So why is everyone arguing over this?
What?! Are you too lazy to read 90 posts? I will agree that the mixed reports and news stories are confusing, but some of us would like to know what all went wrong?
Really, we'd like to know how to avoid incompetent captains, unseaworthy boats, and confused DMs, but new Ops and new managers of old, larger Ops come and go so it's hard to be sure. Prodive is an established operation, but they sound rather scary at this point.
Okay, here is some review for you if you don't want to read over all of the discussion...
Big boat took a wave over the butt end and was pretty much doomed from that point on. When the waves kick up and you show your butt to them - it could happen easily to many boats. It happens every now and then, so why all the fuss lol....????
Nope, it should not happen at all. That's called a deathtrap.
I heard the boat was over loaded by 4 divers and diesel spilled while sinking.
There is no excuse for that boat to have sunk.
I am NOT a Boatwright but what I have observed in Mexico is that the average local built boats are simple glass over wood. This means they have no integral buoyancy. Which also means, that if they swamp, they will go down like a stone. Thank god no one was trapped in the head or galley. Backing down, against a swell is the most dangerous thing they can do. I personally prefer a boat that side loads the divers so that the boat is not ‘backing down’ to allow loading onto a rear platform or ladder.
Luckily no-one was hurt badly and my sympathy goes out to the captain as this event has already been replayed a thousand times in his mind. I agree with Dave and it shouldn’t have happened but that’s why they are called accidents. Most of the captains I have seen in Cozumel are very professional and the report of a swapping is not common. Does anyone know if it went down in shallow water, where it could be recovered, or did it go down off the wall into the abyss?
A boat sinking is scary. So is a boat backing down on me while I am in the water.
We were spending out SI at Punta Palancar Beach Club yesterday when a boat came in fast and a couple of fellows headed to the water with a float and started moving a man from the boat to the float. I went to help them get him out of the water. Seems there is a shop here with no boats that has been hiring whatever boats they can. Not necessarily dive boats, and this seems to have been one of those. According to one person I spoke to, it sounds like they've rigged some racks to hold tanks on the outside of the boat and are packing the inside with divers. Too many, it sounds like.
The winds were fairly strong from the NNW yesterday (but not enough to close the port, obviously) and the seas were pretty choppy. Our ride back to the Palace was the roughest ride I've ever had off Cozumel.
It sounds like the boat swamped and sank. Something struck the captain on the left shoulder. Based on my admittedly rapid assessment, I'd say he might have either a distal clavicle fracture or an AC separation. This made swimming difficult and although he reportedly was able to help several of the boaters, he eventually was unable to stay above water. Everyone on the boat was rescued by dive boats in the area (Punta Sur) and this was apparently the only injury. This could have been a disaster.
Several lessons here. One, don't get on a boat with no working bilge pump (street talk) and stay away from operators that use rental boats on a regular basis. That's all I will say.
It sank on the 13th, not on Valentines Day.
The boat that sank is the Tres Hermanos, rented by the op Pro Dive.
Locals that we've talked to have confirmed what we heard yesterday about a tendency for Pro Dive to load these rental boats pretty heavily.
Exactly - 3 dive guides tells me that they were over capacity from the start - even if one of them was a private DM or instructor
Wait - it said eleven divers on the boat. The boat can take 20. How could it be over capacity? 3 DMs, 11 divers, perhaps one was a hired DM.
It may be licensed to haul 20 passengers, but not that many divers with gear and tanks.
Did all three dive masters finally surface and picked up by a boat? That a divemaster would be gone for 45 minutes seems odd. Procedures can vary but I only recall divemasters getting in the water to visually look at the location and conditions underwater. All the while they stayed on the surface of the water.
Was the desired dive site Devils' Throat?
We were not overweight. The boat was able to take 20 persons on board and we were 13 when we leave the hotel. 3 divemasters, 1 captain, 1 crew and 8 divers.
Like I said, a party boat for 20 is not the same as a diveboat for 20 with gear and tanks.
They separate the group (4 divers - 1 divemaster) to be able to do a part of the reef where the divers has to be behind each other (not enough large to pass two divers at a time).
The last divemaster was there for it's own pleasure because of the beauty of this dive site.
It sounds like at least one group was going to do Devils Throat.
Yes. What I was told by one of the divers was that there was miscommunication and he stayed down vs coming up to report that they were on the right spot.
:silly:
We were suppose to do the Cathedral
I am guessing one group was, the other group going in the Throat.
We begin to have problems after a wave enter the boat by his back (we were over the dive site - 100 feet depth). Because we were turning around to found our divers, the captain turn at his right. He did not notice the water in the boat because, the crew and the captain was looking around on the flybridge. When he turn, the water in the boat begin to move all on the right. The weight of the water was then only on one side. Then the water begins to enter into the boat by the right side. At this time, we were three in the back of the boat. The crew came down and told us to move all to the front of the boat and the captain try to reach the shore. It was to late, all the water that enter the boat begin to fragilize the stability. At that point, all the back of the boat was under water. The motors were completely swamped and were making a lot of smoke.
When the captain try to stabilize the boat the water begin to move to the left of the boat. All this water movement was affecting his stability and it begin to swing left and right. All the divers was trying to help by going at the opposite side of the water. The crew was helping us by tolding us what to do. With all this movement, all the equipment begin to fall down and everything was now on the floor. Every swing the boat was making, the more we were in trouble. The amplitude of the swing was bigger and bigger until the boat fall on is right and sink. The captain was able to reach a 15-20 feet depth (less waves)
Did anyone ever think of yelling "grab life vests, everyone!"
Read previous posts and you'll see where that came from - local authoritative reports claim that boat only has 10 permits, not 20 - regardless of what they paint on the inside or tell customers - I don't know for a fact, but that is what had been reported
