On Holy Thursday, when everyone was gearing up to get out for Easter, 4 divers were stranded out at sea in Belize's southern waters in the fading light of evening.
It's a minor miracle they all survived after hours adrift - but perhaps an instructive moment regarding the duty of care to hotel guests.
The group was staying at Tobacco Caye Paradise when the incident happened. Today we met one of them at the airport and he gave us his version of the terrifying ordeal:
What began as a typical dive excursion with laughing.
Quickly turned into a fight for survival for four divers drifting in open waters near the Belize Barrier Reef
Thomas Bourret of Vancouver, Canada, recalls that the group completed their first dive without incident on April second, but when they continued the tour to Carrie Bow Caye that's when things took a turn for the worst. Initially, the group assumed the captain had simply lost track of their position and would reappear within minutes. Instead, the minutes stretched on as the sun slowly dipped toward the horizon. Soon, daylight faded and the divers realized they were alone in open water:
Thomas Bourret, Tourist/Diver
"First dive was amazing, we stayed 53 minutes underwater, we stopped at Southwater Caye to get a refreshment and the second dive were dropped off Carrie Bow Cay and then we did 45 minutes at the second dive. We were dropped off slightly off where we were supposed to be so we deployed like the divemaster deployed the parachute about 10 minute later for the captain to follow us but when we exit surfaced the dive there was no one to pick us up, so it was about 5pm we looked around, nothing between us and Carrie Bow Cay basically and so we joked at first like what the f and then the sun set down and so it was dark and still no boat on the horizon we couldn't see anything and so we came up with an emergency plan. The divemaster mentioned that there was, some mangrove island southern of where we were and the current was taking us so we just created like a human chain we sailed together armed together and we gently kicked our way towards those mangroves and the moon started to appear, we had some light finally but it was still dark."
With night falling, they were left with little more than the moon and their instincts to guide them and even that was unsafe with crocodiles, sharks and other marine life in the water. Each movement became more difficult as they pushed themselves toward what they hoped would be land.
Thomas Bourret, Tourist
"At this point we can see some boat looking for us where we should have exited the dives or by the reef and we have been drifting miles away so they were looking at the wrong place and it looked like they didn't do an extended search, it was pin pointed to that area and we kept swimming away. Some minutes, hours after we see some lights on the horizon, we don't know if it's on land if its on those mangrove islands and we finally see like a stronger white light that we decided to get close to it so we swim we swim and you have to understand at this point, in the salty water for four hours and with the fins, we had blisters on every of our toes so every kick is painful and to go toward that white light we had to go against the current which was very very painful."
And with salt and exhaustion, there was nothing funny about the situation:
Thomas Bourret, Tourist
"Even though we tried to joke about the situation, it's not funny anymore, we can lose like our life any moment so we go towards the catamaran, we scream help, we blow the whistle like 2 sharp times every 20 seconds in order to attract someone's attention and then no response. The catamaran is pitch black now nothing's coming from the Catamaran and so we approached the Catamaran, we reached the back of the catamaran, the ladder is down, we remove our fins, mask, we go up the ladder and then someone scrams who's there, what are you doing here and I can see a silhouette at the back of the boat. The man approached us and I can see 10, 12 people from the cabin emerging looking at us alarmed, just imagine four random people in scuba gear in the middle of the night just showing up to your boat. Turned out to be a chartered boat by an Italian group in their 40s, 50s. One of them is a doctor and they kept looking at us like hallucination but they brought us water, they brought us snack, food, jam and toast, they really took care of us cause they saw we were shaking dehydrated and the catamaran called to rescue so two boats came, one from the resort that was neighbor to the resort we are staying at and I believe the coast guard. So they took us to Carrie Bow Cay, armed coast guard waiting for us they took our position, name age, nationality. We waited about 30 minutes, the divemaster finally found his wife and his daughter, everyone was crying and scared we jumped on to another boat and we headed back to the resort we were staying at."
Rescue boats arrived later, including personnel believed to be from the Belize Coast Guard, and transported the divers to safety. They were taken to shore, where their names and statements were recorded before they were eventually returned to their resort. Their return was met with relief from staff and guests who had been anxiously awaiting word of their fate. But the aftermath of the ordeal left lingering questions, especially upon leaving the resort and going back to mainland:
Thomas Bourret, Tourist
"During the boat ride an information got shared with us that the manager took a bit more that two hours before sending any rescue to us which to us changed the whole situation like how can you let people at sea, knowing that they are, they didn't exit their dive that they're missing. How can you wait more than two hours before sending any rescue like don't play with our lives. We're not local I know but we're guests and we pay for our stay and you're playing with our life of which at this point was very frustrating to us so I sent a text to the owner saying like this changes everything, we want more compensation and he admitted that even before I sent the message that he refunded everything."
For now, they have been reimbursed for the trip in its entirety, but the story could have had a very different ending, and the question remains: why were we left out in the open sea for so long? Jaleeza Roberts, 7 news.
We reached out to the Hotel Management for Tobacco Caye Paradise for comment but they indicated that the matter is being dealt with and we should contact BTB. We also reached out to the Director of Tourism, who, as of news time has not gotten back to us.
