Anybody know anything about the dive boat that sunk this morning?

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Are you thinking that "failed bilge pump" is the go-to excuse to cover mistakes?

Like I said, I've never seen a bilge pump failure result in a boat filling with water. I wouldn't label it as much as an excuse, but maybe an easy answer that results in no further investigation.

Is it just a coincidence that these boat sinkings happened during a period of brisk N to NW winds and higher than normal seas?

Not in my opinion. I think twofold. First, most the dive boats in Coz are re-purposed recreational vessels - not a typical dive boat like say a Newton where it can take waves at the stern without issue as they roll off the back as fast as they roll in. These recreaitonal boats retain any waves which roll over the back, putting the onus on the bilge. A series of surges over a recreational stern is more than most any bilge was designed to handle. Additionally, as most of you likely know, the normal tradewinds of Coz keeps the waters mostly calm. Occasionally the winds come from the north, which causes waves coming down the channel, which in addition to being bumpy, it adds a bit of difficulty for a Captain. On the rare occasion of a west wind, I've seen this give our Captains the biggest fits. The wave pattern can put a boat in a dangerous position if the Captain isn't on his game. In fact we had a west wind in December with ports open but I refused to send our boat out in it. That same day a snorkel boat sank. A faulty bilge pump was the cause it seems :wink:
 
If there was a PADI instructor onboard he would have charged everyone for a wreck diving class.
 
...They returned to the boat to rescue our stuff and their gears. I had around $400 in my wallet that was inside my backpack. All my cards, ID and backpack were recovered, but not the money. Can you imagine why, right?...

...The weird thing is how they can rescue all my cards but not the wallet with the money, it was thin wallet, like the front pocket style, there is no way to get out the cards. ...other divers also lost iPhones, money and one of them a passport.

It is interesting that they returned your wallet and cards without the cash because it makes it so obvious that the money had been stolen. It would have been much easier to just shrug and tell you that the wallet hadn't been found.

Years ago in Cozumel a pickpocket took the wallet out of my purse while I was shopping. We immediately canceled the cards and replaced everything as soon as we got back home - but months later I received an anonymous letter postmarked from Texas. All of the cards (but no wallet or cash) were inside the envelope, including my license and our C-cards. At the time I wondered if someone that was illegally in the US had been trying to use my IDs to get work or something and finally threw them away. I am grateful that someone found them and returned them to me.

On the other hand, one time in Nassau we rented a small sailboat and while were struggling to get the hang of it a small wallet containing cash and cards fell out of my pocket. Another boater saw it and fished it out and kindly returned it to me - so it's true that you meet all kinds of people in this world - some are nice and some are not so nice!

It's a shame that you lost the money but it's great that you got your cards back because it's a real hassle to cancel and replace everything.
 
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...I am pretty sure that in order to operate a boat for dive operations you must be licensed hence being a captain. I had a captain show me his license that he had to replace because it was damaged.

That might vary by location, I have seen dive masters switching off and taking turns either driving the boat or leading the dives and I'm not sure that they were licensed captains, maybe @Wookie can shed some light.
 
Thiago mentioned how they were slower than the other boats out there.

It seems that it could be a stuffing box/shaft seal/gland seal leak that caused them to slowly take on water, compounded with a lot of spray and water coming over the bow, and all that overwhelmed the bilge pumps, now the boat is sitting lower in the water and now waves are starting to add more water to the bilge, and before you know it, you have ankle deep water in the boat, and it's going down!

That's why I bought a Boston Whaler... Unsinkable Legend!

It stinks to lose that money, and really crappy if someone took advantage of the situation for $400, but I guess you chalk that up to a once in a lifetime experience, and hope to get money back, but be more grateful that you are alive!
 
Can't help here, I have no idea of how Mexico licenses their masters, or how that license translates to the international community.
 
On a lot of the dive boats I’ve been on in Cozumel the DM is the one calling the shots. He is the one that has been with the company the longest and is most experienced. So you might as well call him the captain. Some of the boat drivers don’t last very long. On all of the liveaboards I’ve been on it is obvious who is the captain and none of the crew question his authority.

Here at home the dive boats don’t have a DM. When you get in the water you’re incharge of your dive, and the guy driving the boat is the captain.

So in my experience calling the guy that drives the boat in Coz the captain doesn’t always make a lot of sense.
That guy is called the Captain.

500 - 999 shore dives you say?
 
On a lot of the dive boats I’ve been on in Cozumel the DM is the one calling the shots. He is the one that has been with the company the longest and is most experienced. So you might as well call him the captain. Some of the boat drivers don’t last very long. On all of the liveaboards I’ve been on it is obvious who is the captain and none of the crew question his authority.

Same here, I think the captain is typically hired to be in charge of the boat but the DM is in charge of the business. But I've seen exceptions where the captain has been with the company a long time and the DM is newer.
 
Another thing that makes it hard to know exactly who’s in charge of the boat is that the DM gives the boat safety brief.
 
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