32 ft boat and 6 fishermen missing

[L.T.]

Great to hear All are safe.

[Hotrod]

I agree 200%

I only posted the Radio information cause someone on Face Book sent me a message saying ,"Thats why I always take my cell phone with me on my boat"
But he never went further and lost sight of land and didn't know the phones don't work further out.
See , for his usefull need to communicate the phone is sufficient cause he never looses sight of land and a cell phone works just fine.
Point being if you don't have a need during normal conditions, no one ever thinks of the abnormal happening

lol  Yea I read that about the Cell Phone 

Do what I did.  No Epirb..  go with 2 boats and have someone come along that has one.  Even though it is registered to them.  they will still get the signal and when they make the call to the main # they are told yes. he is fishing on a friends boat.

Then Purchase one from Capt. Matt at task marine.  best 400$ i ever spent 

I still have a few more things to get. I'm always thinking "WHAT IF"

[Screamnreels]

How about that life raft Rod? Put that I your list for Santa...

[Capt. Carl]

if you lose total power out there,80 percent of the time its due to corrosion, not all the batteries dying out. alligator clips and some extra wire will allow you to splice your vhf directly to a battery even if you lose power out there. at least this will give you the extra 15-18 miles of range to contact another vessel in the area.

[Hotrod]

How about that life raft Rod? Put that I your list for Santa...

It is on my Winter Buy List

[Bucktail]

I still have a few more things to get. I'm always thinking "WHAT IF"

Like, "What if Bucktail forgets to bring the Hostess Cupcakes or Tastycakes or..."

[Hotrod]

Yea.  Like last time.  No Cream Filled Treats

[Fishin Dude]

By the Grace of God, everyone returned home safe and sound. Were lessons learned? I'm sure they were by all on board, as well as a few of us here on land. Oh, and I read in the paper, they did at least catch a Shark!    <'((((><

[wimpy]

Mariner tells his tale of sea saga
TEXT SIZE  By: BEN FINLEY
Bucks County Courier Times
Lower Southampton resident Ed Silcox was rescued from a disabled boat along with five others in the Atlantic Ocean after a fishing trip went horribly wrong.

 

They rode 8-foot swells on a near-powerless boat.

Water started coming on board, and the only thing keeping the bilge pump going was a tiny, 115-volt generator.

They had a small VHF radio, which they used to try to reach somebody. Anybody.

They shot flares out at two big freighters in the distance. They were ignored.

The reflected tiny mirrors at high-flying air planes. Nothing happened.

"We realized one thing," Lower Southampton's Ed Silcox said late Tuesday night. "This boat can't sink because we got one hell of a swim back."

Minutes after driving home from the New Jersey Shore after being lost in the Atlantic with five fishing buddies, Silcox told a captivating tale as several family members gathered around him.

"I was worried. One of the things that ran through my mind was if this boat sinks, what do we do? That's it. We're dead," Silcox said. "It was a strange feeling. But you just got to push that away to make things work."

And so they kept trying to reach someone with their small radio and the bit of power they had. And they finally did, briefly speaking with a woman from the U.S. Coast Guard before the signal died.

Eventually, they were found, 120 miles east of Atlantic City.

"I was never so glad see anything in my life," Silcox said of the Coast Guard helicopter. "Without the Coast Guard, we'd still be floating out there."

The men's reunions with their families Tuesday were full of laughter and hugs. The other fisherman told similar stories to Silcox's.

Their boat, a 32-foot vessel called the Black Magic, was taking on water and running out of gas to run the pumps.

"I really had thoughts that we wouldn't see them again. We did have life jackets," said one survivor, Bernie Otremsky of Haddon Township, N.J. "But since no one knew where we were ... how long are you going to last like that?"

A chain of good fortune gave them a happy ending.

The Coast Guard station on Martha's Vineyard, Mass., heard bits of a mayday call. A helicopter that was part of the search team found their vessel, and a Coast Guard cutter slowly towed the boat to shore.

Advertisement  The reunion at the Coast Guard station in Atlantic City was joyous. The men's relatives snapped pictures of the news photographers who were there to capture the boat's arrival. Otremsky's three grown daughters laughed at how their dad was wearing shorts and reminded him not to forget the coffee pot he'd taken from the family kitchen for the trip.

The six men, connected through family and work, set off Saturday morning for what was to be a 24-hour deep-sea tuna fishing excursion.

Sunday night, Geoffrey McDade, a truck driver from Forked River, N.J., was planning to take his wife out for dinner to celebrate their 28th anniversary.

His son James McDade, the boat's owner, was due back soon at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., where he's a first class petty officer.

But around 1 a.m. Sunday, the men realized their boat's battery was dying after an electrical failure.

The group of longtime boaters with mechanical experience tried using a generator to give the batteries enough of a charge to start. They tried rewiring the vessel. Nothing worked.

They soon found themselves with their sandwiches eaten. They started to figure out how to ration the remaining food and water and agreed to do whatever they could to keep the boat afloat.

They slept, prayed and worked on the boat. They tried to use the radio to reach someone, even as they drifted farther from the coast.

The morale had reached a low point by sundown Monday.

Geoffrey McDade said some of the men took photographs of a beautiful sunset, then worried they would never show them to anyone.

Ray Somerville of Woodbridge said he's no longer eager to go so far off shore.

"I've been on the water a lot of my life," he said. "Going out there is a whole different thing to do."

And the six of them, who also included Jerry Lewis of Trenton, didn't catch a single fish.

But as they were being towed back, they threw out a couple lines, Silcox said. They got a couple bites. But, Silcox said, the men couldn't ask the Coast Guard to stop.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Hotrod]

  "WHAT IF?" 

[Bucktail]

But as they were being towed back, they threw out a couple lines, Silcox said. They got a couple bites. But, Silcox said, the men couldn't ask the Coast Guard to stop.

Love it!

[wb]

did any of the survivors mention their epirb?

none of the reporters did...

[Hotrod]

They Didn't have one...

[Scott G.]

This story should make a lot of people ask the right questions before they hire a charter for offshore fishing.

[Capt Tom]

Thank God there safe....

[Screamnreels]

My saying is "you must expect the unexpected" The sea can be flat, blue sky, no storms within 500 miles and the sh*t can hit the fan. No epirb, No live raft,= not smart . Thank God they return safe but this is a big lesson to all of us. SAFTY FIRST!

[Still Running]

This story should make a lot of people ask the right questions before they hire a charter for offshore fishing.

 

[bugmannj]

Fortunately everyone is okay,things could have been totally different. Thank God they were found, could have been "6 lost at sea". I hope everyone has learned from this, I know I'm guilty of having gone out unprepared in the past and gotten away with it. Makes you stop and think doesn't it.