Socorro Liveaboard Grounding

[bakodiver391]

In my 9 years experience working on a liveaboard, I would say that 1 watchstander at night would be normal, on 2 or 3 hour watches. He would also circulate around the boat and do fire and engine room checks as well, which is good for keeping awake in the wee hours. It's not so much to save money on crewing, but realize that crew bunks are typically in short supply on a liveaboard, so adding another crew member or two is not an option. And the majority of the crew has to be bright-eyed and cheerful at 6 am to keep the dive holiday rolling along, so crew needs as much sleep as possible. Of course this is predicated on the crew being responsible and actually staying awake and making sure their replacement shows up to take the next watch.

 

[Doc Ben]

Update today from Marrisa:
"We were traveling from roca partida to socorro overnight. Last watch person admitted to us he went to bed when no one came to relieve him. Boat was set on auto pilot heading in a straight line for socorro and we crashed going cruising speed right into the first thing that got into our way. We were not even on the side of the island boats drop anchor. We were on the side people avoid because of bad weather and it’s exposed."

I wonder how she knows this when she admits to being awoken by the crash! I am wondering if the Mexican Navy or other "authorities" have the nav logs. It would be great to see the GPS tracking log. Someone told me there is a website that has tracks of ships out in that area.

 

[AZTinman]

Well Doc Ben, if you really wonder how she knows this when she admits to being awoken by the crash, the answer is right there in the quote from Manatee Diver that you cited in your post. Just read the second sentence. Did you bother to read, "Last watch person admitted to us he went to bed when no one came to relieve him."

I think if the last watch person admitted to going to bed when no one came to relieve him, there's not much left to wonder about.

-AZTinman

 

[ChuckP]

I only wonder why you plot a course thru an island and not around?

Can't a modern auto pilot drive itself to points? As a kid in the early 80's we had some new hi tech SatNav or something and I remember dad saying we couldn't plot from Cleveland to Vermillion because it ignored the land mass of Lorain, we had to use points but we didn't have auto pilot.

 

[Belzelbub]

I only wonder why you plot a course thru an island and not around?

Can't a modern auto pilot drive itself to points? As a kid in the early 80's we had some new hi tech SatNav or something and I remember dad saying we couldn't plot from Cleveland to Vermillion because it ignored the land mass of Lorain, we had to use points but we didn't have auto pilot.

Yeah, that's a good question. Modern auto-pilots should be able to do just as you described. My boat doesn't even have auto-pilot, but I can plot a route around land if so desired. I usually just use the direct routing once I'm through the inlet.

Heck, you can even use Navionics' website to find a safe course. You just need to put your start and end position, some details on the boat (draft being most important) and it will plan you a course. I'm not positive it will work in that area, but I have tested it out in areas I'm familiar with and the automatic route generated does work.

Even without all the electronic resources available, I'm assuming the area in question was familiar to this operation. Plotting a course through an island is just nuts.

 

[Jcp2]

Maybe the autopilot is a pair of hooks, some bungee cords, and three bricks.

 

[Tracy]

Maybe the autopilot is a pair of hooks, some bungee cords, and three bricks.

You don't need the bricks, the throttle self locks on a boat.

 

[Doc Ben]

Well Doc Ben, if you really wonder how she knows this when she admits to being awoken by the crash, the answer is right there in the quote from Manatee Diver that you cited in your post. Just read the second sentence. Did you bother to read, "Last watch person admitted to us he went to bed when no one came to relieve him."

I think if the last watch person admitted to going to bed when no one came to relieve him, there's not much left to wonder about.

-AZTinman

Sure I see that but hit the rocks at "cruising speed"...how did she know that?

 

[AZTinman]

"Sure I see that but hit the rocks at "cruising speed"...how did she know that?"

Simple answer... the autopilot was engaged and the boat was moving at cruising speed. Was anyone at the helm to disengage the autopilot and throttle back before the boat hit the island? Since none of the crew were awake and at the helm, the speed of the boat wouldn't have changed much before impact.

Also, keep in mind the information you're seeing from the individual who was on the boat isn't giving us a word for word account of every single conversation that followed the incident. I suspect there were multiple conversations between crew members and passengers following the incident. Maybe she knows the boat hit the rocks at cruising speed because a member of the crew told her that. I've never met this individual, but I believe her; I really have no reason to not believe her.

Consider how much damage the impact must have done to the boat. This wasn't just an, "Oops, I bumped a rock," incident. This vessel that was damaged to the extent that it broke apart and sank within days of the accident.

-AZTinman

 

[Shasta_man]

There two things that don't inspire confidence though I am going off third hand info: first, that apparently nobody was driving the boat except a "watch person". Definition of watch person to me is as described above, someone who roams the boat looking for problems, not the guy driving the boat. Perhaps it's just me but I prefer a dedicated boat driver. I am going off what someone else told us but that seems the case. Second, this person thought they could just go to bed rather than going to get their relief. That tends to indicate they are the lower level guy that walks around the boat looking for problems. Beating a dead horse here but still mind boggling to consider what happened here.