Non scuba deaths but request for information

[InTheDrink]

I'm sorry that some were insensitive. I think that the most likely case is as was described in an earlier post.
One went for a swim or dropped something overboard by accident and went after it, the current caused a problem and the other went to help, not realizing that the current was to become his problem as well.

I'm very sorry for your family's loss.

Will never know but my guess is one fell out and other tried to help him. Sad but kind.

Water is strong. I hope one person gets that now xxx

 

[dmaziuk]

I once saw a motor boat speeding in a distance, with two heads in it, wobble momentarily. A second later it straightened itself, speeding toward the shore now, with heads no longer visible. This was 5C arctic water, the boat was a few hundred metres from shore, and we were a few hundred metres from the village and people with boats. So by the time anything was attempted it was too late.

It can be as simple as hitting a wave at a wrong angle while going too fast. Condolences.

 

[InTheDrink]

I once saw a motor boat speeding in a distance, with two heads in it, wobble momentarily. A second later it straightened itself, speeding toward the shore now, with heads no longer visible. This was 5C arctic water, the boat was a few hundred metres from shore, and we were a few hundred metres from the village and people with boats. So by the time anything was attempted it was too late.

It can be as simple as hitting a wave at a wrong angle while going too fast. Condolences.

Yes. It can that simple

I just hope some one understands x

 

[InTheDrink]

Never leave the boat unmanned.

After all the kind comments- that I hugely appreciate - yours is most salient.

Never leave a boat unmanned

 

[InTheDrink]

Sorry to hear. I concur with going with the current. Fighting it will just tire you out. And I think you don't even need to float on your back. Just tread water as the current takes you wherever. At least in an upright position, you can see all the options around you. I'd also recommend some splashing if you see a potentail rescuer. Boaters, especially if they're fishermen, are attuned to notice splashing because it indicates potential fishing or marine life activity.

Can you tell me this could happened. It’s hard to drown. Ingestion of water or both and panic. The sea was calm. Currents can be strong here.

but I can't see how there was two deaths and then to be found 10 clicks apart

 

[clownfishsydney]

It’s hard to drown. Ingestion of water or both and panic. The sea was calm.

Not sure where you get this idea from. It is so easy to drown. People have been known to drown within metres of other people and they did not even know it happened. That is why so many children drown in backyard pools, it happens so quickly and silently. If you cannot swim you will drown very quickly.

 

[rjack321]

Can you tell me this could happened. It’s hard to drown. Ingestion of water or both and panic. The sea was calm. Currents can be strong here.

but I can't see how there was two deaths and then to be found 10 clicks apart

Not sure where this idea that it's hard to drown comes from. In this area we have had a record number of drownings this summer. I think 15 so far which is more than the annual average of about 11 or 12. Cold water, no life jackets.
Unlike on TV and the movies, most drownings are nearly silent. This article has been widely published and re-published.
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

 

[Celt]

Can you tell me this could happened. It’s hard to drown. Ingestion of water or both and panic. The sea was calm. Currents can be strong here.

but I can't see how there was two deaths and then to be found 10 clicks apart

Condolences for your loss, one was recovered on Monday and the other on Tuesday, Unfortunately there was another drowning close by the day before, On Sunday the Maritime and Coastguard agency said 167 people had been rescued and 386 helped in incidents around the coast of the UK that day alone.

 

[XfiXit]

I'm sorry for your loss. It always seems so obvious not to swim into current, not to leave the boat unmanned and such. But the fact is you will never know what your doing wrong, until its too late.

Here in the Netherlands this year there has been a unusual high number of deaths because of rip currents on the beaches. In 3 weeks of hot weather there were multiple missings, up to 3 days in a row on the same beach. The same problem occured there. Mostly young kids/teens that got swepped off there feet, and tried to swim into the current towards the beach. Can you imagine nobody noticing? The beaches were crowded, people were everywhere in/around the water. Just a split second and they were gone.

If only they swam 20, 30 metres parallel in the current, they most likely would be able to walk back towards the beach on the banks creating the current.

Even a polish man that saved three kids out of this current, but unfortunatly he got swept away after he saved the kids, because he got exhausted.

The sea doesnt have to be rough to be dangerous.

 

[boulderjohn]

If only they swam 20, 30 metres parallel in the current, they most likely would be able to walk back towards the beach on the banks creating the current.

Good point.

Many posts in this thread have pointed to the futility of swimming against a current. This one points out that in some (certainly not all) cases a current is like a river, and it is possible to get out of it by swimming across it to the "shore" of calmer water. A few years ago, I was on a boat that was scheduled to do a dive on a wreck, with the DM swimming down to set a line. The DM returned to the boat saying that the current was far too strong; if the line were set, we would not be able to pull ourselves down it to get to the wreck. We went instead to a very nearby slightly shallower section of reef to do a drift dive on the reef instead. When we dropped into the water, there as so little current we could not tell what direction it was flowing.