Socorro Liveaboard Grounding

[Endler's]

'Would not be surprising, if the top heaviness of the boat, contributed to the crashes.

Came across previous Scubaboard post about Vortex.

Very fun read, fantastic video, and made me put the Socorro Islands on my Bucket List!

Socorro | Revillagigedos | Vortex

Thanks Palawan

 

[ABUnderwater]

'Would not be surprising, if the top heaviness of the boat, contributed to both crashes.

Came across previous Scubaboard post about Vortex.

Very fun read, and made me put the Socorro Islands on my Bucket List.

Socorro | Revillagigedos | Vortex

Thanks Palawan

I would be very surprised if the top-heaviness of the boat contributed to either crash. From reading Palawan's post, it does sound like some regrettable decisions may have been made during refit of the vortex, but that's not something that's going to cause her to run aground.

There are lots of factors that can cause this type of incident, but the stability of the vessel is not really in question here. If she had flipped or gotten tossed on her beam, then maybe stability would be a factor, but a slightly top-heavy boat isn't going to somehow cause a loss of control that would drive you to run into an island (or a fuel dock...).

 

[DogDiver]

A report on FB stated it ran aground at “cruising speed”.

 

[Doc Ben]

I heard the Mexican Navy has set up a restricted zone around Isla Socorro, meaning no dive vessels can go there right now. Anyone else heard this?

 

[ChuckP]

A friend just left to go diving there, hope that story isn't true....

 

[wgw04024]

No word on cause yet??

 

[scubadada]

The follow up on liveaboard accidents is often quite bad/suppressed? Why did the Red Sea Aggressor I catch fire and sink? Maybe we will hear about the Scuba Scene? Sure, and what about the Vortex? For the last two, one would assume safely had risen to very important?

I've only taken 9 liveaboards, including the RSA1, I certainly screen my rides much more aggressively these days.

 

[Shasta_man]

Either of the two possible scenarios wouldn't reflect well on the crew: if they ran aground while under way, that seems a little surprising though obviously possible. The pictures show it pretty close to the shore. It may have been on autopilot but autopilot only means it's driving itself while the captain monitors it. If it drifted while anchored, there should have also been a Night Watch. I don't think everybody just goes to bed.

 

[AZTinman]

Reports from someone who was on board indicate that the the boat was cruising on autopilot, the crew was asleep, and the boat ran aground on the island. I guess I'm more inclined to believe an account from someone who was actually there rather than trying to speculate or rationalize about what might have happened.

Yes, the picture shows it close to shore; it ran aground on the island. More recent reports indicate that the boat broke into pieces and sank. It's a shame as it was a beautiful boat.

No doubt, most of us who've been out with live aboard operations know there should be a night watch, but sometimes crew members get lax and bad things happen. This may sound unbelievable, but the disaster with the Conception is evidence that this kind of stuff happens. Someone should've been awake and monitoring things.

-AZTinman

 

[rongoodman]

I don't think everybody just goes to bed.

The Conception and the RSA beg to differ.