8 Divers missing Taiwan

[mjbTaiwan]

Okaaaay, now we have the DM's story about his swim and why the 8 split into two groups. The Electric New Paper, Singapore - The Electric New Paper News

Hmm...The farther you get from Taiwan, the odder the story gets. We'll update this thread once Mr. Ting has more time to chat (ie, the media garbage slows). Our conversations with him so far contradict the media statements on several fronts, as shellbackdiver suggested.

First, the group was blown southward by the countercurrent, not northward. The prevailing winds that day were strong from the SW, which made a NE drift dive plan logical. The countercurrent was running strong in the SE direction, which blew them off the dive site while the dive boat followed the surface current to wait for them on the backside of the pinnacle. The dive party was blown off the site very quickly and into blue water out of sight of the dive boat, whose captain was unaware of the SE counter current and continued to wait for them on the NE side of the site.

More later...

 

[Diver Dennis]

How deep were they to accumulate a 20 min deco?

 

[shellbackdiver1]

About my remarks about the Chinese news agency...

Maybe the Chinese were slow, and if so it might have been to confirm the FACTS before they reported the news. I do apologize for my poor choice of words. I've never been to China and know very little about the culture, so my loose remark was certainly unjustified. Thank you

FYI....China is not reporting this as it happened in Taiwan. Taiwan is not China. Taiwan is Taiwan.

 

[PerroneFord]

Taiwan is not China. Taiwan is Taiwan.

Whooo... I dated a girl from Taipei. You do NOT make THIS mistake. But then I understood the issue in advance.

 

[DandyDon]

FYI....China is not reporting this as it happened in Taiwan. Taiwan is not China. Taiwan is Taiwan.

Whooo... I dated a girl from Taipei. You do NOT make THIS mistake. But then I understood the issue in advance.

Okay, maybe quite different. I received this PM, felt that perhaps I had been unfair with my loose remark, and wanted to take responsibility for it and apologize for any wrongs I did make. I did excerpt from the hostile PM in doing to...

Although I choose not to participate in the day to day dialogue that transpires on this board, mainly because of all the know it all critics that have enveloped the board and comments such as yours here "Looks like the Chinese news is running behind on this story, but then that's not surprising."

I am offended by this, particularly since I am married to a Taiwanese and most of my circle of friends are of Chinese descent.

How dare you make such a statement. The news media in the states is no better, and probably even worse. The news media sensationalizes and rushes a story before having all the facts. Maybe the Chinese were slow, and if so it might have been to confirm the FACTS before they reported the news. Isn't that a nice concept. No rushing to air/print news that could be in error.

So, for where I was wrong, I am sorry.

For mixing thots on Chinese and Taiwanese - that was my source.

 

[socaldiver]

Indeed this is a sensitive matter among the good people of Taiwan.

And although I agree the people of Taiwan do not want to be recognized as part of mainland China, not all residents of Taiwan are Taiwanese. There are many who fled Communist China and reside in Taiwan. They still consider themselves as Chinese (at least this is what they tell me). They ( the group I know) speak mainly Mandarin, not Taiwanese.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Don, I think the perception you got about the "slowness" of the news happened because of the date line. Today is tomorrow in both China and Taiwan. And because news reporting on the Internet happens in real time, when you read something that was just released from that area it will have our "tomorrow's" date on it. Therefore when you read something with today's date on it, the story was actually released yesterday. In a story with ongoing developments like this one, that will make it seem that the news releases are behind the times, when actually what's confusing you is the difference in the date between here and there ... in effect, you were reading yesterday's news and assuming that because it had your "today's" date on it, that it was recent.

It's always fun flying home from Taipei to Seattle, and arriving here a few hours before we left there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[DandyDon]

I didn't notice the dates. I noticed the Chinese news had them still missing after the others had them found. Of course, google could have been slow picking up some stories, there could have been delays in translation, etc.

So extend my apologies for...
> Chinese news for my loose statement;
> Taiwanese for confusing them with Chinese;
> and the fire that burned Chicago...! :silly:

 

[String]

Appears they didnt have a delayed SMB. Silly call.

The second they knew the current had switched they send up the delayed bag. Still nice and close to the boat so no problem following it.

 

[pierretw]

I was hopping for news on this thread, in particular about the use (or not) of smb's, anybody knows?