DATELINE: 2nd November 2001

WAVE DANCER SINKING
Details are emerging of October's sinking in Belize of the dive charter boat Wave Dancer, with the loss of a reported twenty passengers and crew.
The 36m liveaboard, sheltering from Hurricane Iris, was moored to a pier in a mangrove swamp at Big Creek, a well-known refuge 80 miles south of Belize City. It is reported that passengers had finished supper when, at around 10pm, a huge surge of water, accompanied by a great gust of wind, caused the boat's stern lines to snap.
The boat was ripped away from the pier and capsized in the middle of the creek. Some people had gone to their cabins, while a number were still in the upper deck saloon. But, even for those still up and about, the sudden violence of the capsize and inrush of water left many trapped under water or washed away.
The captain, who survived, is reported to have been reinforcing windows with tape when the great gust and surge hit.
Three survivors managed to launch one of Wave Dancer's liferafts. They were later joined by a crew member who reportedly staggered out of the mangroves and explained that he had been out on the main deck videoing, and was hurled off the boat as if picked up and thrown by a crowd of people.
Initial reports were that, of 28 passengers and crew, there were eight known survivors, 18 people had perished and two were missing, feared dead. A subsequent report has referred to 22 dead, which would indicate that the boat had been carrying two more people than initially stated.
Wave Dancer had been chartered from Peter Hughes Diving by Richmond Dive Club in Virginia. The Club had also chartered a vessel from the Aggressor Fleet to cruise in company carrying another 10 club members. The Aggressor boat, moored on the pier ahead of Wave Dancer, survived the storm, its mooring lines intact.

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