MR

Fact Finder wrote:Search Called off for NFL Players & friend

The search by the Coast Guard has been called off as of dusk in Florida today. The Coast Guard says that they're confident that during the last 36 hours, if they haven't found them they were not going to.

What the hell were these guys thinking taking a 21 foot boat 30 miles out to sea?

So sad for them and their families.

I've read that it was glass smooth at first, but after they got out there, the weather got bad really quickly. I spent years out in the ocean, I was attached to the EODU onboard a carrier for years. The sea is no joke, very unforgiving and for that I respect it very much. I've been in the middle of a typhoon out in the middle of the ocean more then a few times during my years in the service on carriers. I've seen first hand how the sea will go from glass smooth one minute to 20 plus foot high swells in a matter of an hour. The shear power of what a thirty foot wave will do to the side of a ship constructed of 18 inch thick armor plating is absolutely amazing. It bends metal like soft butter.

The Sushi Hunter wrote:

Fact Finder wrote:Search Called off for NFL Players & friend

The search by the Coast Guard has been called off as of dusk in Florida today. The Coast Guard says that they're confident that during the last 36 hours, if they haven't found them they were not going to.

What the hell were these guys thinking taking a 21 foot boat 30 miles out to sea?

So sad for them and their families.

I've read that it was glass smooth at first, but after they got out there, the weather got bad really quickly. I spent years out in the ocean, I was attached to the EODU onboard a carrier for years. The sea is no joke, very unforgiving and for that I respect it very much. I've been in the middle of a typhoon out in the middle of the ocean more then a few times during my years in the service on carriers. I've seen first hand how the sea will go from glass smooth one minute to 20 plus swells in a matter of an hour. The shear power of what a thirty foot wave will do to the side of a ship constructed of 18 inch thick armor plating is absolutely amazing. It bends metal like soft butter.

You definitely cannot fuck with the water. Sad story.

Fact Finder wrote:Search Called off for NFL Players & friend

The search by the Coast Guard has been called off as of dusk in Florida today. The Coast Guard says that they're confident that during the last 36 hours, if they haven't found them they were not going to.

What the hell were these guys thinking taking a 21 foot boat 30 miles out to sea?

So sad for them and their families.

Im very puzzled about something with this
4 monster guys in a 21 foot boat going 30 miles out in the ocean to fish?
21 foot boat?
Im sorry thats to small of a boat to be in that far out.
Not to bright on there part

froy wrote:

Fact Finder wrote:Search Called off for NFL Players & friend

The search by the Coast Guard has been called off as of dusk in Florida today. The Coast Guard says that they're confident that during the last 36 hours, if they haven't found them they were not going to.

What the hell were these guys thinking taking a 21 foot boat 30 miles out to sea?

So sad for them and their families.

Im very puzzled about something with this
4 monster guys in a 21 foot boat going 30 miles out in the ocean to fish?
21 foot boat?
Im sorry thats to small of a boat to be in that far out.
Not to bright on there part

Well they paid the ultimate price, didn't they?

We were in that area last weekend-(went to see a Yankees spring training game), and the water was perfect Saturday, but the wind picked up as the day went on, and by Saturday night, it was getting rough. We flew out of Clearwater/St.Pete airport which must be a coast guard base- Sunday morning, helicopters and a C-130 were all over the place (we didn't hear what was going on until we got home). Sad story, thoughts and prayers go out to the family.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafe ... 980720.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."


Very sad!!!

Well that makes more sense to me. I couldn't figure out how, if they all had their life jackets on, why they wouldn't still be floating even if they were dead. My thought until I read the above story was that maybe sharks had found them. Wow, taking off their life vests? I'm trying to understand that decision.

Gibby wrote:Well that makes more sense to me. I couldn't figure out how, if they all had their life jackets on, why they wouldn't still be floating even if they were dead. My thought until I read the above story was that maybe sharks had found them. Wow, taking off their life vests? I'm trying to understand that decision.

Well you don't need to bother trying to understand that decision cause it was based on the mindset of a person suffering from serious delusions brought on by hypothermia. If this was the case where the guys took off their life jackets, wouldn't they have at least found the empty jackets? These were big guys and so the weight of them are probably pulling the jackets just slightly below the water line, which is making it extremely difficult for S&R personnel to spot them. These weren't your average military float coats either, which is what I'd be having in my boat. Float coats have a transmitter/beacon, flashlight, small mirror, highly reflective strips, dye pouches, and can be filled with air manually. That's the gear these guys should have been sporting out on the water in regards to life-saving floatation devices.

As for the accident, it's God's fault cause he created a dangerious ocean. But since God can't be sued, someone else will be, like the boat manufacturer for manufacturing the vessel that brought these men out into harms way. Without that boat, these men would be alive today. Or the city parks & recreational department for not putting up ample warning signs that there's a chance you could die if you launch your small boat at our landing ramp and then go too far out. Or the state for issuing a boating and fishing license to these men without properly training them on the dangers of going out to sea on a small boat. They could also sue the state for not sending out helicopters, boats and planes and warn fishermen in the area that a storm had been detected on radar heading their way.

If enough people sue over the same issues, eventually a jury will rule in favor of the party who is suing. That's why people can sue a tabacco company and win, cause grandma smoked her entire life and got lung cancer but it wasn't her fault at all, but the tabacco company's. Boom....we award you 50M....

They found an ice chest and a life vest yesterday.

Gibby wrote:They found an ice chest and a life vest yesterday.

Yeah, but wasn't that something like 16 nautical miles away from where they found the boat? Could have been someone elses stuff for all we really know.

Sad.