‘Abandon ship’ – Aggressor passengers tell of rescue after ship ran aground

When Georgia great-grand mom Josette Clifton went to bed Wednesday night aboard the Cayman Aggressor IV she had no idea her adventure holiday was about to take a dramatic turn.

The 76-year-old from Savannah, Georgia and her husband Philip were jolted from their sleep when the 108-foot liveaboard dive boat ran aground on a reef in the Stingray City Channel into North Sound on Thursday morning.

“We awoke to a sudden slam and grinding noise that lasted for 10 or 12 seconds. I knew immediately that we had run aground,” Clifton, an avid diver told the Cayman Compass.

She said the boat started to lean to one side and after a brief period of confusion an order came through from the captain.

“We were told that we needed to abandon ship,” she said.

“When we left the boat it probably had a 20 degree lean to the port side.”

They struggled to reach the back of the boat where they were helped aboard the tug-boat, the Navigator and ferried to safety.

The Aggressor boat – which takes adventurous tourists on multi-day diving trips around all three Cayman Islands – remained stranded on the reef for much of the day. It was eventually pulled free at high tide and was escorted into George Town Yacht Club late Thursday.

An investigation is taking place into the cause of the incident and surveys are under way to establish the extent of the damage to the reef.

From the Cliftons there was only sympathy and concern for the Aggressor and its crew.

Back on dry land, the initially scary incident had already taken on the nature of a comic episode.

Clifton said when the grounding first happened she started packing her essentials.

“It was two hairdryers and one curling iron. Priorities, right?”

She added that she had filled a backpack with medicine and electronics, prepared to abandon ship.

She said they were made “very comfortable” for the trip back to Grand Cayman.

She and her husband, who have three kids, 10 grandkids, 3 great grandchildren and one on the way, arrived on the 16 Sept for their fourth dive trip in Grand Cayman.

This was their first on the liveaboard boat in Cayman, they have taken several trips in other parts of the world with the Aggressor company.

Clifton said she felt bad for the Cayman Aggressor crew in the aftermath of the incident.

“Aggressor has always been a wonderful experience for us.

“We have made about six or seven trips with them without a problem. We feel bad about the crew and what they’re having to go through right now.

“They have been very forward thinking on making us comfortable and have done a wonderful job,” she said.

Clifton said she and her husband were not really scared, “but just concerned as to what was going to happen”.

“We had four days of great Scuba diving, but what has happened has put a damper on our trip. The cost of this trip is not cheap, so we didn’t get all we paid for. People were asking us if we would ever go on an Aggressor again. No hesitation there, of course we will,” she added.

No surprise for family

Back home in Georgia the couple’s daughter Leslie Clifton Shinn said she woke up to about 30 texts from her parents Thursday morning and her first thought was, ‘they did it again.’

“We always have a family joke that something is going to happen when they go scuba diving. He’s lost his keys at the bottom of the ocean.

“They got in a moped wreck one time on vacation that was pretty serious. They had an accident on an escalator going on vacation last time, but this is the first one that wasn’t their fault,” she joked.

Clifton Shinn said when her father told her what happened he had to convince them it was true.

“He had to tell us that he was not joking because he’s a big jokester,” she said.

Clifton Shinn said she is always scared for them on vacation because of their adventurous spirit.

“My dad will follow sharks around in the middle of the ocean.

“One time he speared a fish and put it in his vest and a shark kept coming over because it wanted the fish.

Dad kept pushing the shark away with his video camera and I said, ‘dad why didn’t you just give him the fish’ and my dad said, ‘because that’s my fish, not his’.

“This is why I worry,” she said.

Clifton Shinn said she was glad her parents were safe and knows that this will not stop them from diving.

“My parents go on liveaboards often. They love diving almost as much as their grandkids,” she said.