Clear Water Bay's Propeller Strike Under Signal 1
The flag went up
Here's the one thing worth knowing before you plan your weekend: skip the water, full stop. I'll explain why in a second. At Clear Water Bay on Saturday, a 27 year old diver was in the water with a boat close by. By the end of it, he had serious facial injuries from a propeller strike. The vessel operator, 44, was arrested on suspicion of endangering safety at sea. Signal 1 is the mildest warning the Hong Kong Observatory issues. It basically just means a storm is somewhere in the region, and it's normally the kind of signal that barely changes anyone's weekend plans. The Observatory hoisted Signal 1 on Thursday for tropical cyclone Maysak, which was tracking toward Hainan. By Friday it still hadn't decided whether the next, stronger warning, Signal 3, was coming. But around the same time, the people who actually manage the beaches had already acted. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the government body that runs public beaches and posts lifeguard flags, had red-flagged six beaches from Thursday. A red flag means lifeguards are telling people the water is unsafe to enter. Those six were Stanley Main, Shek O and Big Wave Bay on the Island, and Hap Mun Bay, Silverstrand and Clear Water Bay Second Beach in Sai Kung. 'Huge waves,' the department said, plainly, was the reason. So line up the timeline: the beach department posted red flags on Thursday, the Observatory still hadn't called Signal 3, and the diver went into the water at Clear Water Bay on Saturday anyway.
Force 7 says nothing new
Saturday's forecast, per the Standard, was southeast winds at Force 5, Force 6 offshore, Force 7 if you're up on the hills, plus rough seas and thundery showers. Force 7 is a wind-strength scale, not a red flag on its own; on that reading alone, nothing here looks especially dramatic by Hong Kong summer standards. We get Force 7 gusts most typhoon seasons without anyone losing a limb to a propeller. What actually matters is timing. The injury at Clear Water Bay happened before the Observatory had even decided on Signal 3. That means waiting for that number to change tells you nothing useful about whether it's safe to be in the water right now. If you're a parent deciding whether to take the kids to Sai Kung on Sunday, the number to watch isn't Signal 1 versus Signal 3. It's that the beach department's own red flags at six beaches, sitting right next to a confirmed casualty, already tell you what the water is doing. One man is in hospital with facial injuries from a propeller strike. That happened under Signal 1, not Signal 3.
So what happens if the Observatory calls Signal 3 on Sunday afternoon, once the beaches are already full of people who read Signal 1 as the all clear? The diver at Clear Water Bay went into the water under Signal 1, not Signal 3, and he's now in hospital. The Observatory's signal number lagged behind what was actually happening on the water.