AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Caye Caulker Snorkeling Accident

OK Bear, but keep in mind the currents change on a hourly basis. One hour the currents can be mild. When there is the outgoing tide, they can be extreme. On the same windy day the outgoing tide can be dangerous but the incoming tide altogether different.
This is where the knowledge of the guide is important.
If you tried the idea of flags, to be accurate, it might necessitate changing them numerous times throughout the day which in my mind makes the idea unworkable.

I was on the beach early that morning and it was very windy. One of the windiest days of this winter I would think. The tide was also very high and I had to walk up in the bush part of the way down the beach. Wether it was high tide or water inside the reef pushed up on the beach I'm not sure because that seems to be some thing that is different than normal tide flow back home. That was about 5 hours prior to the tragedy but....

I wonder how many snorkeling tours where canceled that morning? I'm hearing that there were some at least but I have no firsthand knowledge. If I had a trip planned that day I would not have went out and that morning I commented to a friend that morning how the wind was going to hurt the guide business at a busy time.

I considered that before I made my suggestion bW. I think that in general there are going to be days when its simply not a good idea, based on the overall prevailing conditions, to allow people in the water; those are the days you target. You can get caught up in the minutiae of hour by hour conditions but from an enforcement and safety issue you need to, again, keep it simple.

To supplement Ragman's comments, the average wind speeds for that day and those hours (from the Mosquito Coast weather station, bless you Callum) were sustained between 15- 20 miles per hour. That's indicative to me of an overall condition. In fact Elbert's own morning observations well to the north indicated a tough day based on his own subjective opinion. I'm not saying Elbert is the say all know all in such matters, I'm simply saying a that guy who has been here a long time, with sufficient time on the water, felt there was enough empiric evidence from his observation to indicate a rough day. Currents may run strong or weak based on tides but the influence of wave action and wind affects those and are the components (imho) that perhaps made this day so perilous.

You'll notice that in Marty's post above his long time guide friend* mentioned coming back in over the reef, that's a bit tough to do with large wind driven waves constantly crashing over the reef ... you're not going to come go over that reef in a controlled fashion nor are you going to do so on your finger tips. Evidence that the reef was involved in at least one fatality is plain enough; whether before or after death, is yet to be determined.

*(whom I happen to think is a remarkable example and sets the standard for how a guide should prep his charges prior to Hol Chan)

i know the facts are that 2 tourists are deceased The why is what happened is what most of you are speculating on. The ideas of flags & other methods to warn of danger are great but too late. like closing the gate after the animals are on the loose. let us get a plan in place so this does not happen again

A buoy or system of buoys would be the best option here. Buoys placed in the center of the channel would allow the strength of the current to be seen from both above and below the surface. These could be installed quickly and inexpensively and would allow everyone the ability to see the conditions both in and out of the water. Once installed a rating system could be used to determine acceptable and safe limits based on the movements of these buoys. Hopefully this is something that is addressed quickly for the safety of all involved.

C-

Maybe between the ex mayor and Ramons you could get a neon sign erected in the middle of the channel that would measure the current every few minutes and flash the appropriate warnings when not advertising something.
What ever happened to people being responsible and trained in their profession. It is a sad case when we have to have objects to control people. Like speed bumps because we can't get people to drive right and warning signs on docks because people can't drive boats responsibly. And now flags and buoys and what ever other ideas come up because some tour guides don't know their job.

It's not as if this is a once-in-a-hundred-years event or as if everyone in the tourism business on Caulker or Ambergris is unaware that the currents at Hol Chan can be dangerous at times. Come on!

bywaren is doing his best to beat the place down...as usual.

bywarren is expressing and educated and real time fact, not beating anything down. You are the gloom and doom spokesman.

Jesse your commentary is not only irrelevant as to this serious issue, but grossly disrespectful to those whose lives have been lost or forever changed due to the incident. Thankfully for those who have lost more than we can imagine in this situation, you deleted your previous irrelevant grossly disrespectful comment after my post.