Posted on 11/02/2017 9:27:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A McKinney woman and her twin sister died in a freak accident in Mexico.
Barbara Thomas, 67, and Beverly Skrimpsky, of Arizona, were swept into the ocean by a massive wave in Cabo San Lucas last Sunday. The twins were lifelong best friends who traveled the world.
"They're special people. Anybody that knew them loved them," said Steve Thomas, Barbara's husband of 45 years.
He says he went looking for his wife and her sister when they didn't return from a morning walk on the beach. He says he ended up running for his life.
"All of a sudden a five foot wave was a 10 foot wave, it was a 15 foot wave, it was a 20 foot wave all in the matter of time that it took for me to just tell you that. That's how fast it happened," Thomas said.
Thomas says he knew something was wrong when he spotted one of the women's sandals on the shore.
He says security notified him when he returned to his rental house that the coast guard found the women in the water.
"It's hard," he said. "When you have somebody that you love that much that they've been your life your whole life."
It isn't the first time an accident like this happened recently.
Steven Urycki, of Illinois, died the same way the week before.
"A guy dies five days before this and nobody says a word?" Thomas asked.
He says he had no idea the threat of a rogue wave even existed and hopes sharing the story prevents others from meeting the same fate.
"I've lost the love of my life just because she's out walking on the beach," he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico is now warning travelers to Cabo about dangerous wave conditions.
It says, "Not all hazardous beaches in this area are clearly marked. Swimmers, waders and even people simply walking along the beaches have been washed into the ocean by rogue waves. Some have drowned and others have disappeared."
Geez, I’ve fished there. From surf and from boat. Of course I no longer go there for other reasons.
Those poor ladies. How sad.
What did you catch from the surf?
I worked in the North Sea for several years on the drilling rigs. Our helideck was over 100 feet above the water. A freak rogue wave broke over the helideck and cleaned all the gear off it. This was during a storm and the waves were running 50 to 60 feet and that is a bad storm in the North Sea. This rogue wave was insane. Fortunately the tool pusher had ordered everyone off decks and into quarters before the storm got really bad. We were dragging anchors and even with thrusters could not remain on location. We disconnected from the well head and waited out the storm.
When storms are out in the Pacific, you see sets of waves coming ashore in California. There will be modest waves for a while, then a set of four or five huge waves crash ashore, exploding on the rocks with the water shooting 40 or 50 feet in the air. It’s a spectacular site. Every year, a handful of people get caught unawares, probably not knowing how this works, and get swept out to sea. Even when the sea looks somewhat calm, you have to be very aware.
Mackerel, roosterfish and others I don’t remember. Roosterfish get huge, but I’ve never got many or big ones.
For years, it was ‘settled science’ that rogue waves (deep sea) were a myth spun by sailors. Regardless of reports upon reports, the sober scientist KNEW BETTER until non-human instrumentation demonstrated the fact. While the incidence of on-shore ‘extra-ordinary wave heights’ was never doubted, the causes were frequently attributed to storms or other over-the-horizon factors.
Now, ‘settled science’ is turned on its head as we learn that there is almost NOTHING smooth or static in nature, that there are phenomena that we are only now starting to get a handle on that can cause an outlier incident in an otherwise ‘normal’ progression and it is a NORMAL thing anyhow.
So ‘climate change’ is settled science? Really?
True.... Averages don’t mean much in nature.
I highly recommend the movie “White Squall” with Jeff Bridges, directed by Ridley Scott.
All angels are MALE.
Just WOW!
I’ve never caught a huge fish either, but I have had some great times fishing.
I hooked something in the lagoon at Diego Garcia that towed my boat around for ten minutes...till the line broke. Never saw it.
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