Canadian woman presumed dead - Roatan, Honduras

[sunshower]

Responding to the over-weighted discussion. Not making any comparisons on amount of weight, but when I'm descending and properly weighted, I would be easy to catch if I'm not finning down. May or may not have anything to do with the result, but based on what I'm seeing, I don't see how she could have been beyond 200 feet without being caught if she was properly weighted (if she was being observed, which she apparently was). All things being equal, someone finning should easily overtake someone passively sinking as the air in the bladder should have undergone maximum compression by 33ft/10m (the ratio gets smaller from there). FWIW, this sounds like a medical or technical issue combined with overweighting. May not have changed things, but unless things are not being reasonably portrayed, I don't see how she dropped so fast as to not have been caught unless she had too much lead.

The DM was helping another diver equalize; no way for us to know how distracted he was, or wasn't, but it's plausible that he was pretty focused on the diver he was helping. He knew he had a pretty experienced dive buddy and could've thought she was just hanging out while he helped the other diver clear their ears; maybe he spent a minute or two helping; at some point he notices she's below and does his best to reach her. Just speculation but could help explain how she could've gotten so far away as to not be caught (along with too much weight).

 

[Dan]

Are you suggesting that 500mi of air displaces 4 lb of water?

No. My bad. It should displace about 1lb of water. I went back and checked the buoyancy of my other new gear that I added to my BCD and found out that my PLB1 in camera case also float. The new 5mm wetsuit would seem to also trap more air in the beginning. After I filled up the water bottle with water & redo the dive with soaking wet of wetsuit, I was able to get down with 14lbs of weight, removing 4lbs of weight.

 

[Dan]

The buoyancy of 500 mL of air IS the weight of 500 mL of water,* that's how buoyancy works. So 1.1 lbs of buoyancy. Granted a hard shelled water bottle could be made of a plastic less dense than water and add some buoyancy, but it wouldn't be much as most plastics are close to the density of water.

*The buoyancy is actually the weight of 500 mL of water minus the weight of 500 mL of air, but at 1 ATM 500 mL of air adds negligible weight and can be ignored for most purposes.

You are correct. I didn't consider the buoyancy of my new wetsuit & my floating PLB1 in a light plastic camera case.

 

[Texas Torpedo]

I just pulled up her PADI cert's... OW, AOW, EAN, Rescue, + specialties Drift, Night, Deep, Photo & Wreck, to reach Master SD. Right at 700 dives since first certified Dec. 2006.. Stranger things have happened but I find it hard to believe that someone with the training and experience (activity) she had ended up with a gear issue that she couldn't overcome, especially while still being able to breathe.

Again, purely speculation on my part, but considering she was in good enough spirits to plan a full 5 week dive vacation, meet new friends / invite Terry & wife to eat with them, talk about her coming up on 700 dives on this trip... Well, it sure doesn't sound to me like she intended this to be her fate..

Of course, as has been previously mentioned... We'll never know without an autopsy / computer, and even if both ended up yielding information, chances are slim that info would find its way to us.. My worthless bet is still on a medical issue.. Some type of stroke (etc) could have rendered her partially incapacitated, yet still able to breath.

 

[Dan]

Nope. Tie a 4# weight to such a bottle and see how fast it sinks.

A pint of water can be refreshing, but not make much difference if you're lost for a day or two. A PLB will save your butt and get you back to necessities faster.

You are right, it'll sink like a rock.

I'll just forget about the water & stick with the PLB1.

 

[Terry Harrison]

I wonder if the DM noticed trails of her bubbles as she went down, which could indicate that she was conscious & breathing at that time, instead of plunging down like a rock.

We did see a trail of bubbles. There were three trails once the DM and Clay went below 120'. Clay said he saw very small bubbles (never saw her) when he got down to 173'.

 

[Terry Harrison]

Yep the shark dive is not very far.

Those 9 miles can be 45-60 min drive depending on traffic at the time so the "quick" drive may not be so quick back to the chamber.

Texas Torpedo-the site is Roatan Crime Watch group on Facebook.

Less than 20 minutes. The driver was pushing it, but safely.

 

[Terry Harrison]

The deceased did not appear to be making any effort to save herself. With 700 dives, I very much doubt she was in a frozen panic.

As for her weights, if I understand correctly this was to be the first dive of her trip. She may have added a couple of extra pounds due to a new wetsuit or because it was very dry. Perhaps she'd planned to drop some weight on subsequent dives. I'm projecting here because I've been known to do this myself.

Is our witness absolutely positive there were 3 bubble streams or was he reporting what he expected to see?

Yes I am.

 

[Terry Harrison]

+1. And how much would the bubbles disperse by the time they reached Terry's depth? -- Not that I'm doubting their account.

The DM and Clay were between myself (closer to the wall) and the 3rd bubble stream. Very clear that there was a separate stream from the other two. Almost 0 current where we were at.

 

[Terry Harrison]

I agree, and this suggests that she was not so overly weighted that air in her BC before she jumped in (assuming it was a simple giant stride, although when I dove Roatan we always did back rolls off the side of the boat...do we know how they entered the water?) or some effort in finning could have slowed down an uncontrolled descent. Head tilted to the side suggests unconsciousness to me, although even that is speculation.

I'm sorry, I missed putting this in my original post. Didn't realize it until I read your post.

She said she would get into the water and the Captain would give her, her BCD in the water because she had bad knees and could not carry the weight on the boat. So the BCD had to have enough air to float when she got it from the Captain. Now, I did not see this, so I am going on how she said she would be getting her gear together for the dive.