In Reply to: Reflections on Sunday's tragedy posted by Charise Cole on September 22, 2006 at 17:34:45:

absolutely right Charise. There should be a hoist/come along/ pulley type deal with a basket on every dive boat.

And spot on about the dive buddy. Its an unreasonable risk just to go for a swim in the ocean (or a pool) without a buddy - let alone go for a scuba dive. We learned this fundamental safety lesson as children ( never go swimming without a buddy) - Its like seat belts, theres never a good reason to go without them.

When I was a teenager, a little kid got through our fence and drowned in our family pool - it was, I guess, late at night when it happened and we were all asleep, yes, he was alone apparently and just wasn't a good enough swimmer to get to the shallow end.

Sorry about your experience last weekend