Stupid or just plain lucky?

[CTdave]

Both I guess!
Check out this article about 5 guys in a 17' boat that flips 15 miles offshore.
www.news4jax.com/news/9981685/detail.html

[Rawleigh]

Gee, the waves sure are big! lets anchor our little boat and do some fishing . . .

[AndreF]

Is the gene pool low or what?

[Rawleigh]

Fortunately for them they barely missed the Darwin Awards. The gene pool was not improved this time!

[mike ohlstein]

Three of them managed to swim over ten miles. That's no easy feat.....

[Capt. DQ]

GOT MILK? / GOT BRAINS?

Mike, I'd have a hard time believing they swam 10 miles in that short of period depending on the current at that.

DQ

[Kevin]

no way they did a ten mile swim unless they are athletes. shlould not be allowed to use a boat either. You need a license to drive a car but not a boat....hmmmm. Kevin

[Harv]

Where's their sign?

[STraenkle]

Only one of them was smart enough to STAY WITH THE BOAT (Note, he was rescued only a few hours later). Geez, if it is still floating, stay there. It is a lot easier to spot a Capsized boat than a head bobbing in the water.

[IRGuy]

Maybe it is because I have spent so much time offshore (I am an ex long distance sailboat racer), but after reading about the Fastnet and Sydney to Hobart Race disasters the only way I am leaving the hull of any boat I am on is when it sinks out from under me!

[randall]

CG could not find my son and two friends clinging to a canoe....and they had the advantage of a copter and the relativly confined area of gardiner's bay ....lucky for them a local marine patrol officer figured out the wind- tide- current and spotted them with binoculars from a high point on land.....20 minutes before dark..no chance of rescue if swimming...you're nuts if you leave the boat...story two....when i was surfing on kauai.....fisherman tries to swim in from capsized boat 5 miles offshore....cut in two by shark....stay with the boat!! (unless of course you have a raft)

[IRGuy]

Several years ago on a delivery trip from Bermuda to MA in a 44' sailboat we were dismasted about 185 miles south of Nantucket. After getting the mess on deck straightened out and cutting everything loose and pushing it overboard we set off the EPIRB since we did not have enough fuel to reach land, and we were expecting bad weather in a day or so. The CG (for whom I have a profound respect!) sent out a C-130 SAR plane to look for us. Four hours later, while talking to the pilot via a small handheld VHF I saw the plane on the horizon, heading directly at us, and told the pilot we were straight in front of him..

Seas were about 8-10 foor swells with 3-5 foor waves on top.. usual offshore stuff. The boat had a bright red hull and beige decks, it was about 9:30AM, high clouds but clear below. Visibility was excellent, and IMHO we were a perfect target.

The trained SAR crew flew right over us at about 2,500 feet altitude.. and did not see us! After they were about 2-3 miles behind us I called them and told them they had missed us.. they couldn't believe it. They circled and finally saw us on the second pass.

My reason for relating this to all of you is if it is possible for a trained SAR crew looking under pretty much ideal and usual sea conditions to miss a 44' hull in the water, what chance does a man in the water have with only his head and arms visible?

Stay with your boat! If I am ever forced to get into a life raft, I will try to inflate it on the deck of my boat and only go free when the hull disappears beneath me! I am partly joking when I say this, because I know it is not realistic to think it is possible to launch a raft that way.. but you can bet I will do everything possible to stay with the hull until it disappears.

[Brewster Minton]

"Never get out of the boat, unless your going all the way". apocalypse now