Ryan Scott, survivor of the Frenchman's Cove tragedy, shows scars on his face and forehead as well as bandages on his fingers, which were cut when waves banged him against rocks at sea, on Sunday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

RYAN SCOTT has been swimming since he was three years old. However, at age 27, after a close brush with death, he made the decision never to venture into the sea again.

"I don't want to see water. I am afraid of even my own shower. I don't want to see the beach," Scott, whose skin still bears scars from his near-death experience on the weekend, told The Gleaner.

Scott was among 16 young people who went parish-hopping from the Corporate Area to lush, green Portland at the eastern end of the island.

The trip was supposed to be just another of those island stops the friends regularly make. But tragedy struck at Frenchman's Cove beach when two members of the group got into difficulty at sea and drowned.

Gerald Thomas and André Nair died after they got into difficulties and drowned before help could reach them on Sunday.

"It has been like a nightmare that I am still trying to wake up from. It is like it's reality, but it is still not reality. I have not come to grips yet with the fact that the two guys really drowned," Scott said.

He shares a story of a 15-minute ordeal which saw him and some his friends battered by waves and swept across the sea floor by enormously strong undercurrents.

Police recommendation

The 16, as part of their regular country trek, had ventured into Portland with two beaches on their mind - San San and Frenchman's Cove. But after a policeman stopped them along the journey into Portland and then recommended that Frenchman's was the place to experience, nothing would stop them from going there.

Scott said all 16 people were in the water, but with few of them swimmers, the lesser capable persons remained in knee-high water.

"I was farthest out, about four feet from the boundary rope. Not everybody can swim so where they were the water was about knee height, " Scott told The Gleaner.

However, when nature acted unkind to the visitors, the result was fright, injury and death.

A powerful current swept everyone who was in the water farther out to sea, among them André, one of the less-gifted swimmers.

Knowing that his friend was not the most talented swimmer, Scott went to assist him, but a rushing wave caused André to escape from his grasp. Things were getting bad.

"He was now above me. I went under the water and the current took him," Scott said.

He said, another member of the group, went to help Nair but could not manage on his own as André threw his hands around his neck.

"A wave came in and Nair climbed on top of me to get air. By the time the wave passed, that was the time the current started to pull all of us out. We were going out and a lifeguard came out there and he said that he was going to save my friend.

"He went for André and, while carrying him, he looked and saw that a wave took me and was carrying me out to sea. The lifeguard left André at a point where he though he would be safe and turned back to come for me. While he was coming for me he got into difficulty and had to turn back," Scott shared.

The next few minutes would be a most horrifying experience for the youngster as a combination of strong waves and currents beat him against a rock and threatened to take him farther out into the sea.

Scott said were it not for the help of a tourist, who braved the turbulent waters to help him, he would probably be dead.

"He came out there and he said to me 'I am going to try and help you but if you hold on to me I have no choice but to let you go and to save myself'."

Scott said waves slammed him against the rocks and could have taken him farther out to sea were it not for the stranger, who later helped him out of the water into a nearby cave overlooking the sea.

Unawareness

For the next 45 minutes Scott was unaware of what had happened to Nair. But Gerald Thomas, who was standing on the beach and had seen his friend being swept away, again by strong currents, would get involved.

Thomas braved the turbulent seas but lost his battle to save Nair. He also lost his life.

"We were not carefree and reckless as you have heard them say," he told The Gleaner, adding that such suggestions were an insult to their pain and anguish.

"I have not slept since Sunday," Scott said. "Each time I lay down I can feel the effect of the current, the wave, everything pulling me back and forth. I just think it is a bad dream and I will soon wake up, but I am not waking up."

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com