Bad Saturday in Paradise

It was a bad Saturday morning for a couple of families.

Emergency response seemed prompt and professional

When we were getting out of the pool Saturday morning we heard emergency vehicles arriving in the parking lot at TradeWinds across the street. We could see action on the beach -- uniformed fire, police and EMT personnel hovered around two areas on either side of a red SUV on the beach.

We couldn't really determine what had happened, and the Pinellas County website simply described the call as "medical", but it looked as though one of the parasail boats could have been involved. Every time I see parasailers floating in the sky, I worry about "something bad" happening: bad landing on a boat getting tangled in ropes, hard fall into the water ... the list is endless. I know of several injuries or near injuries, and since this activity doesn't seem to be very well regulated anywhere, I tend to assume the worst will happen. This time it did.

We watched for about 20 minutes, until two ambulances left the parking lot, sirens blaring. Today a man at the pool told us someone had drowned in the Gulf yesterday morning. The news story indicates that the operator of a parasail boat had fallen in the water as a result of a medical emergency. He wasn't wearing a lifejacket and he drowned. I suspect that yesterday's two ambulances were transporting the parasailer (alive and sitting up when I saw her) and the operator, whom I didn't see.

Feeling sad on this lovely Florida Sunday.