Boat Capsizes..good Results

[triumphrick]

Our local paper reported today that two boaters from Land O Lakes, Florida (N of Tampa) were found safe by the Coast Guard. The two boaters were in the Bahamas when their 25' boat capsized. Their EPIRB was activated and the Coast Guard dispatched a plane from Miami. They were not located that night and a helo was dispatched the following morning and found the two men clinging to a rock. A nearby pleasure craft was vectored in and made the rescue. The men's condition was not known.

Much better result than from the 4 football players. Not much detail was given, other than they were off Andros.

[Barryd]

Barry

[TheShortAnswer]

the paper here said that one of the guys knew and worked with Schuyler, and had just recently decided to get a new EPIRB.

[Trollnheel]

Great news to hear that they survived

[Fishinspot]

Thats the kind of ending I like to hear!!

[Rich]

"Their EPIRB was activated....."

They're expensive, but how much is your life worth?

[petrel]

Wait a minute!...Buy an EPIRB and STILL spend the night in the water! Was their delayed recovery because they did not have a GPS EPIRB?

[Jup31]

Here is the St.Pete Times article. Looks like the EPIRB activated but went down with the boat, could have been in a manual bracket. Having it on deck in a ditch bag may have shortened rescue time.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/...ticle995887.ece

[petrel]

Ok, that makes more sense.

[jillybird]

Yikes. I wonder how rough it was when they capsized. A 25 foot Grady should be able to handle pretty rough stuff. The only time I was in crazy weather -- when a squall line hit in Block Island Sound and I instantly had 12 foot waves and lightning everywhere, I had my ditch bag next to me and my life raft as well. Fortunately I didn't need them. It just shows you that even after the EPIRB distress signal is sent, it is extremely difficult to be seen at night. These guys were super lucky since they didn't seem to have had a life raft. Floating in the Bahamas isn't that much fun. They were also lucky to find rocks to grab onto.