Unfortunate News from CB 12/17-12/24

[holidayathesea]

I am currently onboard the CB sailing away from St. Maarten and on to Princess Cays. Overall so far the cruise has been amazing, but unfortunately today a passenger passed away.

 

The female passenger was off on an excursion (diving trip) and drown. She was getting back onto the boat in choppy water and either panicked (sp?) or did something wrong and drown. Other than that, I don't know any other details. Her family of course packed up and got off the ship, and we left late 30-60 minutes late. Right now we're hitting some bigger waves than we've had so far (this being my first cruise, I'm not sure how "bad" this is, but we're really rocking. I'm sitting in the chair and falling backwards because the chairs tip back too).

 

I won't be posting again until I get back home on the 30th, so say a prayer for this passenger and family. At least she passed away in paradise.

 

Safe travels and fun cruising everyone.

[trvlhorse]

What a sad thing to have happen while on vacation, especially during the holiday season. My prayers go out for her family.

[Coral]

Something similiar to this made local news last month. A man from Omaha was snorkeling in Belize on a shore excursion from NCL and the current must have changed - one minute he was there and the next minute, they couldn't find him and they presumed he drowned. The family did say that he died doing something he loved.....

 

I think I am going to become more conservative in my shore excursions in the future.

[ssbeagle]

Something like that happened on a British Isles cruise I was on except it wasn't a snorkeler. A man with a heart condition climbed to the top to kiss the Blarney stone and when he got there he keeled over and died from the exertion. They closed the tower until they could get him down so we never got to see the Blarney stone. It seems like I have never been on a cruise where the ship wasn't met by an ambulance at some port in the cruise. Our last one there was one at every port except Cannes and Livorno.

[Cruiseteach]

On our cruise to Scandinavia a few years ago, a man suffered a serious heart problem that required that he be airlifted at sea to a hospital in Denmark. They came on the intercom and explained how very dangerous this was, both for the man, the crew on the ship and the helicopter crew, and asked that everyone stay inside until it was over. I could not believe how many people went running to the site, cameras in hand. Sick!!!!!

[travellady]

We'll be sailing the CB next week and my 3 sons and husband are signed up for a diving excursion in St Maarten. Reading this gave me a chill up my spine but at the same time, I have no plans to ask them not to go.

 

And how awful for the family, what was to have been a fun holiday trip turned into a tragedy instead. Losing somebody unexpectedly (and even expectedly) just before Xmas is really tough. I tragically lost my sister on 12/19 11 years ago and believe me, I have not forgotten and every year around tihs time, she is at the forefront of my mind. But, these things taught me to live life to the fullest.

[showdog]

I would be curious to know if this was a Princess booked tour or not and why exactly this happened. I'm wondering a lot of things. How much experience did she have? Did her BCD fail? Why didn't the crew help her get back on the boat? Did she hit her head on something first?

This is really a sad thing. We just got off the Golden last Saturday and the seas were the most calm we've ever had. Could it have gotten that worse in a couple of days???

[PescadoAmarillo]

I would be curious to know if this was a Princess booked tour or not and why exactly this happened. I'm wondering a lot of things. How much experience did she have? Did her BCD fail? Why didn't the crew help her get back on the boat? Did she hit her head on something first?

Assuming her BCD was functioning, why was it not inflated at the surface?

And finally, where was her buddy...already on the boat?

 

So sad.

[starsjohn]

I would also like to know the circumstances of this accident. Was she struck by the boat or protruding hardware in the choppy seas? I recently had to board a dive boat in extremely rough seas with the stern of the boat clearing and the props showing. The ladder was a single post with side bars of highly polished steel. We had to climb with fins on because of the current. Feet with fins kept sliding off the steps. No crew to help.

[marly]

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that sad news. As a diver it's hard to imagine how that can happen without there being some gross negligence on the part of the dive operation and even the other divers. I know when the water is rough it can be difficult to get back in the boat, but you should be able to at least stay afloat with a BCD on.

 

A woman died on our cruise in September. It happened in the theater on the last day of the cruise just before the show was about to start. It was a very sad thing to watch. I imagine things like this happen a lot more frequently than we know.

[Next]

http://www.thedailyherald.com/news/daily/i186/drown186.html

[showdog]

Now I'm curious if she was diving with the ship tour or if she booked on her own.

 

We just went scuba diving last week on Princess almost every day. We don't usually like to take the tours from the ship because there are too many people and you just don't receive the attention from the dive masters like you do when you book privately. I'm also very curious about her buddy and if she booked directly with Princess.

 

I had a bad experience with a Princess booked scuba tour a couple of years ago in St. Lucia. It was my fist dive trip. If it weren't for my husband I would have died. There was so many people and only 1 dive master. I was being pulled down by a strong current and no one saw me except my buddy (husband). There was just way too many of us. I like a much smaller group.

[niborHS]

Such a sad thing for this family to experience. 8 years ago while on a cruise stop in St. Martin my husband had a verious serious accident on a jet ski. The water was choppy, he hit a wave, was thrown and hit the handle bars on his way down. He cracked the front of his pelvis. We were on a Royal Carribean cruise at the time and, after x-rays in Marigot, and with 2 young sons in tow, we convinced the ship to allow him to board. They did not want to take him on. Through our American Express Platinum card, he was air lifted from St. Thomas to New York for surgery. (We live in NY). Everyone just has to be extra careful while on a cruise. We get off at the islands, are anxious to do things, and sometimes do them because we have made the plans, and don;t think about the consequences of things like bad weather.

[cusyl]

I have a webcam friend on the ship now with his entire family, hopefully it was none of them!

We are getting on the ship day after tomorrow, sure hope the seas calm down. That has to be really choppy weather for your chair to be tipping back in the internet lounge.

[chasetf]

So sorry to hear of this tragedy... I know nothing of the circumstances nor the individuals involved, other than what I have read in this thread, to be able to comment.

 

But this incidence makes me wonder about the level of training people have in this type of adventure.

 

It is curious to hear comments about reliance on dive masters, the tour operators or other divers. There should be questions raised about where was her buddy. If a person is depending on a dive master during the dive then they are over their head. The dive master's responsibility should be to make one familiar with this new area they are about to dive.

 

I have talked with many certified divers and am somewhat taken back by how little actual training is involved, particularily in the "vacation" courses such as those offered at resorts or on cruise ships. I donot understand how anyone can be certified without ever completing an ocean dive. :confused:

 

When I went through my NAUI and PADI certification some many years ago, my instructor walked into the class room and announce this was not a swimming class. He assumed we knew how to swim and we had to demonstrate it to him by swimming a mile in the open ocean, float in the open ocean for 30 minutes (without a vest) and drag one of his 180lb instructors 50 yards. Half the class got up and left that first night.

After all the classroom (6 evenings) and pool training (4 sessions), we had to complete 5 open ocean dives to get a novice card. With our novice card, we had to complete 10 more dives with another certified diver, then come back for a checkout dive with our instructor before we got our certification.

[Next]

If you want to read a great book (NY Times best seller list for a while) then check out Shadow Divers. It is about divers who find a German sub off NJ in deep water. It is a great human story but also gives some tremendous insight into diving and the whole issue of personal responsibility for diving. It also tells of the diving done on the Andria Doria and the search for dining room dishes and how people die doing that. As a cruiser, I found the Andria Doria info fasinating and ended up getting other books on that subject. It will give you a new apprciation for the dining room plates next time you are on a cruise.

[Next]

Regarding this incident, I think we should wait to hear more from the St. Maarten Daily Herald if and when they report more. Daily Herald Message Board.

 

I did this same dive one month ago. It was easy, no more than 45'. Good crew, reasonable calm seas, 50' visability.

 

I did notice that there was no buddying suggested by the crew. I have seen this more and more. It seems the protocol now is to just have everyone buddy for everone within a small group of six or so. I noticed many of the divers were out of shape and appeared shaky with their skills. For example, the guy next to me suits up and is ready to go in the water and does not have his weight belt on. The dive master caught it and corrected it. If you are swimming in the group and happen to be last, you can easily be forgotten. If you happen to get into to trouble, you are own own, at least for a couple of minutes until (if) someone realizes you are in trouble.

 

At one point early in my dive, I was having trouble with my bouancy and was kinda of spinnig and flipping a bit. It was no trouble for me, but one of my fellow divers signalled to see if I was OK, which I signaled back, OK. That was fine because we were together and I was in his sight. Had I been last in the group, he would have never seen me.

 

It is impossible to say what happen to Harriet Kamerow. Did she have a heart attack? Did she get stuck in a swim-through and panic? Was she over exerting and ran out of air? Until we get a report, it is just specualtion.

 

Just as an example, on our dive, this other guy went in with too little weight. You are ressponsible to know how much weight you need based on salt vs fresh water, thickness of dive suit, etc. You are supposed to log your dives and use the log to judge the weight for your next dive. This guy goes in too light and is working hard to stay down and therefore sucking more air than everyone else. He was bone dry just as he reaches the end of the dive. If that would have happened down at 45" while he snagged himself on some coral, and there was no one insight to share their tank, then bammo! The panic you could go into when you sip that last inch of air and the tank goes dry could be terrifying. I am not saying that this happened on this or any dive but it is so easy to see how something as simple as the wrong weight could snowball into a disaster, albeit a preventable one.

 

My condolences to the Kamerow family.

[divadiverfl]

There is always more to the story--but it is unforunate for the family. We went on a cruise for 2 weeks on the old HAL Noordam and a total of 3 people died or was taken back to the states. One of the men that died was a couple of cabins down. It was sad seeing the family take his stuff of the ship. There was a time when a 59 yr old man died from a heart attack while diving.

I wonder what kind of shpae she was in or how old was she. I read the article--where was her buddy or anyone that realized she was missing right away. If I did not come up with my husband or friend they would some after me in a heart beat.