Lurssen Ice - rescue?

As I am told, the yacht had been in residence at Cozumel for over 5 weeks, and just recently departed. Rumor has it she suffered a galley fire and holed up there for repairs.

One fine day during this time, 6 divers on a charter decided to run 10 miles over to Playa Del Carmen to dive with the bull sharks which congregate there. The dive boat was a coverted glass bottom boat, typical of the area. About half way there, they hit a good size wave, evidently the boat was converted again to a no bottom, and she sank in 12 seconds.

One of the party happened to have his phone in his pocket in a dry bag. They made a call to the dive shop giving their approximate position before the phone died. As the radio traffic picked up on the subject, it became apparent that the Mexican Coast Guard was not going to respond promptly.

So up came Ice's hook, she ran north to beyond a calculated worst case drift scenario in the 3-4 knot current, then turned back to run the line. The group was found, picked up by a skiff tender, and brought back to port. Evidently abundant wine and Russian caviar en route helped them to assuage the day's prior events.

This was shared by a trusted friend who lives there, so is second hand, and subject to correction by those more in-the-know.

This further and more accurate information was emailed to me.

Here is the Chief Engineer's Version of events:

No galley fire, not even a smoking cigarette on board. Diver rescue is true, asked by harbourmaster to go out when a glass bottomed panga sank with 8 divers and boatman on board, halfway between Cozumel and Cancun. Searched for four hours, Navy called off search as said was hoax, we found all Nine in water 15 minutes later, had drifted almost 16 miles north in 3.5 knot current. Skip and Choff plotted expected drift and got them within 100m of their estimated position. Would have got them on first run but turned back too early as starting position given was inaccurate. Six hours in water. Taking 5 foot waves at speed, hit 8 footer which lifted panga out of water then glass bottom just disintegrated on landing. Boat sank in 40 seconds but hung by the bow for long enough for them to get BCDs out.