In Sept '97 I was on the Turk and Caicos Aggressor when we got word of a hurricane moving towards the islands. We moved around a bit to minimize the chance of being in the path of the storm, but eventually it was decided that we needed to tie up and ride it out overnight. The Peter Hughes boat did the same thing and we ended tied up next to each other in a mangrove.
As it turned out, the storm shifted and we didn't even get rained out. But the similarities between the approach that we took and the approach taken in the Belize tragedy are striking.
One thing that I hope has changed, however: while we were tied up, there was no real effort to prepare for the storm other than tying down the gear, removing deck chairs. We were not instructed to wear life preservers or given any other safety instruction. Hopefully, that has now changed.
The fact is that we (the divers) treated it very casually -- we essentially had a hurricane party--no diving means more drinking. And like most divers that I know, before the Belize tragedy, I never paid any attention to the perfunctory safety instructions given at the start of a trip. But as we now know, safety isn't something to be taken lightly, even on a liveaboard.
sdwho