Pat Green's boat capsized!

[MRXRAY]

Glad to hear everyone is ok.

 

[jhayes75]

Wow, Glad everyone is Ok.

 

[proteinrage]

For those following the capsizing of the ‘Red Menace’, I was the diver that suffered a laceration to the head and 13 staples to seal it up. To further what ohono mentioned, the captain and DM performed their respective roles with calm collective and exhibited great poise in a freaky and scary situation. The entire boat remained calm in spite of the seemingly dire experience. To escape this kind of accident with a flesh wound, I thank my lucky stars that whatever hit me in the head (probably a steel tank) glanced off my head, rather than driving me down into the water and potential knocking me unconscious or fracturing my skull or worse. Captain Reed (especially for keeping pressure on my head wound) and DM Matt deserve a shout out for remaining very calm and using their training to keep the group together. I would not hesitate to dive with them or the OP again. The weather was strange that day. It was not diver unfriendly as some may surmise. Everyone I know has dived in conditions like this and does so to this day. One rogue wave was bad, but to have multiple roll into you was indeed frightening. The Red Menace did not have a chance to recover from such a rapid succession of large waves. I also wish to express my heartfelt thank you to the recreational vessel ‘Sanity’ for putting yourself and family at risk to assist us. I don’t have your name (ohono has that info), without you charging through heavy seas to our location, we could have been in the water for much longer. That is truly heroic in my book. For anyone considering diving in the northwest panhandle of Florida and wish to hit some wrecks off of Panama City, know that if you select Panama City Dive Charters, you will get a competent crew and operation. The owner of the dive charter operation has been very forthcoming and supportive of me, our group and our situation. Again, I have no qualms at all using his operation to scuba dive off Panama City. I could go through excruciating detail of the experience, but since it was a boat accident, not a diving accident; I’ll keep this post limited to why the thread was created here.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Holy Crap!

Glad to hear nobody was hurt and everyone even stayed calm and collected. Glad the above is healing well/quickly.

 

[Zieg]

Proteinrage or ohonu, since you were there, could you describe to us how the accident happened from your perspective. For example, was the boat tied in to the wreck, or anchored, was it moored off the bow or the stern, did it slowly roll over or did it suddenly flip? The news article wasn't very clear. You can give us first hand accounts.

 

[mike_s]

The news article wasn't very clear. .

have you ever known the news media to report something 100% accurate?


they go for the "sensationalize" of the story, don't check the facts, and don't verify the facts they check... then move on to the next story.... and 'whore' it up again.

 

[Heath Sapp]

I am very glad that everyone is ok and safe.

 

[Zieg]

have you ever known the news media to report something 100% accurate?


they go for the "sensationalize" of the story, don't check the facts, and don't verify the facts they check... then move on to the next story.... and 'whore' it up again.

Totally agree.

 

[proteinrage]

From my perspective, it was a complete freak set of waves. Essentially, we were tied off to the Black Bart, near the stern. The line descent was probably around 100'. Our group completed the dive in about 25 or so minutes. Another couple did not dive because of equipment malfunction. We boarded the boat, me first, then my other buddies. Procedure called for us to move towards the center of the boat to disengage our BC and store it down on the deck. I took off my BC, my gloves and moved my fins to be near my bc. Ohonu, was the last to board and did exactly what we did. One of my buddies and I moved to the bow of the boat to redistribute the weight. The other couple also moved to the center of the boat. Once Ohonu was on board, the captain signaled the DM that it was time to untie. The DM splashed and descended down to the Black Bart. The captain had started the engines and moved towards the front the boat to assist with the tiein line. At this point, Ohonu was near the rear the boat when the first wave splashed, putting about 4-5 inches of water into the stern area - Ohonu calling me to get my gear. He barely finished that sentence when the second wave crashed into stern essentially pushing the stern down, burying 3-4ft of water in the boat and the engines quit - seconds later the third wave swamped the rear, alarms went off and the captain began the mayday sequence. Meanwhile, the DM had untied the boat from the Black Bart, so we were essentially free. The captain was able to relief the line so the DM would not be sucked down if he was ascending with or near the line. From the time the first wave hit until we jumped ship was at most 45-60 seconds. The captain did get the life jackets out to everyone he could before the boat completely stood up and rotated deck down. It was at this point that I jumped clear and something flew off the bow of the boat during the rotation and hit me in the head. As the boat completed its rotation and settled hull up and pointing like the titanic, we gathered what we could to float and it was then that they noticed my injury. The captain immediately swam over to me, put pressure on the cut and we collected some flotation seats to keep me afloat, in addition to the life vest. We took stock of the equipment we had on us, some fins, the DM had his gear and life bag and whistle, rope, etc. Luckily, a can of Sunkist floated by...nothing like a cold Sunkist on a hot day. The captain used that to keep me hydrated. From the DM splash to his surfacing could not have been more than 2-3 minutes, TOPS. I'm sure he was a bit surprised to see the boat floating upside down. All in all, everyone kept their heads and we made it out ok. Again, KUDOS to the captain and DM.

 

[Hetland]

Luckily, a can of Sunkist floated by...nothing like a cold Sunkist on a hot day.

Very Nice!

Glad you guys made it through in one piece.