Coast Guard suspends search for missing NFL players

[Stinger]

Coast Guard searching for missing boat with NFL players

Reported by: Chad Cookler
Email: [email protected]
Last Update: 11:18 am

CLEARWATER, FL -- The Coast Guard is searching for a missing fishing boat about 50 miles off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Coast Guard officials, the 21-foot fishing boat left from a boat ramp in Clearwater Pass Saturday about 6:30 am with 4 people on board.

A dispatcher told ABC Action News 3 of them are NFL players. One of the plays for the Detroit Lions, and one plays for the Oakland Raiders, the dispatcher said.

The boaters were supposed to return sometime after dark but never did, officials said. A friend called the Coast Guard at about 1:30 am and reported them missing.

Officials say the waters in the gulf are extremely choppy and they believe the boat is in distress.

Air and marine crews from the Sand Key and Clearwater Coast Guard stations are searching a 750 square mile area west of Clearwater Pass.

http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/lo...SanyO4BZA.cspx

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

What are you going to hold onto in 15 foot seas? Even if there was something to grab hypothermia sets in and you would lose function of your hand muscles.

I meant more that they fought each other for the spot on top of the capsized boat..

[Sure-Oz]

Originally Posted by BuckinKaeding

After 2 - 4 Hours he let himself get swept away....

That guy must be a little delusional. I think anyone would hang on for more than 2-4 Hours.

Wonder if they had any clue how long they had been out there...

No one really knows till their in that situation, the mind def. ****s with you and you think no one will come

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by Denver Dave

From the St. Petersburg Times

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

If that was the way it went down. WOW.......

[CrazyPhuD]

Originally Posted by BuckinKaeding

After 2 - 4 Hours he let himself get swept away....

That guy must be a little delusional. I think anyone would hang on for more than 2-4 Hours.

Not if you're suffering from initial effects of hypothermia. While the water may not have been cold enough, one has to consider what the impacts would have been drenched in wet clothes and high winds. The wind chill could have been enough to start the hypothermia process. Once you are in there, your judgment falters significantly.

[Denver Dave]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

Wonder if they had any clue how long they had been out there...

No one really knows till their in that situation, the mind def. ****s with you and you think no one will come

Exactly. Who knows what their intentions were, but if you're a fisherman at heart, going out doing something you love is not the worst way to die.

Maybe they were at peace with their demise and decided to go out on their terms, just floating on top of the water at the place they enjoyed fishing.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by BuckinKaeding

After 2 - 4 Hours he let himself get swept away....

That guy must be a little delusional. I think anyone would hang on for more than 2-4 Hours.

You'd be surprised. People often make bad/unexplained decisions when in a life and death situation. Add in the fact that it's very disorienting out on the water in the dark in rough waters. Stories of delusion are common.

[Rain Man]

Wow, that's an odd story. I'd think you wouldn't give up hope that fast. The guys on the Indianapolis were in the water for several days if I remember right.

I watched a show on the Indianapolis, and it mentioned that if you drink salt water you start hallucinating and going delirious. I wonder if that could've played a role.

[Denver Dave]

Gulf can turn vicious quickly

By Terry Tomalin, St. Petersburg Times Outdoors Editor
Published Monday, March 2, 2009

People joke about the Gulf of Mexico. They call it a pond, say it has no waves. But they have never been at sea and felt the full force of a late-season winter cold front.

I've seen the gulf get nasty — 10-foot seas and 40 mph winds. I've knelt on the deck and prayed, cursing my ignorance and damning the decisions of others. And I've learned from my mistakes.

People die in the cold water of the Gulf of Mexico — quickly, without warning, sometimes within sight of land.

Four friends decide to go fishing in 21-foot boat. Hoping to catch amberjack, they travel 50 miles from shore to get a good spot. Smart fishermen hit the farthest spot first, then work their way back.

The weather report called for calm seas in the morning. But in the afternoon, a cold front would sweep down from the north.

So they take off across 2-foot seas and head toward their fishing spot.

Perhaps they were anchored up fishing, or maybe running home when they realized that the front had arrived earlier than predicted. The 2-foot seas built quickly to 4 feet, then 6 feet. All it takes is one 8-foot wave to swamp a boat.

Hopefully, they would be wearing personal flotation devices, but the sad truth is most boaters don't when under way. Their 21-foot boat was built to float, even full of water.

So they cling to the hull, knowing that as long as they hang on, they will be safe. But the real enemy isn't drowning. It's the cold.

Offshore, 20 or more miles from land, the water temperature is hovering in the mid to low 60s, the air temperature only slightly warmer. Even in a wetsuit, you will become chilled within an hour.

Hypothermia creeps up slowly. By the time you realize you are in trouble, it is usually too late.

Judgment is the first thing to go. Then the motor skills. A strong person may survive for four or five hours, but unless they get out of the cold water, they are on the losing end of a mathematical equation.

The only help is rescue. But finding an overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico is literally like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. If the boaters were smart, they left a "float plan" with a friend or relative detailing where they went and when they planned to be back.

If not, the Coast Guard would wait for a missing persons report. By then, it could already be too late.

A well-prepared boater carries an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon that will send a distress signal to a satellite orbiting overhead. The price of these lifesavers has come down in recent years. You can buy one for $500 to $750.

Once in the Dry Tortugas, aboard a sailboat catching the full force of a late-season winter cold front, I searched for an EPIRB that wasn't there.

I knelt on the deck and prayed, promising God that if I lived, I would never be so stupid again. Thankfully, I was allowed to learn from experience.

Others are not so lucky.

[KChiefsQT]

So terribly sad. My heart goes out to all of their loved ones. Rest in Peace.

[Buck]

Welp, RIP.

[Bugeater]

[googlegoogle]

jesus.

what a disaster.

Do not trust those f***ing cell phones. Boaters should always have some kind of radio signaling device. And they shouldn't cost $500. Any radio discharging circuit can be seen with detectors.

[MahiMike]

Anyone see Open Water 2?

[rockymtnchief]

Originally Posted by MahiMike

Anyone see Open Water 2?

I hope it was better than 'Open Water 1'?

[mrub4]

So they cling to the hull, knowing that as long as they hang on, they will be safe. But the real enemy isn't drowning. It's the cold. ... Hypothermia creeps up slowly. By the time you realize you are in trouble, it is usually too late.

Judgment is the first thing to go. Then the motor skills. A strong person may survive for four or five hours, but unless they get out of the cold water, they are on the losing end of a mathematical equation.

I watched an interesting set of videos not too long ago, I'll see if I can dig 'em up again. They had people with various abilities (a swimmer, canadian special forces, etc) get in relatively calm, cold water and do what they had to do to make it to the other boat/survive. Two boats were spaced maybe 30' apart from each other, and a couple of the people started swimming away from either boats almost immediately. Others got really winded, gave up, went back to the first boat. I think only one guy out of 8 or so actually managed to reach the second boat on his own.

A well-prepared boater carries an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon that will send a distress signal to a satellite orbiting overhead. The price of these lifesavers has come down in recent years. You can buy one for $500 to $750.

This is what amazes me the most. IMO you're crazy to go off-shore without an EPIRB or PLB, especially given the relatively cheap prices. A plain EPIRB can have a S&R team notified to within ~3miles or so of your location, in about 10 minutes. An EPIRB with GPS will bring them to within 100 yards.


edit: Found the video link: http://www.coldwaterbootcamp.com/pag...campersv2.html . These people were in 42 degree water. The guy at the right of the first row, towards the end when he does his second attempt, tries to put on a life jacket after he's already in the water. The guy rescued by the CG had said one of the others had swam under the boat to retrieve the lifejackets. There's a very good chance they never actually got them on-- hence why the found one floating with the cooler.