23' SEACRAFT SINKS OFF

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Eight divers rescued after all-night ordeal at sea
After their boat overturns, friends swim for hours toward safety before being rescued.
BY CURTIS MORGAN
Miami Herald
SAFE: After an all-night ordeal at sea, friends, age 17 to 23, whose boat capsized on Sunday, are safe with the U.S. Coast Guard. WFOR-CBS 4

Coming up the anchor rope after scuba diving with friends off Miami Sunday, Raymond Gill looked toward the surface and knew something was amiss.
Instead of the bright white bottom of their boat, a weird dark thing loomed overhead. At first, Gill thought they'd somehow found the wrong boat in the murky 70-foot depths, but as they swam up, the truth became all too clear.
''Oh [blank], that's the boat and it's upside down,'' Gill said Monday, only a few hours after he and seven friends had survived a wet, cold and scary all-night ordeal.
After their boat capsized near Fowey Rocks, they lashed together a makeshift raft from coolers and life vests and struggled to the safety of Stiltsville in north Biscayne Bay -- but only after tides and currents swept them from their first target of the Cape Florida lighthouse six miles away.
They spent some eight hours swimming in the dark, rough water, but it seemed endless.
''I can't even describe it. It was like hours and hours on end,'' said an exhausted Gill, 22.
A boater spotted them waving and yelling Monday morning on a Stiltsville porch. The rescue of the eight friends, ages 17 to 23 and mostly from West Kendall, brought a happy end to a night-long search by the U.S. Coast Guard and relief for worried family and friends.
''Oh my God, it was a nightmare,'' said Dottie Gill, Raymond's relieved mother. ``I haven't slept yet either. We prayed all night and talked to the other parents.''
According to Coast Guard spokesman Ryan Doss, the eight headed out early Sunday from Matheson Hammock for a dive trip. Aboard: Gill and friends, most from the Sunset High School area: Giovani Zamora, 22, whose father owned the boat; Yesenia Diaz, 22; Esteban Sosa and girlfriend Dianna Lotow, ages unknown; and Deidre Walsh, Brooke Benezra and Jessica Perez, all 17.
It wasn't a great day for boating, with winds to 20 knots, seas running an estimated five to seven feet and the National Weather Service posting small-craft advisories. But the 1989 23-foot Seacraft was a capable boat, and Gill said he and several in the crew were highly experienced, boating and diving in the areas since childhood. They anchored off Fowey, with six descending for a 40-minute dive.
When they came back up around 3:30 p.m., the boat had flipped. The two women left topside were drifting off, screaming and clinging to a cooler.
They all gathered next to the bobbing hull to assess the situation, Gill said. Their cellphones were gone. Their marine radio didn't work in the first place, according to the Coast Guard. Gill said Zamora dove under several times trying to locate the boat's signal flares but couldn't find them.
CUT OFF
With no way to call for help, Gill said they quickly gathered everything that would float -- coolers, life jackets, even inflating the buoyancy vests attached to the scuba tanks. Then, with the tide moving in, they cut the anchor, hoping to drift to shore with the floating hull or get close enough to flag down another boat.
But with darkness came cold. Then the boat seemed to stop moving, seemingly hooking something below.
Scared about surviving the night clinging to the slippery hull, Gill said they decided to swim for it -- aiming for the lighthouse silhouetted by the lights of downtown Miami at least six miles away.
TAKING TURNS
The strongest swimmers took turns pulling the others, Gill said. At one point, Gill spotted a channel marker to gauge progress. An hour later, they had barely made headway. The mood shifted with the current.
After some squabbling, they set out for Stiltsville -- closer but nearly invisible in the darkness.
They made it at around 5 a.m., broke a window, drank some bottled water stored inside and slept until dawn. They flagged a nearby boat around 9:30 a.m. and were reunited with joyful relatives by noon at the Coast Guard's Miami Beach station. Sunburn, jellyfish stings, dehydration and shaken nerves were the only injuries.
It remained uncertain why the boat, which was salvaged, had sunk.
The Coast Guard said the eight had been fortunate. For one, Doss said, they failed to file any float plan.
Parents didn't alert the Coast Guard until 11:24 p.m. and when they did, no one knew exactly where the boat had gone or even where they'd launched it.
They also left the boat, which is typically the easiest thing for rescuers to see.
Ismael Zamora, Giovani's father, said his son was right to swim for it.
''He definitely made the right decision,'' Ismael Zamora said. ``I think that was one of the reasons they're alive.''

FellowShip

[Roland Rodriguez]

Sounds like a bad day at the office.
I'd be interested to find out what caused her to flip. Thank god they had 85 degree water if not it would have been history within an hour.

[gss036]

I am running a 1989 23WA and that makes me wonder why also. Mine has floatation in the hull, wonder about this one? Being anchored, I wonder how many O2' bottles they had on board and maybe someone shifted the weight around to one side and the wind and a roller caught the boat wrong. I would not think this boat would flip, new lesson learned.
Sure would be nice to learn more details.

[ September 28, 2003, 11:54 PM: Message edited by: Gary ]

[FELLOW-SHIP]

I don’t know for sure but I fish in that area all the time and was there 12 hrs earlier during the day. My next store neighbor was out that night fishing Sword fish and told me the sea’s had increased to 7 + feet in the gulf stream. It seems to me there was probably a combination of things working against this 23’ SeaCraft. First two many people and equipment, then high sea’s, then probably a very short anchor rope causing the boat to bob dipping water in from the stern, and then my guess again but usually something that causes most boats to sink (bilge pumps either not working, or not turned on, or not big enough). There were two girls left on the boat but that doesn’t mean they would have enough boating knowledge to do something about the problem before it became critical. I always recommend 2 bilge pumps with at least one on a float switch and checked to make sure they work before you go out. I almost lost it once on a new 18’ cc in 3-5 ‘ seas. I was taking water in over the stern and turned on the bilge pump and found out that it didn’t work due to a piece of resin (new boat) stuck in the impeller. After that experience I installed the second pump so I always had a back up. Another element that we see in South Florida all the time is many people have more $$$ then good boating sense. You might own a great boat but even the Titanic can go down when you make mistakes.
FellowShip [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[TUGBOAT]

Right On ! If Anyone has boated in South Florida One thing they've noticed is a boat desigbed for four has generally 12 on Her ! I watch in amazement people ramming their Brand New boats into docks while their trying to PARK them,or some boats that don't even look like they would float going out over burdened.I watched bowriders going out packed & most sitting in the front splashing/dipping water over the bow.I'm still not sure how ANTONE can go out buy a 70+ mph boat & take it out with No eXperiance.Then they look for the brakes,They wonder why theres Christmas lights on the bow !Pretty !
I feel a lil better now !
They just had a FREE boat saftey check & Free boating course 1 Day to all. 3 people showed up.
Kinda Scary !! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Capt Chuck]

Hey Capt Brad/Fellowship

Eight people on board?
Small Craft advisory?
20 Knot winds?
Was this Bear Cut by any chance?
I'm carry a 100 ton lic and would not venture St Lucie on an flooding tide in those conditions.
They were lucky to tell the story. I think they consumed more than 02 on that voyage!

Capt Chuck

[RS]

The article says,"Gill said he and several in the crew were highly experienced, boating and diving in the areas since childhood"

This brings to mind two sayings I've heard:
~Experience does not guaranty knowledge
and
~Experience is no match for stupidity

[Hooper]

One word: EPIRB

You can buy a good one on eBay for as little as a few hundred bucks. And the personal models that clip to your PFD's are cheaper than that...

-Hooper

www.stripersandblues.com

[FELLOW-SHIP]

HA CAPT CHECK STEELE
THEY WERE SOUTH OF BEAR CUT BY ABOUT 3-5 MILES
FELLOW-SHIP [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]