A snorkeller died Sunday some time after witnesses said he jumped off a dive boat during a trip outside the North Sound reef.
It’s not clear what caused the 48-year-old man’s death, but those on board the Wall to Wall company’s dive boat said the man was only in the water near the Lemon Drop dive site between five and 10 minutes, was within sight at all times and never went under.
‘Toward the end of the dive, while the divers were coming up, he jumped in with his mask and snorkel just to…wave to everybody as they were coming back to the boat,’ said Wall to Wall owner Giles Charlton-Jones. ‘He drifted about 50 yards away from the boat, so we decided to go get him rather than make him swim back.
‘As we got close to him, we noticed that his snorkel was actually in the water. So we jumped in and grabbed him.’
After the man was pulled from the water, he was placed on another faster dive boat from Off the Wall Divers and rushed to where ambulance crews were waiting at the Yacht Club. Mr. Charlton-Jones said CPR was administered, but the man was later pronounced dead at hospital.
The victim, who police said lived in Switzerland, leaves behind a wife and three children. He was believed to have been in Cayman on a business trip.
The death is the first watersports-related fatality to occur in Grand Cayman since 11 March, and the sixth overall since the beginning of the year. Three of those deaths have involved swimmers or snokellers; the other three involved divers.
In addition, two other divers went missing earlier this year in Little Cayman, one in February and one in April. They have never been found.
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