Very sad news-hurricane related........

[joewr]

Folks,

All is well with Natasha: her ship--a cruise ship, I think--diverted to St. Maarten, far to the east of the storm. I just received an e-mail from her this AM. You can read it in the General Travel section of the Board under, "Need Help".

From time to time I have posted a couple of sites that can be used to look at past history of hurricanes and typhoons in the Atlantic/Caribbean and Pacific, respectively.

This is the peak of hurricane season and everyone should consider that when scheduling dive trips. Frequently there are specials this time of year due to the lower demand for travel in the Caribbean. Be aware of the potential weather wherever you go.

The sites I mentioned are posted in a thread now in the General Travel section of the Board. You can also use them to track current weather and do some forecasting.

Joewr

 

[WetDane]

No news so far on the http://www.peterhughes.com web site - I saw the statement from the company too though.

Big T

 

[detroit diver]

I'm not too surprised at that. They've probably got their hands full dealing with this tragedy.

 

[kelpmermaid]

and this would confirm the stories.
http://www.richmonddiveclub.com/

This is just awful!

 

[detroit diver]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/frontpage/MGBOB4IULSC.html

and


Richmond Dive Club Inc
To: All Richmond Dive Club Members
From: RDC Board Of Directors
Re: Peter Hughes Wave Dancer & Aggressor

Posted: Tuesday, October 9th, 2001, 11:46am
URGENT
ANNOUNCEMENT

Many of you may have heard by now, that as a result of the hurricane in Belize, our club trip was interrupted by tragedy.

Our president, Glenn Prillaman, is among those verified as deceased.

We are asking all members to call all of your dive friends to attend the meeting tonight. We will meet as usual, at LaSiesta Mexican Restaurant at
7pm. We need the help of all of you to support these families during their time of need.

An official statement will be released at the meeting.

God Bless You All,
See You At The Meeting.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Board Of Directors
Richmond Dive Club, Inc.

 

[detroit diver]

Must have hit the send button at the same time!!

 

[SubMariner]

I cannot believe that these people were not evacuated inland. When I posted a msg to that effect on another board, "Capt. Nigel" wrote this reply:

"The Captain has to make a decision based on the facts around him. Sometimes it is better to stay on the boat (in a metal case basically) than be ashore with 140mph coconuts and other stuff flying around. But that is the decision of the skipper and he has to make his best judgement based on what he alone knows. The Aggressor was right next to them at the dock and only had some window damage I beleive, otherwise fine. I beleive that all locals had already been evacuated inland and anyway 95% of all buildings in Placencia were completely destroyed.....this is almost third world and buliduings don't last long.
Tragic...."

This is was my msg back:

Nigel, I spent 2 years aboard a 43' sailboat in the Bahamas with my spouse running a sail/dive charter. Although we did go through some nasty weather, we were fortunate never to have run into a hurricane. However, during our journeys we found a few souls who had been caught in such danger. The only couple that did stay aboard during a bad blow stated in no uncertain terms that it had been a very bad decision; in future they would find shelter ashore.

In light of this information from the "been there, done that, barely stayed alive to get the t-shirt" crowd, we decided that in the event we were to find ourselves in this perilous position, we would find the nearest hurricane hole or similar shelter, secure the boat as best we could, and get the hell off.

Unless the vessel is the size of a Carnival (et al) cruise ship, it's basically a mobile home on water. Given what happens to trailer parks during tornadoes, would you REALLY rather stay there than someplace more secure during catastrophic weather?

Simply put, evacuation inland during a hurricane is the prudent choice. Staying aboard a boat is not. The fact that the Aggressor "next door" didn't suffer the same fate is only pure luck and does not validate the poor decision not to withdraw to land.

Sadly, I believe that Hughes is in for some lawsuits on this one.

------------------------------------------------------------

BTW,... Pearce & I both hold USCG 100 Tons Ships Masters papers (with sailing endorsement). We're not the most experienced sailors around, but at least we've paid some dues!

~SubMariner~

 

[Scubaroo]

Wave Dancer was a 120 foot boat - almost a ship - check out the size of it at http://www.peterhughes.com/phwave/waveboat.htm I couldn't find any displacement information, but imagine the forces necessary to pick up a boat of this size and dump it on a dock, which according to one version of events on the web is what happened.

Let's worry about those crew and guests still missing before we worry about lawsuits!

Thoughts and prayers for victims and families.

 

[ckharlan66]

This a great tragidy and my prayers are with the families and the survivors.

Chad

 

[mlove]

I feel terrible about this tragedy. But my feeling bad doesn’t do anyone any good. It might be nice if this board collectively sent our condolences to the dive club. Maybe even threw in a few bucks each, there are quite a few of us and it would add up.
Any feed back?
mike