Woman dies during scuba dive off Wilmington

[Instructor C]

Seas in the Carolina Beach area were 2 to 4 feet Saturday morning. Morehead City is a good 2 hours away from Carolina Beach and the rough seas were not expected to reach Carolina Beach until later in the afternoon/early evening.

 

[Rick Murchison]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This thread is for discussion of the mishap.
Condolences thread is here.

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[lulubelle]

Seas in the Carolina Beach area were 2 to 4 feet Saturday morning. Morehead City is a good 2 hours away from Carolina Beach and the rough seas were not expected to reach Carolina Beach until later in the afternoon/early evening.

Sure, I understand this difference. It is about 70 miles as the crow flies and as you probably know, most of the charters out of Morehead head south towards Wilmington, making that distance even less for such decisions. I know that AS and perhaps others cancelled their Saturday morning charters out of Wilmington, and I would find it hard to believe they would have done so based on a forecast of 2-4 foot seas. Was that inshore?

Doesn't seem likely that the seas were a factor at this point though.

 

[DenaliX]

Sure, I understand this difference. It is about 70 miles as the crow flies and as you probably know, most of the charters out of Morehead head south towards Wilmington, making that distance even less for such decisions. I know that AS and perhaps others cancelled their Saturday morning charters out of Wilmington, and I would find it hard to believe they would have done so based on a forecast of 2-4 foot seas. Was that inshore? .

Actually the weather in Morehead vs. Carolina/Wrightsville Beach can be dramatically different. Check fryingpantower.com sometimes... It's odd how they can be so close but so different in the condition of the seas.

But I agree. It doesn't sound like the conditions had anything to do with this accident.

 

[ImUrPropofol]

Anyone hear anything more about this? My father worked with her and sent me the news article from the local paper. He doesn't know anything about diving, but only related to me he heard "her suit was filled with water." Not sure if she had dry vs. wet suit and heard no other details.

 

[Instructor C]

70 miles makes all the difference. I don't know why your charter was cancelled, but seas in Carolina Beach were 2-4 feet on the day in question.

 

[Instructor C]

Unofficial official report lists C.O.D. as drowning due to A.G.E.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

Unofficial official report lists C.O.D. as drowning due to A.G.E.

as stated it wasnt the weather and wasnt the boat crew .

 

[Captain Crocs]

The woman died on the Gil. We went to the site a few days later to do some diving. A friend told me she had a drysuit, and it may have been overinflated. That is not validated fact, though.

 

[stakanak]

Why did they not send a chopper? It seems that is a bit far to travel by boat with an unconscious person at sea.
My condolences to the family