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Book Review: No Safe Harbor by Joe Burnworth
No Safe Harbor
Author
Joe Burnworth
Publisher
Emmis Books, Ohio
Recommendation:
For both divers and non divers.Those looking for an uncomplicated read.
Particularly appealing to those with an interest in the people intimately involved in these events.
Review:
It had been some time since I had read a diving related story but I found this book to be an easy way of returning to the genre.
Prior to opening it I was unfamiliar with the events surrounding the vessel Wave Dancer in the waters of Belize in 2001. It was there that a diverse group of divers on a liveaboard holiday was terrifyingly caught in a category 4 hurricane.
The book relates a tragedy, as the loss of twenty lives could only be described, but much of the story meandered through the early part of the liveaboard trip describing the main personalities on the boat. This did make me a little impatient as I was most interested in reading about the event itself. However I think the author was hoping for readers to experience the real people caught in this situation and identify with the liveaboard holiday group.
One detail I found particularly interesting was the reproduction throughout the story of the hurricane advisories produced by the National Hurricane Centre. Aside from the interest in watching the hurricane develop through these details, the advisories helped build the suspense of impending tragedy.
This book is very easy to read, and the author has taken care to explain some diving related terms and activities for the non diving reader.
Like many I am fascinated by stories of disaster or extraordinary events dangerously impacting on the lives of individuals. Usually these stories provide just a temporary distraction from the day to day ordinariness of life. However on finishing this book I found my thoughts wandering back to the boats I had traveled on, and to all the questions I could probably have asked about those boats and their crews but did not.
Many of us have dived from boats in unfamiliar waters requiring us to extend some level of trust to the company, crew and captain. To some degree this is unavoidable for those of us who are not qualified or skilled in the operation of boats, but far too often this trust is unquestioningly given.
However regardless of this, our own decisions and actions can have a profound affect on even those circumstances over which we have no control.
Belinda
February 2007
Buy No Safe Harbor: The Tragedy of the Dive Ship Wave Dancer