Coast Guard Searching For Missing Fishing Boat With NFL Players In The Gulf of Mexico

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Sad story developing....

http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Coast-Guard-searching-for-missing-boat-with-NFL/LLFh0Ac2cECnkSanyO4BZA.cspx

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Reportedly the players are Raider linebacker Victor “Marquise” Cooper, Lion defensive end Corey Smith, and Nick Skyler.

[ddsmit]

The seas in the Gulf off Pensacola are 9 feet today and probably about the same at Clearwater. Very rough for a 21 footer, I wish them luck.

[real turf fan]

They left Sat. am, but didn't come back. Whoever should have been expecting them about dusk didn't call the Coast Guard until one freakin' a.m.

Pity the Coast Guard doing a nighttime search in those conditions.

There are times when you can go offshore in a 21' boat and there are times when you boat on protected waters. And sailors who survive to fish another day know the difference.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/01/011401/coast-guard-searching-4-missing-boaters/news-metro/

[ProfessorVol]

Tragic story, prayers for these young men and their families.

[real turf fan]

Personal floatation devices work. So do boats with positive flotation.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9280632/Report:-NFL-player's-boat-found;-at-least-1-survivor?MSNHPHCP&GT1=39002

[mdvol]

story ongoing now.

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Schuyler said he last saw the other 3 men at 2AM Sunday morning. He said that the other 3 men started to swim to shore from 35 miles out. No good.

[Volcano]

swim to shore. Man that's tragic. With the risk of hypothermia, dehydration, drowning and sharks, it's not looking good for the other 3.

[ILikeTennessee]

The white dude lived. Also, I saw one of the other guys who is probably not alive on TV and she didnt seem all that upset.

[real turf fan]

Never leave your boat. As long as it's floating, it's more visible than you floating are.
Go out and buy cheap plastic whistles and mirrors and attach them to every life jacket in your boat. attach some lines to keep you and your friends together.
If you fish alone, buy a inflates on impact life jacket. They are low profile but if you get tossed out of your boat, it can save your life.

The more that comes out, the more senseless this is.

Thirty five miles off Tampa, you can't see the city lights at night. And the buoys marking the channel aren't lighted for long distance viewing.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/03/031049/rescued-boaters-details-helpful-search-others/news-metro/

[Little Jimi]

foot boot?...with probably close to 1100 lbs of PEOPLE in there...Sounds FISHY to me...Wonder if they weren't out there to maybe...PICK UP A PACKAGE?...Who knows?..That is TOO FAR to be out in the damn ocean in a boat THAT SMALL...That doesn't even make sense....:nono::

[real turf fan]

A lot of fishermen record their favorite spots and then revisit them.
I expect that they were trying to catch an upwelling zone where the fish are bigger. According to reports, they were anchored (so they had been there before and knew how much anchor line to have for that depth) and the weather blew in and I assume that the boat's prow was held down, it was swamped by a fast wave and capsized.

If it had been closer to shore, then it would have been easier for a rendevu.

(Theres a story from Chesapeake Bay about some guys anchoring at the intersection of two natural ranges, and finding that they were on top of the liquor collection of a couple of local guys who used the same ranges to find their booze when their wives weren't along.)

[ONUV]

so they would have been found by now if they hadn't decided to swim to shore?

[TennesseeTuxedo]

The search covered an area the third of the size of the state of Florida. Thats a lot of water to cover, but they stood a much better chance of survival staying with the boat. Hypothermia can play tricks on the mind.

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Missing At Sea, Players Shared Bond (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3949959&campaign=rsssrch&source=jemele_hill)

[real turf fan]

If all four had stayed with the boat, they would have all been found. Did you see the pix of the big white hull, upside down? That is so much easier to spot from the air than a dark haired person (or even a bald white man) who at best is a square foot (total) of orange life vest with a 3/4 sq ft of noggin in the middle of it.
The coast guard used the GPS coordinates to know where to look.

Hypothermia did set in but with their body masses and good health and youth, they had the best odds of surviving water temps in the upper 60's.

Once they had found the boat, they knew the Gulf's surface current directions and intensified the search for the swimmers. As of last night, the coast guard found an abandoned life jacket and an ice chest 16 miles down current from the location of the boat. Since their life jackets didn't have their boat name on them (A way to prevent theft...which is why some boaters label all parts of their boats), they can't be sure that the life jacket came from one of them...but how many lost life jackets are out in the Gulf? I've never seen one just floating by.