American woman missing after husband reports she fell overboard during Bahamas trip

With the keys.

Completely insane to be doing that without life jackets

An 8 foot RIB is pretty small. Where were they going? The only other marina on Elbow Cay is Sea Spray, which is at the other end of the island. Or, were they from a boat that was anchored out?

Yeah...... boy this one smells like a true crime documentary I'm going to watch in a few years.

They just needed to read the first paragraph of the article to know that. FFS

It is extremely easy to lose someone overboard at night. It is hammered into you in most boating classes. Sure we do COB drills, but "do not fall overboard!" is rule #1. Given it sounds like the wife had the kill switch cord on, I don't know how the dinghy and woman got that far apart. Maybe they were in Tilloo Cut. It also looks like it has been breezy around there. So water (impacting the swimmer more) current and windage (impacting the dinghy more) could have pulled them apart. Terrifying thing to happen.

Shouldn't they have been wearing life vests on this night trip?

It’s possible they were driving the dinghy at high speed in rough Waters. I’ve been in one of these boats, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the Bahamas in the Caribbean. The boat can bounce around quite a bit and people can fall out of the bone. It’s possible his wife did not swim well or was injured when she fell out of the boat and he could not find her because it was dark. If they’ve been living on a boat in retirement in the Bahamas, it seems pretty unlikely the guys trying to kill his wife. Accidents do happen. I would add that the Bahamas is definitely a fun for safety last type of place.

I’m also guessing the dinghy would have had standard navigation lights, which wouldn’t be very helpful for locating someone. Especially if you can’t steer the boat to direct the lights. It would be like trying to spot someone with the headlights of your car while you’re spinning out on ice.

I’m thinking most people don’t wear life vests on boats unless somebody makes them. Even if she was a good swimmer, if she’s being carried by a current and 50 yards from the boat, she’s screwed. Also the boat would be carried to wherever the water takes it until he was able to pull out the oars, set them in place, and start rowing. And that’s a tough battle. I kayak in my lake and even on a flat lake, wind and just a wake created by a passing boat can make it so that my rowing is only effective at keeping me in one place without getting where I’m trying to go. I’ve never rowed in natural waves, but I’m guessing it’s even harder than rowing in a wake.

There's that, but it's funnier to think he'd be investigated for murdering me, because it's literally the polar opposite of who he could ever be.

I'm guessing it was not the keys but the kill switch clip.

Exactly. The horror she went through being accused of the most hideous crime, while she was trying to mourn the baby she tragically lost

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Yup! I’ve seen more than enough Below Deck to know just how out of their depths these people are. One woman, who at least at the time lived on a houseboat on Florida, got so drunk she could barely finish a sentence and walked like Capt. Jack Sparrow & during dinner she wanted to go for a swim (in pitch black, shark infested waters, miles away from shore at like 10 at night in October) so she asks the captain who’s like absolutely not no way safety issue. She refused to take no for an answer so she waited a few minutes before excusing herself “to the bathroom” and running down to the back of the boat and diving headfirst into the dark *in a floor length beaded gown*. Twice. The captain had to literally lock her in her cabin overnight with crew on watch until they could e***** her off the boat in the morning. And on the way back to dock she also took a dive off the tender. And through the entire thing she kept saying “I live in a houseboat! I know what I’m doing. I do this all the time”.

Ahhh yes the ol' Talented Mr. Ripley move

True. So why did he choose to paddle a few miles when he was maybe a hundred yards from elbow cay?

I could row now, few months ago I would have been doing some sort of one armed struggle. Rotator/bicep tendonisis/slap repair, most of it held, small portion has torn again. I cant pull start a motor with my right arm, but I can deadlift/bench/toss a ball/swim. Anyways, I was just surprised during this entire process how many injured people there are in society. It's a lot.

tbh, I used the VHF more than a cell phone in Abaco. you have to get the batelco sim card, or its crazy $. and probably only available in Marsh. [https://www.batelco.com/prepaid/](https://www.batelco.com/prepaid/)

fwiw, if they had dinner at Abaco Inn, that would be white sound. Either a golfcart or dingy ride from HT. (I'm unclear if they actually had the meal, or were just heading there). Do you know where their boat was anchored? I assumed Lubbers, because it is a popular anchorage, and its closer to Abaco inn. in HT they would have had more choices. IIRC, The places were current are strong are north of Elbow, MoW east cut, or Tilloo. Otherwise yeah she should not have been swept away. Quote: *The woman, who was not identified, fell into the water as she and her husband were traveling from Hope Town to Elbow Cay on Saturday night, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement Sunday.* ** *The excursion began about 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Hope Town, with the couple setting off for Elbow Cay, police said. At some point, the woman fell overboard and was swept by a strong current, according to police.* *Her husband was able to paddle to Marsh Harbour Boat Yard, where he arrived about 4 a.m. Sunday and told someone what happened, they said. That person then alerted police.* \--- so if they were heading to elbow cay, (white sound/Abaco inn), at 7:30, that would have been before eating, right? (and I do agree, most people do not run a dingy at night in bahamas, mostly because the natives run lights out, and will run your ass over). Have we done it? yeah but not often. EDIT: I just remembered, Abaco inn use to run a shuttle to HT, pick you up and drop you back. but that was before Dorian....

Private Benjamin is top notch!

Death becomes her!

What's it made of?

If you read the article that’s exactly what happened . She had the keys and the engines shut off. The husband had to paddle all the way to land.

Are you drowning girl? *blub blub blub blub* **I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!** *BLUB BLUB BLUB BLUB* 🎶Ohhhhh! The Nautical version of Alpine divorce (Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp!) I quickly lost sight of her watery corpse! (Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp!) If drowning your partner is something you wish (Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp!) Push her from the deck so she flops like a fish! (Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp!) Ready? Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp Dunk, Bob, Flail, Gasp Dunk, Bob… Flail, Gaaaaaaaasp!

Even a head injury can absolutely happen "naturally" in a rhib though, because if nothing else part of the boat (the transom, motor, and lower hull) is still a hard surface, and it's easy to hit a wave while moving around, standing up, etc. So I guess we could argue it's a situation where it would be very possible to cover up foul play because a lot of possible things could happen accidentally. It's also a situation that is very easy for outsiders to misunderstand. Most people have no experience with small boats like that or with the different subcultures that involve them. Were these sailboat cruisers? Were they relatively inexperienced who took an ASA class and a charter trip, or people who have been doing this for years? As they older and relatively frail to begin with? A lot of this actually seems very "reasonable" to me. I've been doing "inland" water rescues for a while as a recreational whitewater kayaker and it is extremely normal in *that* scene for the survivor to take multiples of the typical trip length to evacuate in an emergency. You lose equipment, you get lost and go the wrong way, you get so exhausted that you are resting most of the time, etc. We find rafters and kayakers who were lost at noon after midnight on a fairly regular basis. For it to go similarly on a small boat in shallow saltwater is not surprising at all. Something you also notice going from kayaks to sailboats is how quickly weather can change conditions. I don't know this area but one person said it's usually pretty calm water and another said it's absolutely rip currents. No reason at all both can't be true at least some of the time. No reason at all a place that is usually calm can't have a surprise puff of wind. We had one near my mountain home recently that took out half the trees on the shoreline where we had literally never had a wind issue before. It's entirely plausible to me that something caused the driver to get knocked out of the boat, with the deadman key, and be in a current that the other boater could not keep up with on backup oars. Keep in mind those oars weren't instantly available. A dinghy is not designed to do rescue operations on oars, the oars are an emergency backup for when your motor fails, not a man overboard and motor failure simultaneously. So if she is fallen into a current the boat's inertia was going against, they drifted apart some distance while he was trying to figure out a solution. How long was that? Did he spend a few minutes trying to get the motor running first? Did he have to assemble a breakdown paddle from an emergency bag, or did he just have to release them from a tie down? Did he actually have two proper oars with good locks, or did he do this with an actual single blade "emergency paddle" half the size of what I use for downriver kayaking? I'd like the guy saying "two hour paddle tops" to clarify what equipment and proficiency he is assuming because what I can do in a properly outfitted touring kayak with experience and the right equipment is extremely different from what a senior citizen in a boat designed for a motor can do with a token oar that was designed to give lip service to coast guard rules.

lol. He’s pretty damn good with yacht-finish level varnish.

Since you’ve seen their insta (not sure if I’m allowed to link videos), is it normal to sit on the sides of that tiny dinghy like they both are in their video from a few days ago? After seeing the video I can certainly see how she could have fallen out at night. They’re also older and not in visibly great shape.

You better pray to the god of skinny punks that this wind doesn’t pick up, cause I’ll come over there and jam an oar up your ass!

also their instagram handle is the\_sailing\_hookers