PHUKET, Thailand (8 June 2005) -- Scuba diving writer Chris Cruz has described the dramatic moments before the liveaboard dive boat Bubble Blue sank during a heavy storm on June 7, leaving a Thai woman dead. The 24-meter boat, with 18 people on board, was on its way from Chalong to the Similans for a seven-day coral survey when it was hit by bad weather. Speaking from his bed in Wachira Phuket Hospital the day after the boat sank, Mr Cruz said: "The storm was really very, very bad, so we had to slow down. It lasted for about three hours; the wind was 15-20 kilometers an hour and the waves were between four and six meters high. "We got caught in the middle. The waves kept smashing into the boat and water was coming inside, and slowly, slowly, we started sinking." As the boat listed to port, the skipper told everyone to move to the starboard side so that there would be less chance of them being hit by heavy items falling to the lower side of the boat. "Suddenly we were in the water. Luckily it happened in the daytime. If it had happened at night, it would have been a disaster." A 36-year-old woman, Sukonthapan Weerawan, who had inhaled a lot of water, went into shock and died. K. Sukonthapan, from Bangkok, 36, was a writer who had volunteered to help on the trip because she was a friend of one of the divers. She could not swim. Mr Cruz said, "She told me this was her first time on a boat, but we didn't know it would be her last. "We did everything we could to save her. We put her in the dinghy – it had capsized but we managed to get it the right way up – and we performed CPR [cardio-pulmonary resuscitation] on her, gave her mouth-to-mouth, but she didn't make it." | | Bubble Blue liveaboard dive boat sank on the way to the Similan Islands. He continued, "We shared food and tried to hydrate ourselves. I was telling my friends to eat as much as they could because we didn't know how long we would be in the water. "Everyone helped each other and all were very calm, though I think they were a bit scared. "But considering there were 18 of us and only one person died, it shows that we were doing the right things." After two hours in the rough sea, the group was spotted and picked up by a Thai fishing boat. Mr Cruz said he had had nightmares about not being able to save K. Sukonthapan, but added: "Thai people have told me that, because of the Buddhist way, she is happy she's gone." SOURCE - Phuket Gazette |
