On a Friday evening in April 2026, what started as a casual tour off Ambergris Caye’s popular Secret Beach nearly turned into a fatal maritime tragedy, before a rapid, multi-party response brought two people to safety.
The incident unfolded when a visiting tourist and the tour’s captain went for a swim at a nearby sandbar. As they enjoyed the water, shifting ocean currents pulled the pair farther from their anchored vessel, leaving them stranded in open water as the sun set and darkness rapidly obscured the area. Back on the boat, the third member of the tour group, a woman, quickly realized her two companions were missing. With no response to her repeated shouts, she took decisive action: she started the boat’s engine, navigated toward the visible shoreline lights of Secret Beach, and raised the alarm at the local dock as soon as she reached land.
Word of the missing swimmers spread quickly, including through a public alert posted to Facebook, which mobilized an urgent, community-wide search effort. Local law enforcement officers, the national coast guard, professional emergency medical responders, and dozens of local recreational and commercial boaters all joined the operation to locate the pair before conditions turned deadly.
Emergency Medical Technician Abner Bacab, one of the first emergency providers to arrive at the scene, detailed the timeline of the rescue in an on-scene interview. After roughly 30 to 45 minutes of searching the waters around the sandbar, Bacab received a call from his son, who was standing watch on shore. His son reported hearing distant cries for help coming from the shallow coastal shallows not far from the shoreline. Searchers immediately redirected their boats toward the sound, used powerful floodlights to cut through the darkness, and located the two missing people wading toward shore.
By the time they were found, both the tourist and the captain were suffering from extreme exhaustion and muscle weakness from hours of fighting the current. First responders evaluated them on scene and confirmed that neither had sustained any serious injuries, a outcome Bacab described as a close call.
“Everything happened just in time,” Bacab noted of the rescue. He added that the pair was able to make slow progress toward shore because the water in the area remained shallow, and their familiarity with local coastal geography also helped them stay oriented until rescuers arrived. Even with the successful outcome, Bacab emphasized that the incident underscores the need for stronger water safety planning and preparation for coastal tour operations in the area, to prevent similar near-tragedies in the future.