Coast Guard Suspends Search for Missing Boaters

As of 6:30 the search is suspended.

Update:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article980720.ece

5:14 p.m

The only man rescued so far from an overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico told Coast Guard investigators a bizarre story about the fate of the other three.

Nick Schuyler, 24, told investigators that about two to four hours after their boat capsized Saturday in rough seas, one of the two professional football players gave up hope and let himself be swept away, according to family members of two of the missing men.

A few hours later, the second one did the same.

"We were told that Nick said the two NFL players took their life jackets off and drifted out to sea," said Bob Bleakley, whose son Will, 25, is also still missing.

With former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith gone, only Schuyler and Bleakley remained clinging to the boat.

Then, sometime Monday morning, Will Bleakley thought he saw a light in the distance and decided to take off his life jacket and swim to it, hoping to get help.

"I think he was delusional to think he could swim someplace," Bleakley said.

Ray Sanchez, Cooper's cousin, said the Coast Guard told him the same thing, but cautioned against taking Schuyler's story as gospel at this point.

"We're not 100 percent sure where his head was at," Sanchez said. "He'd been through a lot."

---Craig Pittman and Brant James, Times staff writers

These were not lightweights and I just can't believe that they removed their pfd's.

Anyway, it's a sad story and it hope it alerts others to the potential dangers of open water and necessary safety procedures (like checking the weather before you go out).

Thanks for posting this.

what's amazing to me is that one person survived..i've been in 60 degree water, it's no fun

are found with their pfd's on, if they were wearing them. It's the report that they removed them that I find odd.

And although the boat had turtled, it did not sink. Many people have survived by getting under the boat.

I have a lot of interest in these stories and really like to know what happened - where things went wrong.

:hi:

:toast:

since most of your body would be in the water.
the guy who survived was sitting on top of the boat, clinging to the motor, out of the water.

and stay out of the water. Maybe they tried, but couldn't do that. The bottom of that boat didn't look like it had much to hang on to and would be really tricky in high seas.

But then again, that boat didn't really look like it had any business that far off shore at all.

:hi:

a very unwise thing to do with a small boat in rough water. To anchor halfway safely under those conditions, you need to pay out a looong anchor line, and even then it's not a good idea. The report I read said that high waves flipped the anchored boat.

Maybe a sea anchor was out to stabilize them, which would be OK, but is the gulf that shallow that they had a regular anchor out?

:shrug:

that the water depth in the area where the boat was found varies from 20 to 50 feet. They had anchored, and were attempting to pull up the anchor when the boat capsized. Waves in the area were estimated at 8 to 14 feet. That's some heavy weather for a 21 foot boat.

that he was trying to swim for it.

But the onset of hypothermia (from what I've heard the water was VERY cold) can do weird things to people's minds.

Anyway, this is sad news for their families. Such young men with promising futures. Very sad.

of chance, rolling the dice for survival, given up hope in rescue.... i can see them making the decision to take it off and swim. a whole lot of chemicals messing around with the brain

It's actually common on high mountain peaks in frigid conditions to find dead or dying climbers so hypothermic they tried taking off their clothes. This seems to happen in the last stages where the delirium has become very acute. Even in the earlier stage the delirium can befuddle one so much that they'll throw away vital gear for seemingly no reason other than that they find in their delirious state that such vital necessities are too cumbersome.

that an EPIRB should be legally required equipment on any vessel operating that far from shore. I won't even operate on the Great Lakes without one.

Out here, there are so many false activations that the Coast Guard sends out PanPan's over VHF but doesn't send anyone out to look for an activated EPIRB. I wonder if these guys were that far out when they capsized that they weren't in VHF range or whether they even had a radio.

I would much rather have my radio than an EPIRB.

:hi:

We get our share of false activations as well, but the CG always sends a Dolphin, except where they reach the boat by radio (Which seems to be most of the time) and verify the malfunction. It surprises me to hear of the difference there. How often would you say you see the false trips?

I agree with you about the radio, but it doesn't seem like these guys had access to it after the capsize, or even the presence of mind (If they had a radio at all). That's where the passive rescue equipment shines. Certainly not perfect, but more than worth the thousand bucks to get a good one.

Is that your boat in your avatar?

They give approximate location and ask anyone on the water to look for any vessels in the area and report. They repeat every 30 minutes or so, sometimes for hours. If the EPIRB owner contacts them (or they make contact with the owner), they call off the panpan. They never send anyone out unless there is a sighting.

That's my beautiful boat all right. I've been living on her for three years. That is until November when we were broadsided by an out of control 54 foot power boat going about 12 knots while we sat quietly on a mooring. Since then, she has been in the yard undergoing extensive repairs, but should be back in the water within the next month.

:cry:

I'm sorry to hear of the crash. My wife and I are making ready to live aboard as well.

Fair winds and calm seas to you.......

It's the only way to live, IMHO. Get off the grid and go sailing.

:toast:

out a little longer, given their endurance as pro players.

happens a lot. In high seas, almost impossible to avoid.

It doesn't take long to get to the delirium stage in cold water especially if you don't have much body fat for insulation. Could be a combination of things... swallowing salt water, hypothermia and physical exhaustion.

wow to the story.

is not what one wants to be on unless the weather report calls for flat calm seas for the next 5 days, even then the seabreezes can kick your butt for an hour or two. Sadly lessons get learned the hard way.

There are old sailors and there are bold sailors, but there are no old bold sailors.

BTW, February is a bad time to mess with mother nature down here, things change in a heartbeat.

and fatigue can lead to hallucinations. This explains the irrational decisions to remove life jackets and swim for it. What I don't understand is why the guys didn't tie a line across the boat to hang on to, or even tie themselves to. It would have saved a lot of strength in holding on.

were still together at some point that morning.

Then again, that many hours adrift in open water would probably screw with one's mind a great deal.

The NFL players "giving up" so soon is pretty shocking for many reasons.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/aberdyfi/pages/outwardbound.shtml


......During this time, he got talking to Holt, a director of the Blue Funnel shipping line, about the dangers of the Atlantic convoys. They realised that when a ship was torpedoed, the first to die were the young, fit sailors - the older, longer-in-the-tooth sea dogs were more likely to survive, which you wouldn't expect.

They decided this was because the younger sailors had less life experience - in a difficult situation they were more likely to fold up and give in. So they began to work together - Holt funded the venture and Hahn set up a crash course in maturity for young merchant seaman and Outward Bound was born.