Jennifer_V, Sept. 2021
I went on the Turtle snorkel with this company on September 6, 2021, and was left behind and almost drowned.
I decided to go with this company, because I was going by myself for this excursion and thought the small group size sounded safe. They claim it is small group with maximum 10 people, and on the boat ride over there were two boats with 10 people, once in the water they combine the groups for a total of 18 (2 people on my boat were going diving). They give you your equipment but don’t really tell you much on the way out. The boat I was on, left with the divers, the guy who was originally in the water with us apparently left with the diver boat (according to the owner when I called).
When I first jumped in I must have looked unsteady because the guy offered me his arm and said I could steady myself by holding on, I told him, “I think I’m fine now, I just can’t hold my breath long and am not a great swimmer,” he replied, “oh, don’t worry that’s all right.” I was following him closely as I stated not a great swimmer, but then he told our group we need to join the other group (who were already swimming off). I put my head down and started following fins, I felt like I was trying to race to keep up, the fins slowly turned to just bubbles then to nothing. I looked up and the group was pretty far, but I thought well if they stop to swim around a spot maybe I can catch up… this was how I spent most of the time I was in the water, me picking my head up and trying to race to catch up.
Finally, I was getting really tired, the group was really far away and I realized there was no way I was catching up to them. Even looking at the other snorkelers from a distance I didn’t see any of the company’s boats. I waved my arms at the other snorkelers and screamed, “I'M HERE! WAIT! PLEASE HELP! PLEASE HELP!” I did this for several minutes and not one heard or even noticed me. At this point I thought I was going to die, there was no one around me, I frantically looked in all directions for help, I was breathing so heavy at this point and the waves felt heavy, my head went under and I swallowed a bunch of water. I realized I was in complete PANIC and I needed to calm myself or I was going to DROWN. I spent several minutes trying to control my breathing and searched for any sign of hope. We were by a cliff, there was no trying to get close to shore. Then I realized no one was going to help me, I needed to get out of this situation and save myself or drown, there were 3 boats in total I saw, one with lots of people on it, and was driving away from me, then 2 boats close to one another that weren’t moving, 1 of those boats had a person sitting on it, it was my only chance for help. The boat was far, I was already exhausted, it had to have been over 2 miles away, I spent several minutes swimming toward it, while stopping in between to catch my breath.
When I finally made it to the boat I told the guy, "my group left me, I’m panicked", as I grabbed hold of his boat. He asked, “what company are you with?” I couldn’t remember I was still panicked and in shock, and it was that moment I realized they never even introduced themselves, I didn’t even know the people’s names. I kept saying, “I don’t know, I don’t know” finally he asked. “was the guy in a conga speedo?’ I thought yes, the guy that took the other boat out was in a tarzan looking speedo, which I remembered because I had never seen a speedo of that style. He then looked around and had to call them over (at no time did they even notice I was missing). When they picked me up the first thing I said was, "I was left behind, I’m in a panic” and he said, “no, no you’re fine.” No concern, no empathy, just get in, sit down and shut up kind of attitude. To give you an idea of how long this all took, it’s a 3 hour experience, we picked up the other people and headed back to shore within about 20 minutes, I would have been struggling for over an hour (accounting for driving time to and from). I spent the whole boat ride back shaking, in complete shock holding back tears trying not to fall apart, I had thought I was going to die. I haven’t been able to sleep, I keep playing it over and over again in my head. No one was concerned or even cared that I was shaking and in shock, no one cared that I almost drowned.
I got my things in a haze and left, finally only breaking down when I called my husband and heard his voice.
My husband called the company, and spoke to the owner who told him I was lying. The people who took us out, didn’t even tell her they had to pick me up from another boat. They spoke a couple of times, and finally out of frustration I called to speak to the owner because I wanted an apology, I wanted them to look at their practices to ensure this never happens to another person again, but that is what a good company would do and this is not a good company. The owner in an attempt to both infantilize and insult not only me but all their clients also inadvertently admitted they can’t keep track of the people they take out and said, “you are all like children and go off, they can’t keep track of everyone”. The only apology I got was, “sorry you feel that way” which is a non-apology.
I’m sure if they comment on this it will be more excuses, more blame shifting, when they should be working to find out where they need to change and improve to ensure that people don’t die on their tour. The fact that they lack the decency to even take any kind of accountability and responsibility for the fact that I almost died is infuriating. The fact that they do not look at where they can improve to make their excursions safer, and have some kind of accountability, responsibility and empathy for people’s lives should terrify anyone who sets foot on one of their boats.