A Death in Belize
Twenty-eight year old Abigail Brinkman of Columbus, Ohio, has died while
scuba-diving off Belize.
Apparently Brinkman went out in a small group in a small boat, despite warnings of rough seas after Hurricane Wilma. When the boat engine died, she and three others jumped overboard and tried to swim to an island. The others survived. Brinkman, the only one not wearing a wetsuit, apparently died of hypothermia. (All of them seemed to have had on BCDs, the vests to which an air tank is strapped; they float.)
Having
dived in the same area, I find this incident particularly disturbing. What were they thinking? In particular, the divemaster who took them out under such conditions....and poor Ms. Brinkman, going out diving after a hurricane without even bringing a wetsuit.
It makes me appreciate the dive boat I go out on when I'm in Cozumel, which is filled with guys who really care about the safety of their divers, something that is true for most, but definitely not all, divemasters. (I'd link to it, but this is one secret that is already too widely known.)
This incident reminds me that these guys have had problems of their own lately; Cozumel was hard hit by Hurricane Wilma.
Tony, Ricardo, Cielo, Roger, Jesus, Aaron—
espero que todos estan seguros, mis amigos. Can't wait to see you soon and hear Tony's ebullient, trademark phrase, preceded by his pretty-good imitation of a seal bark: "
We're going diii—ving!"
