Dove a 4-day-old wreck; Reef Gliders boat went down a week ago with divers aboard

[mrgenki]

I have ~90 dives and that was certainly a first...

Went to Roatan for dive vacation arriving on Friday the 2nd and didn't actually get out until Wednesday the 7th. That was thanks to a very unseasonable storm (according to the locals anyway) that made diving somewhere between sketchy and impossible for 3 days. Several ops were still able to go out on the south side but most of the folks I talked to said they only have a couple days a year that they don't go out at all and these were among them. Of course, not everyone was so cautious...

I'll let the RTB experts illuminate, but my understanding is that Reef Gliders went out fairly close to the high-wind, high-current far side of West Bay and their boat got hit by 2 waves and flipped, pre-dive. Divers were told to grab a BCD and swim to shore. This is an open secret on the island. I mean, some of the DMs don't want to talk about it for fear of hurting business, but at the same time, ops are going out and diving it (it's between 2 existing West Bay sites -- Black Rock was one and the other I can't remember), snorkelers are snorkeling it, even the big catamarans full of cruise shippers were checking it out.

Anyway, it's a 20 (?) foot boat sitting on the slope of the reef in ~40 ft of water. The engine is on the deeper side and the engine cover came off and is sitting a little ways away. I asssume they're gonna let it stay there and become the island's newest wreck dive. Will take some time to fill out with life, but it will...

Anyone know any more about this?

 

[Doc]

Hey- you owe us a trip report, how'd the pre-trip advice you asked for turn out?

......Several ops were still able to go out on the south side but most of the folks I talked to said they only have a couple days a year that they don't go out at all and these were among them.....

Anyone know any more about this?

The South side dive ops, including Reef House Resort (the smallest boats of the AI Dive Resorts on the South).... all of them operated boats every day that week. If you were referring to the North/West side being shut down due to weather, it does happen a lot more than a "couple" of days a year.

Dive boats crash/sink/wear-out fairly often. This boat will be recovered in short order.

What more information were you in search of?

 

[mrgenki]

Happy to give a TR. I think Coconut Tree was a good rec, but I ended up diving with 2 other ops due to specific circumstance of our trip, including our location, where it was extremely useful to have an shop that could pick us up at our rental house in a small boat.

I'm a Roatan noob, so I don't know the frequency of WE/WB shops not going out, but I was told it was fairly unusual, expecially for that time of year, and I didn't have easy access to the operations on the South side (although some West Bay and West End shops were running vans). We were told it was too rough to dive on Sunday (the day the Reef Gliders boat sank) and could see white caps on the reef. We didn't try on Mon -- took a tour of the island instead amid the intermittent pouring rain. We did run into a group from Henry Morgan at the south side Gio's who said it was glassy and good viz where they dove on that side. On Tuesday, though, we got up and started working the phones trying to find someone going out and found basically no one accessible to us. Subway said they were but they were full and Barefoot I believe said they were but couldn't accommodate us on short notice.

So finally on Weds. I got out for 2 dives with Native Sons in the a.m. and then went out with Tyll's for the late dive Weds and all of Thurs and Fri. I highly commend DM Jenny and Captain Samuel (as well as Kelvin, who was doing OW instruction with my mother in law) at Tyll's. Smaller op and probably not right for everyone, but they were brilliant with us.

Personally I don't agree that dive boats sink all the time, at least not with divers aboard. It's something I've never heard of happening in all my dive experience in U.S., Mexico, Thailand, Australia, Southeastern Europe, BVI, USVI, Tobago etc. A boat "wearing out" is one thing. Grab your stuff and swim to shore is another. Anyway it was an interesting dive experience.

 

[Carl_F]

Got back from Roatan on Saturday and had heard about a dive boat capsizing off of the southwest point but didn't find out about more specifics until this thread. Dove on Saturday (3 Mar) with Bananarama and went out of Flowers Bay as that's where they sheltered their boats. Good dives on Church Reef and The Cave. Sunday and Monday were diving busts due to the weather (the wind was shifting so I was told both the west and south sides were not looking good. Took an inland tour on Monday instead. Will have to generate a trip report since I did 21 dives over the 17 day trip.

 

[Mike]

Personally I don't agree that dive boats sink all the time, at least not with divers aboard. It's something I've never heard of happening in all my dive experience in U.S., Mexico, Thailand, Australia, Southeastern Europe, BVI, USVI, Tobago etc. A boat "wearing out" is one thing. Grab your stuff and swim to shore is another. Anyway it was an interesting dive experience.

They sink more often than anyone would like to admit, however they aren't random acts of non-related causes. A dive boat sank in Key West a couple of months ago, a dive boat sank in Cozumel a month ago, both didn't have to happen. About 3 years ago a weird squall hit Cozumel in the afternoon and sank a couple of dive boats, that one was weather related and short notice, but the boats that sank could have avoided it had their owners operated differently. So it does happen, but it's not some luck of the draw, its usually human related, to greed or neglect, or inexperience.

 

[yarik83]

I dive with a charter off Boynton Beach, FL and their old boat sank going back into harbor. That inlet is vicious. Even in perfect weather water is very turbid and inlet is like river rapids. Wave apparently came from behind and flooded the deck as boat was at lowest point between waves. Mind that it was a sizable boat. Gear etc etc sank to the bottom and so did the boat. Same charters now has a bigger vessel which I dive off.

Most dive boats have many things bad going for them.
#1 they usually have open rear end.
#2 they usually have the lower deck with a tiny bathroom. Opening is always open.
#3 no boats come with deck water pumps. Only engine water pumps.
#4 most dive boats are not dive boats. They are regular boats converted to dive boat use. When you factor in 16 or so people, 32 or so scuba tanks, scuba gear, scuba weights... it all adds up. I am by no means saying that dive boats are dangerous but I personally think that BECAUSE most dive boats are regular boats converted to fit diving industry... boat crews push certain limits on such boats.

For sake of argument... if boat has lets say 3 ton capacity and fully loaded with scuba party that capacity adds up to 2.5 tons.. its not the same if same boat was loaded to 1 ton.

No boat is sink proof. All have weaknesses. Maybe if they invented more buoyant dive ships maybe?

 

[Mike]

I dive with a charter off Boynton Beach, FL and their old boat sank going back into harbor. That inlet is vicious. Even in perfect weather water is very turbid and inlet is like river rapids. Wave apparently came from behind and flooded the deck as boat was at lowest point between waves. Mind that it was a sizable boat. Gear etc etc sank to the bottom and so did the boat. Same charters now has a bigger vessel which I dive off.

Most dive boats have many things bad going for them.
#1 they usually have open rear end.
#2 they usually have the lower deck with a tiny bathroom. Opening is always open.
#3 no boats come with deck water pumps. Only engine water pumps.
#4 most dive boats are not dive boats. They are regular boats converted to dive boat use. When you factor in 16 or so people, 32 or so scuba tanks, scuba gear, scuba weights... it all adds up. I am by no means saying that dive boats are dangerous but I personally think that BECAUSE most dive boats are regular boats converted to fit diving industry... boat crews push certain limits on such boats.

For sake of argument... if boat has lets say 3 ton capacity and fully loaded with scuba party that capacity adds up to 2.5 tons.. its not the same if same boat was loaded to 1 ton.

No boat is sink proof. All have weaknesses. Maybe if they invented more buoyant dive ships maybe?

Your perceptions are probably common to a lot of people, but reality is when it comes to water craft it's not all a roll of the dice. Boats are rated for capacity by the manufacturer. Boat operators aren't allowed to operate on how they feel they can load their boat, it's highly regimented and very measurable. You can't just put on as many tanks as you feel like or as many people and figure it out by trial and error. All these boats you're on have bilge pumps of some sort, not engine water pumps. They are designed to be safe in the water, no matter if they are being used for pleasure, fishing or diving, there are no differences effecting the safety the boat. It's rated for X amount of lbs and x amount of engine, doesn't matter what it's doing.

All boats are safe when operated within their officially rated capacity, when they are maintained properly and captained by an experienced licensed captain and operated in safe weather conditions. Boats sinking from following waves over the stern, being over loaded, bilge pumps not working, hatches left open, fires that get out of control, is all owner/operator neglect/error.

 

[chelle.blais]

mrgenki,

I'd be happy to clear a few things up about this boat-sinking incident, as I was one of the two instructors on board that day.

The Sunday when we went out was a lovely sunny pre-storm day. The winds were beginning to pick up so when we went out we stayed in the inner channels to avoid the big waves and we were extremely cautious taking our time to get to a shallow dive site. Unfortunately for us as we turned our boat around to tie up to the mooring line, our motor (which the owners had serviced literally the day before) completely stopped and the stern of the boat was in the direction of the waves. It was not so much a '2 waves and it was gone' kind of event though. The waves were much smaller than everyone thinks, but within a few waves with the stern facing them, the boat started to get water in it. Our boat captain asked everyone to move to the front of the boat while he tried to fix the motor and the other instructor started bailing water out. In the 50 seconds following that, we decided to get everyone in fins and masks, and get into the water while we handed them BCD's to put on. The boat eventually over-flooded and slowly went out from under my, the other instructor, and our captains feet. Everyone had something to float on and we headed towards shore.

I spent the entire afternoon going back and fourth between shore and the boat, collecting all the equipment left behind and making sure the boat was tied down when we knew we couldn't get it up that day. When the boat sank it was completely vertical, the bow about 4m below the surface. Unfortunately (again!) someone decided to rob the boat of its tied-on ladder and the boat was dropped to the slope - about 12m. It's since been recovered and is sitting on the beach.

These kinds of events ARE extremely unlikely, but in everything there is always a chance it could happen. Some people can drive their car every day and never have an accident, others aren't so lucky. In our situation everyone was okay, shaken up yes, but injury free and all of their possessions given back to them. Its a hard to make judgement calls when you are faced with these things, but I think myself and the other staff did the best we could possibly do given the circumstances.

I hope any questions you had have been answered.. and yes, other diver operations were out on the west side diving that day.

 

[mrgenki]

Thank you for providing accurate and detailed information about what happened. So much better to have that than the often inaccurate or exaggerated rumors. Hope to be in Roatan again and see you.

mrgenki,

I'd be happy to clear a few things up about this boat-sinking incident, as I was one of the two instructors on board that day.

The Sunday when we went out was a lovely sunny pre-storm day. The winds were beginning to pick up so when we went out we stayed in the inner channels to avoid the big waves and we were extremely cautious taking our time to get to a shallow dive site. Unfortunately for us as we turned our boat around to tie up to the mooring line, our motor (which the owners had serviced literally the day before) completely stopped and the stern of the boat was in the direction of the waves. It was not so much a '2 waves and it was gone' kind of event though. The waves were much smaller than everyone thinks, but within a few waves with the stern facing them, the boat started to get water in it. Our boat captain asked everyone to move to the front of the boat while he tried to fix the motor and the other instructor started bailing water out. In the 50 seconds following that, we decided to get everyone in fins and masks, and get into the water while we handed them BCD's to put on. The boat eventually over-flooded and slowly went out from under my, the other instructor, and our captains feet. Everyone had something to float on and we headed towards shore.

I spent the entire afternoon going back and fourth between shore and the boat, collecting all the equipment left behind and making sure the boat was tied down when we knew we couldn't get it up that day. When the boat sank it was completely vertical, the bow about 4m below the surface. Unfortunately (again!) someone decided to rob the boat of its tied-on ladder and the boat was dropped to the slope - about 12m. It's since been recovered and is sitting on the beach.

These kinds of events ARE extremely unlikely, but in everything there is always a chance it could happen. Some people can drive their car every day and never have an accident, others aren't so lucky. In our situation everyone was okay, shaken up yes, but injury free and all of their possessions given back to them. Its a hard to make judgement calls when you are faced with these things, but I think myself and the other staff did the best we could possibly do given the circumstances.

I hope any questions you had have been answered.. and yes, other diver operations were out on the west side diving that day.

 

[go-scuba-dive]

Good for that clarification. My heart dropped when I read the title of the post. Whew!