Bear my comments were not at you. There have been other comments of reckless this, stupid that, and to be honest I still to this day have not heard difinitively where the snorkellers were. It doesn't matter either now. I'm not looking to lynch the Capt - who has been absolved of a fault/crime - and I'm not looking to tell a Tourist who lost his leg he was crazy to be where he was.

I would imagine the legacy both would like to leave is that no one follows in either of their footsteps. Legacy and footsteps are poor terms to use but I can't think of others. Lets make sure it doesn't happen again. Not for six months or a year or two. Ever.

Learn from it and act accordingly and make sure swimmers and boats are in different areas. This is a no brainer. There is no plausible argument against it. NO BOAT SHOULD BE ON THE PLANE WITHIN SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS OF SHORE IN FRONT OF THE CAYE. Two or three Dock lengths can be rough guide for boats, no further than half the dock again for swimmers. I'd like to say half way to the Reef but there are commercial concerns too. When boats come into a dock it's off plane at walking speed/no wake speed perpendicular to the dock. That area in front of a dock is also off limit to swimmers with a simple signs. If someone is swimming where they shouldn't be they will be able to shout and be heard. Easy no skin off anyones nose except perhaps Coastal Xpress and a few others that duck in and out of a lot of Docks.

My point is a boat should see a swimmer a log, another boat an anchor chain just about every time one is in front of them in normal conditions especially in front of the Cayes. There have to be a pretty extreme set of circumstances for this not to happen. At times there will be a lack of concentration a diversion of attention a missed object etc but if the two are seperated and never in the same area it won't be a person in the water.

Bear not sure who you are, how long you have lived here or been coming. The bouys were tried and failed a few years back. No money to upkeep them and they became a hazard themselves in quick time. A simpler method is needed and to keep the boats a long way out and swimmers closer in with a big margin for error seems a logical way to do this without spending much money.