TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Be careful out there!

Daily Herald story

As someone else reported this morning, a cruise ship passenger died yesterday at Orient. The ocean is not to be trifled with. How sad..

Yeah, I read that this AM. 1 "rogue" wave. wow.

Condolences to the family.

SXM??? Wendell

This is so sad. Makes you realize how fragile life is.

Thanks for posting the link Carol. Very sad indeed and condolences to the family. Even strong swimmers need to pay attention to water conditions.

The Oasis Of The Seas can't seem to catch a break 3 major issues in 2 less than 2 weeks.

Oh my goodness,,,very sad news,,,,we will be very careful that is for sure, especially me,,,I am not a strong swimmer when faced with high waves or any undertow. My condolences to the family.

Oh my, that is so sad. I can't even imagine......

There was a different story in the Today newspaper saying the man was paragliding and apparently fell off. So very sad to hear things like this.

I could not find anything in the online Today newspaper about it. Was that in a printed version that you saw or did I just miss it online? That's a very different story than what the DH reported.

Here is another story about it.
http://www.sxmpolicenews.com/cruise-passenger-dies-orient-beach-french-st-martin/

OK, that confirms the parasailing part of it. That is even worse. There almost has to be some fault on the part of the parasail operator?

It is very sad especially for the family. I was going to post earlier that I didn't think it would be possible to hit your head fatally from shore break at Orient as the waves are never that big. Yes you can injure yourself or drown if you can't swim but not be killed by a head injury. Was just in Hawaii at Sandy Beach, Oahu near the Blow Hole, the shore break is unbelievable. It's the number 1 beach in the world for spinal injuries but 100's of kids including mine love the challenge and danger.

Carol--it was on the front page of the print version.

OK, I didn't see it in the online version.

The waves were very large the first part of the week.

Sad to hear about this incident. It really dose bring to sharp focus just how fragile our lives are, and how much we take it for granted...

Sadly, I don't find waves "fun". I have been smashed a few times at BSV and it was not enjoyable. We had a friend whose son was swimming on LI and ended up being paralyzed due to a strong wave. Very sad. Thankfully his friends were there to pull him out of the water. Calm waters or a pool for me!!

I no longer find waves fun either, as I have trouble getting out of the water if the waves are big at all. This past time at BSV, there was an older couple staying just down from us, and I watched them in the water for a while and it was scary to me. The waves were not particularly big at all, but they both had a hard time getting out of the water. If one of them had had a problem, I don't think the other would have been able to save them.

This is incredibly sad news and a lesson for us all.

Wow - as an earlier poster mentioned above, what is going on with the Oasis of the Seas lately? Did you see the news story about the person that fell off the Oasis and then was picked up by the Disney Ship "Magic"? There was video of the rescue...it was dramatic.

I always go into the ocean with a "noodle". Several times I've had someone grab the other end and "haul" me into shore. Works great as long as there's someone around to help!!

I don't enjoy waves anymore either. Even at Mullet one day last week, I had a hard time getting out of the water without feeling like I was going to fall over. And this from someone who used to be on the swim team in my youth. Of course, that 'youth' was a long time ago. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Those waves at Mullet can be huge! When there are big waves or the huge cliff, I just hang out in my beach chair there.

Which is exactly what I did after that, Carol! Of course, I'm pretty short, so it doesn't take much of a cliff or wave to make me uncomfortable. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I resemble that remark! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Carol and Robin,

There seems to be a lot of that 'short' thing going around. Those of us who are, as my DH describes it, "Height Challenged" do have our issues and getting in and out of the water over 'the shelf' that often occurs is but one of them, and when you add strong waves to the mixture - YIKES!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Well, I'm 5'10" and my husband is 6'3" and we both have issues getting over that cliff at Mullet! I don't think height has as much to do with it as having really strong legs and a hand on the other side pulling you up!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

So awfully sad...hit close to home, my husband's boss knows the family, my sister-in-law's aunt & uncle were part of his group on the cruise...the family lived near us in MA, and had recently retired to FL -- and we were on the island when this happened. I, for one, was very nervous getting in/out of water at Simpson Bay that day, waves were so very powerful -- you had to time your entry/exit just right. I do remember a few years ago at Karakters not having the timing down and got dumped/tumbled, very scary -- absolutely no control. Please be very careful. Blessings.....

We were on that ship and I didn't hear about this until now.

After further investigation I realized that Howard and his wife and friends were sitting at our dinner table each evening on the Oasis. We saw them at Orient beach Wednesday around noon but we left for the ship by 1:30.

We never saw them again for dinner and wondered what happened.
My wife Ann and I are in Shock.

Having only met Howard, (the man who died)a few days earlier I can say that he was a real gentleman and had just sold his company looking forward to his retirement.

Wow, how absolutely sad!!!

Oh my, you must have been so puzzled…again, to close to home….