A Devon holidaymaker drowned while snorkelling off a small uninhabited Caribbean island – as his widow claimed they were not told about currents.

An inquest heard Gareth Weekes was on a week-long yachting trip with his wife Alison when the incident happened.

He died while snorkelling off a small island in St Vincent and the Grenadines while on the sailing holiday aboard a luxury yacht with 26 other guests and ten crew.

Exeter Coroner's Court was told the 77-year-old retired journalist and his wife were taken by a dinghy to the beach of the island one morning in March 2023.

His wife said Gareth did not use flippers as they were difficult to walk with on the beach.

They entered the sea together but she had problems with her mask misting up. When she came out of the water Gareth was not with her.

The trip to the island to swim, snorkel and see turtles, was busy with other vessels and tourists and she asked other people to help her.

One of the dinghies returned after 20 minutes and 'frantic' Alison told the crewman that Gareth was missing.

He went out to sea and found Gareth hanging onto ropes at the edge of the snorkelling zone.

He was taken to their 54-metre yacht and given CPR but could not be saved.

The captain of the yacht and the Dutch company that organised the holiday said that the swimming and snorkelling trips were free activities but the risks and responsibilities lay with the guests themselves.

Mrs Weekes told the coroner that she contested that evidence and said the sailing company should improve their safety procedures.

She told the hearing:"I fully accept his death was accidental. But we had no warnings about currents and no means of communication from the uninhabited island. The dinghy disappeared."

She said Gareth, a former newspaper editor of various titles in Devon, Dorset and Wiltshire including the Tavistock Times Gazette, was an 'adequate swimmer' and had swum from the yacht in the previous days.

A post mortem concluded he died from drowning and he also had atrial fibrillation and Parkinson's disease.

The senior Devon coroner Philip Spinney recorded an accidental death conclusion on Gareth who lived in Clayhidon in the Blackdown Hills.