Men rescued after a night spent on buoy
Amy Sowder
Pensacola News-Journal
Two men spent part of Thursday morning stranded on a buoy in chilly Escambia Bay waters.
Gary Brown, 51, of Gulf Breeze, and Kenny Powell, 50, of Pensacola, were found shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday by a Coast Guard helicopter as one of them waved a shirt as an SOS. Brown was the boat captain.
Both men were well, officials said.
While flounder fishing the night before, the men had crashed into a buoy and fell into the water as the boat sped away.
They hugged a mooring buoy used for barges throughout the night until they were discovered.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission led the search.
"Both of them spent a cold, wet, windy night," said Stan Kirkland, regional spokesman for the commission that led search agency. "Bottom line: These two guys are extremely fortunate."
Kirland estimated they were stranded in 10 to 12 feet of water.
The Coast Guard, Santa Rosa Search and Rescue, and the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office assisted.
"They were about 4½ miles from where they launched," said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class John Rogan. "They were almost on the county line."
The buoy was large enough for them to stand on, officials said.
The search began more than three hours earlier when Florida Fish and Wildlife officials received a call from Brown's wife. She told them the two men were missing since they departed at dusk Wednesday from Brown's Reservation Road home. They were going to fish for flounder.
Flounder are available in shallow water in the bay for fishers before trekking to deeper waters in late November and December, Kirkland said.
The last time anyone heard from them was a cell phone call at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Investigators launched the search and found the 24-foot center console vessel rammed against a dock of a home in the 2900 block of Coral Strip Parkway in the Whisper Bay subdivision, Kirkland said.
Helicopters circled the surrounding land and waters for more than three hours until a Coast Guard helicopter spotted the men. The commission took over from there.
Kirkland said the impact of the boat hitting the buoy dumped the men into the water and the boat kept going. The men then climbed onto the buoy, where they stayed until being rescued.
Although the men were unavailable Thursday, friends said they were grateful the men were alive.
Gulf Breeze Assistant City Manager Dave Szymanski is a close friend of Brown's.
"It has been a stressful couple of hours," Szymanski said from City Hall. "Gary is an experienced fisherman. He does it a lot to relax."
The last major boating accident in the area was July 5. That's when a 14-foot vessel capsized in the Santa Rosa Sound near Naval Live Oaks. Ladarell Saunders, 26, and Jerry Stewart, 44, both of Pensacola, were found dead hours later.
In 2005, Escambia County had six reported boating accidents and two boating-related deaths, according to a report from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Santa Rosa County had three accidents and no deaths.
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