BUT THERE WAS A SERIOUS PROBLEM - While
walking barefoot on the concrete dock deck after
a dive, one of our divers slipped, hit his head
on a bench and fell, and also dislocated his
shoulder when he landed on his elbow. The
Anthony's folks quickly leapt to his aid.
Fortunately, there's a medical clinic on the
property and one of the doctors came down to
take a look. They then took him to the clinic
where the shoulder was popped back into place, a
cut above his eye was stitched shut, they
cleaned him up, and gave him some pain meds.
Needless to say, that was the end of the diving
portion of the trip for him. And it just
underscores that whenever you're diving, you
can't be too careful, even between dives.
Fortunately his injuries will heal and he had a
good attitude about everything. But there's no
such thing as "too" careful.
HOUSTON AIRPORT IS A MESS -
Eight of us came back through Houston and it was
a minor nightmare because they're doing major
construction and remodeling at IAH. Going
through Immigration wasn't too bad (see
follow-up article) and getting your bags so you
could recheck wasn't too bad. However, it fell
apart from there because rather than the usual
four or five exit lanes through Customs, they
had everyone squeezing into a single lane that
then widened slightly and then squeezed in
again. Once I got my bags off of the baggage
carousel and on to my rolling cart, it took me
at least 20 minutes to go maybe 200 feet to the
exit and the United recheck area. And they no
longer have an "In-Transit" security screening
area so you have to go to the regular screening
area along with everyone else. Quite
disorganized and time-consuming to the point
that two of our divers flying back to SFO almost
missed their flight (90-minuter layover) because
of how long it took to get through. (And then
United mishandled one of their bags so that got
delayed 24 hours.)
MOBILE PASSPORT CONTROL -
If you don't have Global Entry (I have TSA
Pre-Check but not Global Entry), this is an app
you must download
to your phone. (Thanks to trip member Lori
Benham for turning us on to this.) It works
pretty much the same as Global Entry but it's
free. Once you open the app on your phone,
you'll create an account and then scan in a copy
of your passport. Then you'll punch in some
details about your trip like you would on the
old paper forms. It will then tell you not to
hit SUBMIT until you're at the port-of-entry
airport. Once you're there (I did it right after
touchdown while we were taxiing), you take a
confirmation picture of yourself, the app
accepts it, and a 4-hour countdown timer starts.
That's how long you have to get through
Immigration for this submission. Like with
Global Entry, there's a separate line for Mobile
Passport Control (MPC) which is much quicker
than the regular line. There were maybe five
international flights that landed when we did
and the standard passport line looked pretty
long. When I went into the MPC line, there were
maybe three people ahead of me and the whole
thing took less than five minutes. Really
worthwhile to have.
HONDURAS MAKES A RULE AND THE ALMOST IMMEDIATELY
CANCELS IT -
While we were in Roatan, Honduras announced
that, effective July 7, you would need to show
proof of measles vaccination to enter their
country. If you couldn't provide proof, they'd
offer to either jab you with a vaccine needle at
the airport or send you back home. Cooler head
prevailed and they cancelled this plan a day or
two after it was announced. So yes, they said
it, but no, they're not going to implement it.
Much as I personally believe in the value of
vaccination, this certainly seemed like it was
taking things too far and was going to solve
many more problems than it would have prevented.
SoCAL DIVER FATALITY ON JULY 4 -
It happened on one of the oil rigs Friday
morning. There aren't many details available
other than that he was diving on a rebreather
when something went wrong at depth. It sounds
like there was a quick response from the dive
boat and both Coast Guard and Long Beach Fire
also responded quickly but could not save him.
He was pronounced dead before they were able to
get him back to land. Like with our Roatan
slip-and-fall, you can't be too careful,
especially when diving with advanced equipment
like a rebreather and especially when diving a
site like the oil rigs where currents and
extreme depth can come into play. It bears
repeating: There's no such thing as being "too"
careful.
A BETTER WAY TO FINISH -
I can't close on such a down note so how about
three of my favorite Eagle Ray shots from the
trip? I'll work on the trip report the rest of
this week as well as finish tweaking pix and
will hopefully get all of that to you by next
Sunday. |