Vero Beach boaters grateful for rescue after drifting in ocean for days

[wiley]

Vero Beach boaters grateful for rescue after drifting in ocean for days

July 22nd, 2009 by Ana X. Ceron

VERO BEACH — It was supposed to be a quick fishing trip to the Fort Pierce Inlet. Then the storm came, sucked the boat in and left them drifting in the ocean for days.

On Tuesday Vero Beach residents Vincent Faulkner and Eric Ross were finally rescued when a cook’s assistant on a Turkish oil tanker spotted them in their 14-foot boat, waving frantically.

At this point they were some 65 miles east of Jacksonville.

“We knew we were drifting, but never imagined it was that far,” Faulkner, 39, recounted during an interview back at his home today.

Faulkner and his brother-in-law are now back in Vero Beach, retelling their story to amazed family members and television crews.

“I never expected something like this to happen,” Ross, 48, said of the journey.

The Coast Guard’s Fort Pierce station was alerted on Sunday night that the men hadn’t returned from a fishing trip. Crews on water and air scoured some 1,900 square miles of ocean for them.

Faulkner said a nasty storm caught them by surprise when they were out by the inlet. It started at about 4 p.m. and the rain didn’t end until nearly twelve hours later, he said.

They waited until sunrise to try to figure out where they were but by that time they were too far out to even see land. And they were also running out of gas.

So they rigged up the boat’s bimini top and two fishing rods as a makeshift sail, hoping the wind would carry them to land.

But they ended up drifting and paddling for another day. And without any drinking water, they were parched and exhausted.

“We kept going and going,” Faulkner said.

On Tuesday afternoon they saw the tanker. They used what was left of their fuel to cruise toward the 600-foot ship, but it didn’t seem like anyone on board had noticed their small boat. This was the sixth or seventh vessel they had attempted to reach out to for help – all the others hadn’t seen them, Faulkner said.

They later learned that they had gone by unseen – until the cook’s assistant came out for a cigarette break and saw the men.

“We were thanking God,” Ross said.

The tanker lifted the boat onto the ship and the Turkish crew tended to the men. They got water, soda, tea, Faulkner remember. And what seemed like a gourmet meal, he said.

“They were like angels, they took care of us,” Faulkner said.

****

I'll move this to the Boating Safety forum in the next few days.

[welder]

They are related to the drunk boater dude................

Yeah, it's bad when you don't even know which way the sun comes up or goes down.

Who needs a compass or a radio or extra water and food were just going to the pass..

[shoebag22]

Can't imagine how they must have felt when they watched the first 5 or 6 ships keep going...

[cataholic]

They are related to the drunk boater dude................

Yeah, it's bad when you don't even know which way the sun comes up or goes down.

Who needs a compass or a radio or extra water and food were just going to the pass..

Must have mounted the steering knob wrong

[crash1371]

You only get a few of those stories in life .How lucky great outcome

[Boz]

No flares?

No radio?

No cell phone?

Perhaps..... no BRAINS ????

I saw an interview with them yesterday on a Palm Beach TV station that sheds a little more light on the story. They said the fishing was not so hot in the inlet, so they decided to go "a little way out" into the ocean.

They were lucky the ocean has been pretty calm the last couple of days. But deliberately taking a 14 foot boat out in the ocean with (apparently, at least) no basic safety equipment is just plain STUPID.

In the favorite word of Jeff Dunham's buddy Walter - - "Dumba$$".

[Snapper Head]

What do you call a German Shepard tied to the bow cleat?

Turkish RADAR.

Big Al