3 SPEND 22 HOURS IN WATER OFF COASTAL AL

[Old Dog]

3 THREE LUCKY GUYS
od

http://blog.al.com/live/2011/05/fisherm ... _surv.html


MOBILE PRESS-REGISTER
Published: Saturday, May 28, 2011, 5:00 AM Updated: Saturday, May 28, 2011, 2:47 PM
By Jeff Dute

FOLEY, Alabama — The four Baldwin County men who were rescued after a boating accident tossed them into the Gulf of Mexico off Alabama on Wednesday morning say a positive attitude, cooperation and a shared belief in divine intervention allowed them to survive the 22-hour ordeal.
Ron David, 75, of Orange Beach and Ralph Elders, 65, of Elberta remained in South Baldwin Regional Medical Center on Friday evening. Bayne Bridges, 67, of Orange Beach was released Friday afternoon.
David and Elders were being treated for extended exposure to saltwater and various bumps and bruises. Elders’ kidneys had quit working, but began operating normally Friday morning.
Travis Wilkerson of Lillian, a 34-year-old commercial fishermen who was hired to run David’s 28-foot, twin-engine Stratos on a scouting trip for the opening of red snapper season Wednesday, was recovering at home.

TAKING WATER

Bridges said David, Elders and he sea-trialed the 1997 boat last week and found no problems. It wasn’t long after they’d made a 20-mile run to the southwest out of Perdido Pass, putting them at a gas platform about 8 miles south of Fort Morgan, that he noticed water splash up uncharacteristically through the self-bailing hull’s deck drains.
Turning on the bilge pumps seemed to cure the problem, so they moved on to a second spot, then a third.
When Bridges noticed water again splashing onto the deck, the bilge was turned on, but this time nothing came out of the overboard hose.
Bridges said, “Let’s get out of here.”
As the boat was just about to get on plane, Wilkerson said a wave washed the anchor line off a cleat on the bow and it got sucked into the portside 225-hp Johnson engine’s prop.
Shutting that engine down, Wilkerson used a knife to try to cut the rope loose, but the water inside the boat was already up to his knees.
“With that much water, the only way we were going to make was to get the boat back on plane and let it drain out of the self-bailing hull,” Wilkerson said.
That plan was foiled when warning whistles sounded and the starboard engine shut down under the strain of pushing the boat alone.

THE BLINK OF AN EYE

“When that second engine shut down, the stern sat down in the water at about the same time a wave came over the back,” Wilkerson said.
All of the men agree that what happened next occurred in the blink of an eye.
The boat simply slid under the water’s surface stern-first. Bridges and Elders, who were already wearing life jackets, jumped as it sank.
Wilkerson and David, who were at the helm and hadn’t had time to put on the personal floatation devices Bridges had retrieved from the cabin moments before, were pulled under. David swam out first, then Wilkerson.
Not long after Wilkerson reached the others, the boat bobbed back to the surface, upside down and 5 feet away.
“Had we not had the bow of the boat to hang onto, we probably wouldn’t be here,” Bridges said.
Wilkerson made several dives trying to find additional lifejackets, but only located one, which he gave to David.
He climbed on the boat’s overturned hull and fashioned ropes so that he could stay on it much like a bull rider lashed himself to the back of a bull.
Through Wednesday and into Thursday morning, the men said they were constantly battered by waves averaging 4 feet and at times reaching closer to 7 feet.
Wilkerson was knocked from atop the boat more than two-dozen times and all of them have burns on their hands from holding onto the ropes they used to keep from floating away.
Out of necessity because he didn’t have a PFD, only Wilkerson was tied to the boat.
“I’m not going to drown three good people because I didn’t have a life jacket,” Wilkerson said. “I told them, ‘If I go down, just tell my wife and kids, I love you.’”

GOOD TIME TO TALK TO HIM

“After we got over the initial shock, I told everyone, ‘I don’t know about your religious beliefs, but if you were ever going to pray, now’s a good time to talk to Him.’” Bridges said. “I think I can say it was a very strong bonding experience. We never got angry. There was no finger-pointing.”
They didn’t talk much throughout the ordeal. Most of their efforts were taken up by simply fighting to breathe and hold onto the boat as wave after wave washed over them and slammed the boat back into the water.
They did have plenty of time to think.
“I didn’t want to let go, but when the sun went down, I told God, ‘If this is what it is, I’m ready to go,’” Bridges said. “I felt like I might not ever see the sun rise again.”
Elders said, “Even with all of the adrenaline flowing through us, I knew we were enduring a lot. But I knew that the mind and will to endure may surpass your body’s ability to endure.”
David said his two combat tours in Vietnam may have helped him maintain his own will to not give up.
“I knew with God’s help, we were going to make it,” he said.
The men, who had not told anyone where they were going — only that they’d return by midafternoon Wednesday — saw a helicopter fly over twice during the night, but that was the only evidence they had that a search may be under way.

COAST GUARD ALERTED

Back in Orange Beach, Gloria Bridges had alerted the Coast Guard that the men were overdue shortly after 7 p.m. From that point on, she was in constant contact with Coast Guard Petty Officers Hillary Herbst and Matthew Carlen. She was told the agency had sent a helicopter and two boats to an area south of Perdido Pass.
Ironically, the men would later realize the west-southwest wind that kicked in late Wednesday night began pushing them east, back along almost the same track they’d taken to get to their first spot Wednesday morning.
As dawn broke Thursday, Wilkerson said they could clearly see the condominiums at Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. At one point, he said they drifted within a mile of the beach, and he considered taking two of the lifejackets and swimming to shore.
Figuring the boat would eventually beach itself, the others talked him out of that plan, but then the wind that was pushing them toward the beach died down and they began drifting farther offshore.

A NEIGHBORS CONCERN

At about the same time, Neel Elliot, one of David’s neighbors at Grand Key Riverside, was at the Orange Beach Police Department’s Marine Unit office, reporting that David’s boat was not on its lift. Elliot’s concern prompted Sgt. Rich Nolte to head out by himself about 8:30 a.m. to look for the men.
About 5½ miles west of where Nolte exited Perdido Pass, Doris Jennings was just wrapping up her first cup of coffee of the morning on the ninth-floor balcony at Tradewinds Condominiums in Orange Beach, when the vacationing Knoxville, Tenn., native noticed something out on the Gulf that, with the naked eye, just didn’t look just right.

Picking up her binoculars, she thought it was a raft, but after her husband Rick noticed it was moving erratically, they decided to call the Coast Guard.
That agency notified Orange Beach Marine Police, and after he was notified, Nolte began zigzagging his way west, just off the beach.
“When he first saw the boat, Travis thought it was one of those parasail boats. But then it headed back toward the beach and we couldn’t figure out what he was doing — why he wasn’t coming toward us,” Bridges said.
It wasn’t a parasail, it was Nolte lining up his boat with the Tradewinds, then taking a direct line south toward where Doris and Rick Jennings had seen the floating object.

When Nolte reached the men and helped them out of the water, Bridges said Wilkerson still had enough energy to pick the officer up in a big bear hug and tell him, “I love you.”
“I may have said something like that,” Wilkerson said a little sheepishly. “I just know I was happy to see him.”
Doris Jennings, who watched the rescue from her balcony, was modest about her role in it.
“To be honest, I have no idea why I looked that way,” she said. “I’m just tickled for the families and those men.”
Rick Jennings believes it was that bit of divine intervention the men hoped would eventually save them.

“We give God the credit for putting us in the right place at the right time,” he said.
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[SS-342]

What a story.

What a testimony!

[Cranfield]

Thats four very lucky men, especially the three senior members of the group.
Lots of lessons to be learned in that story.

[Old Dog]

Uh, yeah. Four. There are some important lesson to be learned from that story. Keep a cool head; have PFD's close at hand; don't leave the boat; have a float plan; keep lines secured; make sure all equipment is functioning properly before casting off, in this case the bilge pump, plus an EPIRB would have been useful too!
od

[ferris1248]

Those are some strong willed men..........lucky too.

What OD said....

[Dubble Trubble]

4 things went very wrong in succession for this to happen.

1: Boat was taking on water for some reason (Bilge hose came loose?)

2: Bilge pump failed. (Lose hose would explain that)

3: Careless rode handling caused anchor line foul.

4: Motor failed (should not have overheated just because running single)

If any one of the three had not happened, they would just be talking about how they had a a little problem on the trip. Just shows how out there 20 miles, even the simplest thing can cause huge problems, and cost you your life if you are not lucky like these 4 were.

One other thing. At the FIRST sign of trouble, EVERYONE should have had a life jacket on.

Dubble

[Redfin]

EPIRB

[Jumptrout51]

4 things went very wrong in succession for this to happen.
Dubble

Coulda,woulda,shoulda had nothing to do with this DT.
It is more of a shit happens thing.
If you were in the same 30 second interval described in this account we would be reading your obituary.