Belize Tragedy

[ba_hiker]

agree, you can't tell much from the pictures. The boats look fine from what you can see but you can't tell how they're equipped or anything. The "shop" is certainly quaint - but I've seen, well, quainter places that were actually quite good.

Keep in mind there is no Coast Guard to speak of, little VHF traffic, storm warnings (so few other boats), and flares are non-existant. This means you must be compleatly self-reliant offshore. Given this..

1) the boat in the forground has two outboards, the one in the background has only a single. Two is probably the minimum for an offshore trip. The second boat may not be adaquat to use for a rescue (only one engine).

2) the boats appear to be flattish bottom planing hulls (could easily be wrong here) a deep vee hull behaves much better in rough water.

3) This is the tropics and there is no cover visable on either boat, the sun can be hot even on an overcast day.

At a bare minimum you would want to be sure that the captian had left a 'float plan' or something like it with someone trustworthy at home, had a tarp or something for sun protection, had an anchor with extra line, and had extra fuel and water.

 

[CaptainNemo]

I was involved in a boat sinking about ten miles off shore a few years back. It floated at the surface and we stayed with the boat until we got help. Always stay with the boat. It is a bigger target to see by those looking to rescue you. Sorry to hear this story. I guess we were lucky.

 

[DandyDon]

Great information kkrepts, Thanks

I find it interesting that we are worried about life jackets when we have BC's we can blow up if needed. That to me seems like a non-issue. If they jusmped in the water and started moving towards the shore with thier equipment on, they would never have used the PFD's anyway.

The radio seems almost like a no brainer though...

It seems that one of the survivors had a leaky BC, had to orally inflate it continuously for 2-1/2 days. The young lady who did not survive was the only one not wearing a wet suit.

Found this article...

Harrowing days lost at sea for U.S. divers in Belize

By DEANNA MARTIN

The Associated Press


John Bain twice had watched the sun set as he drifted in the Caribbean Sea, and as a third sunset approached, he thought he might not survive another night.

Battered by waves, parched by the sun and saltwater and stung by a jellyfish, the 50-year-old Wisconsin lawyer thought of his family as he pondered how a weekend dive trip off Belize had ended with him and three other divers floating at sea for nearly three days, no dive boat or rescue in sight.

"There's a time or two when I wondered about giving it up," Bain said. "But I just didn't."

Bain spoke by phone from a Belize City hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia, sunburn and other injuries. He left the hospital Wednesday; two other divers, including one from Oregon, were still recovering.

The body of Columbus, Ind., native Abigail Brinkman, 28, was found floating in the area where Bain, along with Nancy Masters, 38, a nurse from Portland, Ore., and Yutaka Maeda, 34, a Japanese national, were rescued 2 ½ days after they went into the water.

The four were part of a 12-member dive trip that left South Silk Caye off the tiny Central American nation Saturday morning despite a small craft warning and rough seas in the wake of Hurricane Wilma.

After the boat began having mechanical problems, most of the expedition got off at an island, but the four divers continued on the trip.

"There were reports the anchor broke, the engine stopped, and the radio wasn't working," said Marco Prouty, an official with the U.S. Embassy in Belize. Belizean authorities were investigating.

Bain, a Racine, Wis., attorney, said the engine stopped once and was repaired, but then it stopped a second time and the boat began to drift. The divers decided to try to swim back to South Silk Caye, which he said was still in sight.

Bain, an experienced diver, said the water was still a "bit rough" from Hurricane Wilma, but he wasn't concerned about going out.

"If you're down diving, it really doesn't matter," he said of the surface conditions.

The group, however, found the conditions harsher than expected, Masters told Indianapolis television station WTHR.

"Once we got into the water, we realized that the waves were much larger than they even appeared," she said.

Bain said the group became separated. He said he and Maeda were together the first two days, strapped together at one point because Bain's buoyancy vest, which helps divers stay afloat, wasn't working properly.

The two eventually became separated, leaving Bain to face his third night at sea alone.

If it was like the others, he would spend it shivering uncontrollably, and wheezing from the salt water he had ingested. He would spend it trying to avoid being slammed by waves and blowing into his buoyancy vest every few minutes to keep it inflated.

As darkness approached, he saw what he thought was a search plane, which he said passed by at least twice in 40 minutes but apparently didn't see him.

Help finally arrived Monday evening, when a recreational boat pulled Bain aboard. The other two survivors were picked up by a Belize Defense Forces boat, which also recovered the body of Brinkman, who was not wearing a wetsuit.

Bain said thoughts of his family kept him going.

He said he'll probably dive again. But the memories of his days — and nights — in the water won't fade soon.

"You have no sense of direction," Bain said. "It gets cold, and there's nothing you can do but just wait it out. The nights last a long time."

 

[LavaSurfer]

Thnaks Don, Good article.

My point was that even had there been a lifejacket they would not have taken one with them from the sounds of things. They wanted to swim to the island and a vest would have been a hinderance if swimming. I am suprised they took thier BC's. They might have made it to the island without BC's but one might never know.

Have they foud the boat yet?

 

[DandyDon]

Thnaks Don, Good article.

My point was that even had there been a lifejacket they would not have taken one with them from the sounds of things. They wanted to swim to the island and a vest would have been a hinderance if swimming. I am suprised they took thier BC's. They might have made it to the island without BC's but one might never know.

Have they foud the boat yet?

Yes, but a disabled boat, drifting away from the island with no PFDs - I would be more likely to swim for it than if the boat had PFDs. They're not required in Honduras, therefore are rare on boats. I usually take my own snorkel vest on a boat anyway, there, Florida, etc, and wear it a lot.

But one more time: South of the US, rules are only suggestions. They are required in Belize, but don't count in them or anything else. Got to be on survivor mode all the time when traveling.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I find it interesting that we are worried about life jackets when we have BC's we can blow up if needed.

But not everyone had a BC, some people were just snorkeling. And the life jacket issue goes to the integrity of the company. I agree, for divers, we have our own jackets and air supply, but if they will skimp on life jackets...they will probably skimp on everything.

Jeff

 

[ba_hiker]

It seems that one of the survivors had a leaky BC, had to orally inflate it continuously for 2-1/2 days. The young lady who did not survive was the only one not wearing a wet suit.

Good reason to have your own gear with you, and perhaps a strobe lite off shore. Still staying with the boat, as long as you can, is a really good idea.

 

[DandyDon]

Good reason to have your own gear with you, and perhaps a strobe lite off shore. Still staying with the boat, as long as you can, is a really good idea.

I don't know, but suspect[/U these divers were using rental gear - obtained from the operator with a questionable record. The news story below seems to confirm this. I doubt there was a Storm Whistle, Safety Sausage, or CD reflector among them - singnaling items I often suggest are minimum suggestions for any ocean diver. Among lessons to consider, even if the Vacation diver who rents gear can spend $30-40 US on those items. I also carry a Dive Alert whistle. (pics below)

This tradgedy is generating a lot more released stories than some others, and this one - albeit one-sided - puts new light on some of the prvious claims...

American diver tells harrowing tale of being lost at sea
American Nancy Masters is lucky to be alive. She and three companions on a dive trip last weekend wound up spending three days and two nights floating in the waters off Silk Caye after their boat developed engine trouble and their guide seemed unable to remedy the situation. Unfortunately, one of the group, Abigail Brinkman, did not make it. Today Masters was finally recovered enough to speak with News Five, but because she is still suffering from the effects of a terrible sunburn and prolonged exposure to the elements, she did not want to appear on camera. But Masters's voice clearly expresses her fear, strength, frustration, and the exhaustion of the ordeal... not to mention her anger at the man who put them all at risk.

Nancy Masters, Survivor
“I don’t think that Vance Cabral should be allowed to operate a dive company or be involved in one by any means. Somebody’s died because of his negligence basically, not basically, they have. It starts out that he doesn’t take care of his equipment and it’s compounded by the fact that he ignores small craft advisory warnings and he’s not truthful to his customers.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
When thirty-eight year old Nancy Masters left on a dive trip on Saturday morning, she had no idea her life was about to change forever. Masters was one of ten people who left Placencia Village and headed for Silk Caye with Advance Diving, a tour operator based on the peninsula. Masters says before they even got to the dive site at Gladden Spit, things started to go wrong...and kept getting worse.

Nancy Masters
”The divers went out and just two or three minutes away from the caye, the motor died again. And after many attempts “Bee Bee” was unable to fix it at all. And he just kept trying to fix it and kept trying to fix it and in the meantime we are floating further and further away from the caye. I asked him if we shouldn’t throw the anchor and he really didn’t do too much about it and eventually we threw the anchor. And then he noticed that the anchor didn’t seem to be working, so he went and checked on it and pulled it up and it had... it broke. Either it wasn’t tied properly in the first place to actually hold the boat or it simply broke from the chain. I’m not sure.”

“After the anchor broke, “Bee Bee” went back to try to take care of the motor and still no success, and I had asked him if the radio worked and it assured us that it did. And after a couple more minutes, another man that was on the boat, John, decided, you know we better get on the radio and call now. And the radio did not work. Three of us attempted to do something with it to make it work and that was not successful. So “Bee Bee” made a comment that we were basically floating to Jamaica because there was nothing else between where we were and Jamaica. And at this point, we could still see the caye quite well and so decided that we would dive it because the swells were somewhat large on top of the water, but diving underneath figured we’d miss. We all knew how to dive, we would just follow the compass and go.”

Janelle Chanona
“Via an official press release from the Belize Tourism Industry Association, Henry “Bee Bee” Tucker has maintained that: “Against his persistent advice to stay with the boat and await rescue, the four divers, wearing full dive gear, decided to try and swim for Silk Caye while it was still within sight on Saturday.”

Tonight Masters vehemently disputes Tucker’s claim.

Nancy Masters
”He did not advise us not to go and he does have more information about that than we do, but it just makes me extremely disappointed that he’s now lying about it, especially in the light of the fact that somebody died.”

“Bee Bee” started to helping us get ready, getting our stuff on and at first I had decided to go and John was going to go with me and then the other two other people on board, Abby and Yutaka wanted to go too. And of course, part of the reason, obviously we didn’t want to float out in the middle of sea, but also it was very uncomfortable in the boat, we were all starting to feel very sick. And so “Bee Bee” started getting stuff ready and he handed over tanks and the B.C. vests as they came up and the first one was the small one, which was Abby’s, so she put that on and got in, and then John and then Yutaka. But prior to that, I asked—we all looked at the equipment and surprisingly there was no compass on any of the regulators or the equipment with the regulators.”

“That’s how we ended up in the water, we decided that we were going to try to navigate by the sun, but due to the wave action, the light was too diffused and we were unable to tell through diving. So at that point we decided to surface swim it, but after that amount of time, the distance of the caye had increased quite a bit and it just ended up being more than we could do.”

Drifting on the endless sea, the four SCUBA divers watched hopelessly as darkness began to fall. More alarmingly, Masters soon found herself all alone in the water.

Nancy Masters
“Throughout the whole thing, even when it was difficult to swim, it never really, I never really believed that we wouldn’t make it. And I just knew that we needed at least one person to make it, because obviously Vance wouldn’t be out there with some form of communication, so somebody needed to make it to the caye. I saw that he had a cell phone, just to get out there to get help, to come help the people in the water and “Bee Bee” in the boat and I found out later that his cell phone wasn’t charged.”

“As it’s getting dark actually I can’t find Abby anymore because we had been swimming and the swells were getting larger. And so I started to, I wasn’t sure if I should just keep trying to swim for the caye or find Abby. At this point I’m still thinking that one of us needs to make it, but when I realized that I wasn’t going to make it, I tried to find Abby so that neither one of us would have to stay the night out there alone, which was certainly not an option that was preferred. So I actually swam back just a little bit and tried to look for her and never... she had on an orange swim cap so she had been pretty easy to see before that time and I didn’t think that I would lose sight of her, but the sea can be pretty tough so I don’t exactly where it took her from where it took me.”

“The nights were really long, the nights felt like they went on for weeks. The days in comparison were not that bad because you could see. The next day I thought there would be boats and planes all over the place and I just figured, we all have to just get through this night and then we’ll all be found in the morning. The next morning, I didn’t see any of that. During the night your mind plays a lot of tricks on you when you are out there and I honestly, I truly, truly believed that the other three had been found. You kind of nod off for short times and I think I must have dreamed it, but I absolutely believed that they had been found.”

“After the first night, I didn’t think I could handle a second night, but I was sure that all the boats and planes would be out and I would be in found. So I told myself if when the sun sets tomorrow night and you’re still out here then you can freak out, but in the meantime, that’s not an option.”

“I really thought Sunday night that I was going to get picked up by this trawler, I was so close. If I had swam that hard before it wouldn’t have been... it was so close, and it wasn’t moving and it was getting closer and closer and I was about, I’m not really good with, I was about fifty yards or so and it started to trawl...that hurt so bad!”

Masters said she realised she was in a shipping lane and was determined to get the attention of one of the captains. But then suddenly late Monday afternoon, there was the B.D.F. Defender.

Nancy Masters
”I heard it first and it went almost right over me, but gave no indication that it had seen me so I didn’t think it had. And that was right up there with the fishing trawler; that hurt. And it was even more discouraging in some ways because I thought this guy is flying so low and he was almost right over me and he didn’t see me, and if he didn’t see me that close, nobody’s ever going to see me in a plane.”

2nd Lt. Christopher Neal and Capt. Raymond Shepherd had seen Nancy Masters, and within the hour all four SCUBA divers were pulled from the water.

Nancy Masters
“I am so grateful to those people, everybody and the people in Placencia that were taking care of our friends that were back in there, being kind to them and you know, and there boats from Honduras and Guatemala looking for us as well, so you can’t really help but be really touched by what everybody from Belize and the other countries as well, but especially what the Belizean people put out trying to find us.”

Story split into two post to fit posting limits...

 

[ba_hiker]

Among lessons to consider, even if the Vacation diver who rents gear can spend $30-40 US on those items. I also carry a Dive Alert whistle.

And they fit easily in your travel kit. I probably would suggest adding a strobe light too. And the athorities woun't think one is illegal fire works.

 

[DandyDon]

Story continued...

Tonight Masters says prior to leaving the peninsula, they were never informed that there was a small craft warning in effect for Belize’s coastal waters.

Nancy Masters
“We have since learned that there was a small craft advisory, a warning, and we were not aware of that. Vance never mentioned to us that there was a warning. We chose Vance because we wanted to go to Glover’s Reef originally and the person we wanted to go with didn’t want to go for a day trip because it’s kinda far for a day and she said that sometimes Vance would go for day, so she gave us his number and his location.”

“We had heard from another couple who talked to somebody at Sea Horse that they weren’t going out that day, but they told us because the visibility was poor and not because of the ocean being too rough.”

“Basically you trust the divemaster, the captain of the boat isn’t going to put a group of people and himself and his boat in danger. So we figured you know it was a little choppy, but we at no point felt that we were in danger when we left. We trusted the person who we're going out with.”

Tonight as Masters continues her slow recovery from severe sunburn and metabolic shock, she remembers young Abigail Brinkman.

Nancy Masters
“She was just a beautiful person with a great spirit and she really loved Belize. She talked, I think that when we went out on dive, she was the person who was talking the most, just because she loved the area and she loved the country and the people and diving and life so much. She had a lot to give and she really appreciated everything that people were giving to her here. Her loss is so tragic and so unnecessary. Nobody should die because somebody isn’t taking care of their equipment.”

Masters and Yutaka Maeda departed the country today, while John Bain left earlier this week. Abigail Brinkman’s body was flown out of the country today. Before leaving, Masters and Maeda met with the B.D.F. soldiers who participated in rescue.
Today a meeting of the tour operators review board was held at the B.T.B. office to decide what if any penalties would be levied against Advanced Diving. Present at that meeting were various agencies including the Belize Port Authority. According to the Tourism Board's Anthony Mahler, he cannot comment on the recommendations made today until Advanced Diving owner Vance Cabral has been informed in writing.

Here is a link to a story about the deceased diver, with her smiling picture:
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4031826&nav=9Tai