One more general note to some of the naysayers and MMQBs, don't lose sight of the fact that, regardless of what you think should have been, could have been done . . . what was done was SUCCESSFUL. The skiff didn't flip, the two divers were rescued, and no one else got hurt.
• There should have been a rope and a throw line. There wasn't.
• They should have surfaced in deeper water away from the surf. They didn't.
• There should have been rescue divers on the skiff. There weren't.
• One of you should have jumped in. Not a good plan.
Could the skiff have flipped? Yes.
Could the people have died? Yes.
Could this have had a different outcome? Yes.
But . . . it didn't.
As some of you know, one thing I do is testify in scuba litigation. And one of the easiest traps to fall into when trying to reconstruct what happened during an incident is that you stop looking at what the actual facts and options were and start throwing in all of the would've/should've/could've and you end up creating a fantasy scenario that bears no resemblance to the reality.
Did we get lucky with the skiff and the breaking wave? Maybe. Or . . . maybe the skiff captain knew what he was doing, knew how dangerous this could be, watched the waves as he maneuvered in the surf zone, we watched the couple, had the boat in the correct position for the surf at the time, blasted the engines to ensure we could plow through the wave, and nothing bad happened. Luck or skill? Fine line between the two at times.
