself?
To me liferaft and lifeboat are the same, which is “… a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship”, as defined in here, Lifeboat (shipboard) - Wikipedia
bakodiver391
Contributor
If they were steaming between islands, which seems to be the case, there was someone on watch. Most likely, they fell asleep behind the wheel. Another rookie mistake that was likely made was setting the waypoint for the autopilot to the actual destination anchorage, instead of to one side in open water and a couple of miles before the actual destination. The latter method makes the autopilot alarm go off before it steers the boat into solid land. i've been on the water most of my life and seen many boats lost because they used solid land as their waypoint, instead of open water.
This was her comment:"I PRAY none of you never have to go through the traumatic experience we had to go through. Crashing into rock at full speed, being thrown from your bed, seeing all your belongings floating away, jumping into a life raft from a sinking ship at 2 am as it tosses you back and fourth, then waiting in a life raft while you’re being bashed into rocks, being told you may have to abandon said life raft, and thinking to yourself well this is the end I’m going to die. "
Here's another comment from her that I just seen - that is an OMG statement: "I know the news articles said grounding. But that is really inaccurate we crashed straight into a rock wall cliff going 8-9 knots at 2am"
That is Marissa, pretty well known cave instructor that was on the boat
AZTinman
Contributor
"If they were steaming between islands, which seems to be the case, there was someone on watch. Most likely, they fell asleep behind the wheel."
...and you know this because you were there?
-AZTinman
...and you know this because you were there?
-AZTinman
Dan
Contributor
bakodiver391
Contributor
If there was no-one on watch, it was gross criminal negligence of the most egregious kind. If there was someone on watch, what other explanation is there for steaming full speed into a cliff, other than the watch was asleep? Occam's razor, the simplest explanation is usually correct.
I have not even addressed the captain's idiocy of planning his landfall for 2;30 am. A prudent captain will plan landfall for after dawn, then wait for sufficient light to proceed to the anchorage and anchor safely, or initiate dive operations if anchoring is not possible. Arriving at your destination at 2;30 am is just farm animal stupid. As I said in an earlier post, a lot of institutional wisdom seems to have been lost in the last two years among the world-wide liveaboard fleet.
HalcyonDaze
Contributor
A few weeks ago Pacific Fleet was offering 30% off on a Solmar V trip to Socorro (14 spots open, would have been this week); kind of happy I didn't bite on that.
I've done Guadalupe Island off the Solmar V and had no complaints or observations that made me uneasy; then again that was almost a year before the Conception fire made everyone take a harder look at liveaboard vessels and operating procedures.
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