WARNING: Jolly Dive boat captain by name of Paul sexually harassed me

[Edward3c]

Posted on trip advisor
Alleged sexual harrassment by Captain Paul of Jolly Dive - Review of Jolly Dive Center, Jolly Harbour, Antigua and Barbuda - TripAdvisor
Alleged sexual harrassment by Captain Paul of Jolly Dive
Review of Jolly Dive Center
Reviewed today
I must respond to the review posted yesterday
I was a diver on the boat that day.
I spoke with the complainant before the first dive, during the surface interval, and after the second dive. She came across as a quiet shy individual from a disparate family background. Two gentlemen were with her. I believe they were her step ? father and brother. They lived thousands of miles apart from the complainant. They seemed very affable individuals and turned out to be very competent divers
The two dives were lead by Paul´s spouse Cornelia.
On the first dive the complainant had a problem entering the water. I remained on the surface with her, assisted her until she was ready to descend and accompanied her down to the the group. The dive was uneventful. I discussed the entry problem with her between the dives.
The second dive was a drift dive. In this case this means that the boat captain follows the divers exhaled air bubbles in order to keep track of the location of the dive group. This is no easy task in a choppy sea in close proximity to a shallow reef. It demands maximum concentration. Marker buoys are carried by the group to show their location should the captain lose track of the divers. I point all this out because it is extremely unlikely that alleged sexual shennanigans could take place during this period. The skill needed for navigation of the boat alone renders the allegations baseless and verifies that they are completely without any foundation. ´
The complainant had an ear problem and aborted her second dive. She was accompanied to the surface by an instructor. After the dive, I chatted about her problem. Her demeanour was the same as before. She was not unhappy, upset, angry or tearful. She was not isolated and sat near her relatives. There was not the slightest indication that anything untoward had taken place. When the boat docked everybody departed on a good terms.
I will not speculate on her reason for posting this review.
I have dived for over 40 years with dive operations world wide. I have dived with Captain Paul and his wife Cornelia of Jolly Dive for many years. Theirs is an operation where safety is paramount and the humour unique. It is Paul who dives wearing a bow tie. He is one of the most well respected figures on Antigua who will go out of his way to assist anyone
It bothers me that this little girl, for reasons known only to herself, and clearly in need of some help, is able to post such a damaging review with scant regard for the consequences

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Date of experience: January 2019

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Just because you see him as a “most well respected figures” means nothing, too many have subsequently found to be abusing their position and sexually harassing others for years.

I’ve cox’ed many drift dives in the Caribbean, it isn’t that difficult to follow a group of divers, I even do it in U.K. waters.

To be honest, your post adds weight to the original allegation.

 

[Esprise Me]

You know that hammet was sharing something someone else posted on TA, right? I agree, though, that the response adds weight to the allegations rather than refuting them.

 

[diversteve]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Threads of this nature do not exist ib a vacuum contrary to what some members believe.

When situations like this occur we make efforts to verify authenticity of the poster and the content if possible.

We have verified that the OP is not posting from a competitors location.In fact her posts are consistent with where she claims to live - we have tools that can pinpoint a posters location

Had none of this been verifiable - this thread would be in Thumbs Down - however it is not since it passed independent verification using the tools we have at our disposal. At this time we have no independent corroboration of the content of the post.

One of our senior staff is in personal contact with her. Their dicussions seem to validate her existence

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I believe Paul has or is being notified of he existence of this thread also and asked to respond. Normally that's part of our process when possible.

Threads of this type are always contentious. We would ask that everyone keep the idle speculation to a minimum unless you have verifiable facts about the situation..

 

[caruso]

What sort of evidence do you think she should put forward? What sort of evidence, other than the victim's statements, do you think would exist in this situation?

It's not about evidence, as you suggest other than eye witness testimony in a court of law, there's nothing else to show as proof. It's not about proof, it's not about her, it's about jumping to conclusions and believing something just because somebody wrote it.

Just because a second anonymous user supports another users review of a business doesn't make it so.

 

[Storker]

it's not about her, it's about jumping to conclusions and believing something just because somebody wrote it.

Alternatively, it might be about reading a post and somberly evaluating its credibility, particularly as other information is provided.

I know. Crazy, isn't it?

 

[caruso]

Alternatively, it might be about reading a post and somberly evaluating its credibility, particularly as other information is provided.

I know. Crazy, isn't it?

It's literally impossible to simply read a post and know if it's credible without having other information available to corroborate it.

Do you often read negative reviews of dive ops (or other merchants) and naturally believe them simply because they sound credible to you? If so, that might be considered "Crazy".

 

[Storker]

Do you often read negative reviews of dive ops (or other merchants) and naturally believe them simply because they sound credible to you?

No, it doesn't happen often. But then I'm not just going by what "sounds" credible. There's a lot more to evaluating credibility than how things "sound".

 

[Esprise Me]

It's not about evidence, as you suggest other than eye witness testimony in a court of law, there's nothing else to show as proof. It's not about proof, it's not about her, it's about jumping to conclusions and believing something just because somebody wrote it.

Just because a second anonymous user supports another users review of a business doesn't make it so.

Are you actually reading the posts? Because the response on TripAdvisor that was cross-posted here wasn't "supporting" her; it was calling her a liar...yet (perhaps inadvertently?) confirming at least the innocuous parts of her story. Think about that for a minute, and then think about what you wrote about OP maybe being a competitor. Not all alternatives are equally plausible.

 

[caruso]

the response on TripAdvisor that was cross-posted here wasn't "supporting" her; it was calling her a liar...yet (perhaps inadvertently?) confirming at least the innocuous parts of her story. Think about that for a minute, and then think about what you wrote about OP maybe being a competitor. Not all alternatives are equally plausible.

Not seeing how the cross posted antagonistic Trip Advisor post makes her any more credible. Even though it's antagonistic not supportive. Doesn't matter. The person (or persons) leaving those posts are anonymous strangers, we know nothing about them so there's no reason to accept what they write or say at face value. To do so would be rather naive.

Of course "not all alternatives are equally plausible". They almost never are. Your point?

 

[LandonL]

The trip advisor rebuttal sounds like it may be coming from an employee of the dive center, as it appears they were there in some capacity assisting her at various points?