January 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 1   What's this?

Diver Dies in Sinking Boat Near Key Largo

from the January, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Perhaps a diver's worse nightmare is being trapped inside a sinking dive boat. Sadly, that happened on December 18, as a diver named Aimee Rhoads died while trapped inside the cabin of Get Wet, a boat owned by Key Largo Scuba Shack, when it sank in choppy seas. Rhoads, 36, had come from Washington State for some Florida Keys diving, and she was one of Scuba Shack's six passengers that day for a two-tank trip at Molasses Reef. The weather started out calm, but the winds picked up and the seas got choppier as the day progressed. According to Bobby Dube, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Get Wet was en route to the second dive spot on the reef around 3:15 p.m. when it quickly began taking on water. Winds were at least 15 mph., and waves were three to four feet high. Witnesses aboard the nearby dive boat Visibility estimated that Get Wet sank in "about two minutes."...