RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. -- Some scuba divers under the Blue Heron Bridge had a close call with a sailboat, and the whole thing was caught on video by people on a nearby dive boat who happened to have a camera.
You can hear reaction from onlookers who were on Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures.
"Guys watch out! He's comin' through full-throttle. Look out! Look out! Look out! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! He's gonna hit you guys, he is not listening. Captain! You need to stop! You need to just cease your engines Captain! You need to shut your engines down. There's divers all under your bow. Shut your engines down, Cap! Shut your engines down!"
As horrified onlookers watched, the sailboat captain just kept right on going, apparently ignoring the fact that there were divers and diver-down flags in the water. The captain had just plowed right through the middle of them.
"I cannot believe he just did that! That was unique in idiocy. Cap, I'm taking that video to the Coast Guard station. That was unbelievable! I warned you before you did it and you did it anyway! You're unbelievable, Cap! They need to check your license," said an onlooker.
Luckily none of the divers were hit. We showed that video to two dive instructors.
"It's just clearly blatant ignorance from the boat captain's point of view because he was warned before he was going in the area," said dive instructor Jeff Nelson.
"It's hard to believe that a sailboat would be that negligent," said dive instructor Tony Royle.
As the video shows, as the sailboat went under the bridge, it was not in the central channel that is designated for boat traffic.
Instead, the sailboat chose another path just east of the main channel, right through a popular dive spot, putting divers in jeopardy.
Florida Fish and Wildlife told us they've seen that video too and now they're trying to track down that sailboat to see if further action is needed.
and I am sure he heard me well as I was close enough to see the expression on his face. :shocked2:
