Hawaii vacation blog...

[Locut0s]

39. Fifth day - Disaster at sea...

Woke up extra early, about 5 am, to get to the chartered catamaran tour on time. After the usual paperwork we set sail and quickly saw spinner dolphins and sea turtles. It was a bumpy ride due to wind but otherwise we had excellent weather. The trip up the Na Pali Coast truly is something else to behold. You look up these jagged green valleys thousands of feet high that slope down the the azure blue sea.

After reaching the end of the coast the boat turned around and started to head back. On the way back we were scheduled to do snorkeling and a beach lunch. However there was a teenage company trainee aboard who got sea sick and wasn't feeling well at this time. We all thought it was just motion sickness but he started to go downhill quickly and it became apparent to the crew that something was wrong with him. Luckily one of the passengers was a DR and another was a nurse. They asked if someone had a blood glucose meeter with them, I couldn't tell if anyone managed to vet him one. As time went on he became more and more delirious and it became apparent we had to rush him back to shore. He was incoherent and making odd arm gesticulations and sounds. It seemed at first people thought he was in diabetic shock, no one knew if he had diabetes though. As time went on though I heard the crew and a number of others say that it seemed like he had taken some drugs and was having a bad trip. I'm no expert but it seems like a rather strange time to drop acid or the like, when you are on the job as a trainee deck hand. On the other hand the way he was acting DID strike me as more trip like. He was brushing his hands around his face all the time as if to ward off stuff and making odd noises. Apparently even the DR thought it was drugs. Anyway we managed to transfer him to a small boat that met us 1/2 way and they rushed him to shore. Last I heard he was stable in the ambulance. Hope he's OK. Only annoying thing was that about 1/2 the tour activities were canceled and we were not offered a refund. We went to the office to see if they might do something for us.

I'm of 2 minds about this. If the kid had some kind of non self induced medical emergency then I have little issue with the way things went down. If on the other hand it's as the crew and DR was saying that he was tripping on something then that makes me mad. The kid is endangering his life and the lives of those on board PLUS ruining a trip we all paid for. In this case I think we all deserve a full refund.

Few other passengers seemed to care much one way or the other though which seems odd to me. The rest of the crew was still very nice but they made few concessions to either refund us, extend the trip or offer anything extra.

Anyway we are back at the hotel resting as we got too much sun. We may do something else later. It wasn't a total disaster as the coastal scenery was spectacular. But this WAS booked as a scenery AND snorkel tour.