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Dive boat sinks and 10 Scuba shore excursion passengers rescued


tugtraveller
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I was trying to figure out why our Scuba excursion was cancelled in Cozumel, and come to find out --- Sand Dollar Sports who handles a large amount of the scuba & snorkeling excursions for the cruise ships had a dive boat sink earlier this month with 10 passengers on it. They were on ship-sponsored scuba excursions with 4 passengers from the RCCL Navigator of the Seas and 6 passengers from the Celebrity Equinox. I originally heard about it on a recently-posted TripAdvisor review for Sand Dollar Sports while looking for dive shops in Cozumel.

 

Here's a link to the article in the Miami Herald.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article193830679.html

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This happens weeks ago... no one was injured. Long thread on it on Scubaboard.

We dove with SandDollar back in May and had zero problems with them, thought the crew was actually very good.

 

ABQrobin, I posted this information because Carnival and other lines are just this week cancelling scuba excursions in Cozumel with no stated reasons why. We are just 2 weeks away from cruising and scrambling to find a replacement, as are others here on CruiseCritic.

 

Sorry, but I am not familiar with Scubaboard, and the title of my post states that the passengers were rescued. What concerned me the most about the article was the comment that Sand Dollar retrieved the sunken boat, made repairs, and has put it back in service again.

 

I would not feel safe booking a scuba excursion for my adult daughter that would put her on that same boat that just sank just a few weeks earlier. Maybe you have a different opinion about this, and that is fine, too.

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ABQrobin, I posted this information because Carnival and other lines are just this week cancelling scuba excursions in Cozumel with no stated reasons why. We are just 2 weeks away from cruising and scrambling to find a replacement, as are others here on CruiseCritic.

 

Sorry, but I am not familiar with Scubaboard, and the title of my post states that the passengers were rescued. What concerned me the most about the article was the comment that Sand Dollar retrieved the sunken boat, made repairs, and has put it back in service again.

 

I would not feel safe booking a scuba excursion for my adult daughter that would put her on that same boat that just sank just a few weeks earlier. Maybe you have a different opinion about this, and that is fine, too.

 

I get that is sounds crazy, but most boats that sink are retrieved and repaired then right back out. Not just dive boats, any boats...the reason is $$$$. Boats are very expensive, so unless there was serious damage, a boat of any size will be repaired and used again. I am sure it will take more than a week to fix, also, but the company is going to go under financially because of this incident, just from people's comments on the internet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bloody hell, had I read this article when it was posted I probably could have gotten the story straight from the horses mouth... I was on the Navigator OTS Jan 19-28 and dived with one of the ship's dive masters / instructors in Aruba and Curacao.

 

I can't say incidents like that worry me too much, accidents happen that can't be helped. It's how we respond to them that's important.

 

Pat

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