Socorro Liveaboard Grounding

[Penguins4ever]

If there was no watch, roaming night watchman, everyone asleep, etc there could be legal trouble (like the Conception tragedy.). I don't know Mexican maritime law or perhaps if that was happening in international waters, but would imagine that they could be in legal trouble if true. The boat, being a former Canadian cost guard vessel, I would imagine would have a pretty sophisticated radar system, maybe autopilot too, unless it was removed or misused out of the hands of the military.

 

[Tracy]

If there was no watch, roaming night watchman, everyone asleep, etc there could be legal trouble (like the Conception tragedy.). I don't know Mexican maritime law or perhaps if that was happening in international waters, but would imagine that they could be in legal trouble if true. The boat, being a former Canadian cost guard vessel, I would imagine would have a pretty sophisticated radar system, maybe autopilot too, unless it was removed or misused out of the hands of the military.

I have viewed a few former coast guard vessels for sale. They tend to have excellent electronics but the auto pilot is usually fairly standard tech. They have crew to staff the bridge. They aren't planning to sleep at the helm.

 

[bakodiver391]

Turns out a good friend was on this trip. He travels with about 50k worth of gear and says everyone's gear was a total loss. I know that he had insurance in the past and hope that he carried it for this trip.
My take on the recent spate of liveaboard groundings, fires, collisions, etc. is that there seems to have been a loss of institutional knowledge in the world wide liveaboard fleet over the last two years. With regards to our local destination at Bikini Atoll, the pool of people with the knowledge to run the entire operation was never more than a handful, and of those, two have died and one has retired in the last 2 years. Couple that loss of knowledge with budget constraints and people and equipment sitting inactive for a couple of years, and we may see more trouble in the liveaboard fleets.

 

[ABUnderwater]

If there was no watch, roaming night watchman, everyone asleep, etc there could be legal trouble (like the Conception tragedy.). I don't know Mexican maritime law or perhaps if that was happening in international waters, but would imagine that they could be in legal trouble if true. The boat, being a former Canadian cost guard vessel, I would imagine would have a pretty sophisticated radar system, maybe autopilot too, unless it was removed or misused out of the hands of the military.

All of this is conjecture, but I have a very hard time believing that any liveaboard would be running with no watch at all. More likely there was a single person on the bridge, ship was running on autopilot, and the watchstander fell asleep. Easy to happen given how busy the schedule can be on a lot of liveaboards.

 

[runsongas]

if the boat was underway, it should be either the captain or a qualified first mate, not just a night watch.

 

[bcaderunr]

if the boat was underway, it should be either the captain or a qualified first mate, not just a night watch.

One theory:

Boat was moored for the night. wind picks up, anchor starts dragging (or mooring breaks), no one is paying attention.

 

[uwscuba]

One theory:

Boat was moored for the night. wind picks up, anchor starts dragging (or mooring breaks), no one is paying attention.

I imagine it has to be this. While the trip to Socorro from the mainland is long, the trip between islands usually only lasts a few hours. I was there in January with the same company (on the Rocio—the quality was mid-tier I would say) and at least for those trips the latest the boat ever moored was about midnight.

 

[uwscuba]

has the location of the grounding been posted. I am not referring to Socorro rather the location on the island. The photos I have seen kinda look like Cabo Pierce but its been quite a few years since I did the last trip.

I also was thinking Cabo Pierce. Looks exactly like the rocks in that little cove area where the reef break extends out.

 

[Penguins4ever]

One theory:

Boat was moored for the night. wind picks up, anchor starts dragging (or mooring breaks), no one is paying attention.

I think there is a good chance of this possibility. Having been on anchor watch on a tall ship for cumulatively many hours, 2 at a time over night, it can get tedious watching the little dot never going anywhere...until it does. The pictures do look like choppy waters so a potential anchor drag/broken mooring does make sense.
What do you think about the bow in the picture? Photo artifact or possible collision point? Given that it was on the side away from the island could that offer any hints? I imagine a bash-in (if it is and related to this incident) like that at main deck level could take some force.

 

[jplant]

Life raft found @‘bahia Caleta el Barquito’ per Mexican report. You’d need good charts to see where that is on the island.

SEMAR rescató a 25 personas que se encontraban a bordo del buque “Socorro Vortex” | Capital México

Tras recibir una llamada de auxilio , la SEMAR rescató a 25 personas que se encontraban a bordo del buque “Socorro Vortex”.

www.capitalmexico.com.mx

has the location of the grounding been posted. I am not referring to Socorro rather the location on the island. The photos I have seen kinda look like Cabo Pierce but its been quite a few years since I did the last trip.