Man Rescued A Second Time After Returning To Repair Boat Left Adrift

A Florida man who is an experienced mariner and fishing boat captain was very fortunate to be rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard out of St Petersburg the morning after enduring 75-90 mph winds and 25-foot seas overnight by clinging to a large fishing cooler.

The captain and a crew member had been hoisted to safety three days earlier when the fishing boat became disabled. The captain returned to the boat to make repairs but then the boat’s rudder got snarled in line and unable to maneuver.

He was in contact with the Coast Guard as Hurricane Milton bore down on his location. Coast Guard watchstanders advised him to put on his life jacket and stay with the boat’s emergency locator beacon. Contact was lost and in the morning a search was initiated.

After several hours of searching fruitlessly, a Coast Guard helicopter was heading back to the coast when the crew picked up a weak signal from the man’s beacon. The helicopter turned back out to sea and a short time later the rescue swimmer noted debris floating in the water. As they got closer they realized that one of the objects was the man waving his arms while clinging to a fishing cooler.

The rescue swimmer went into the water, swam to the man, and got him hoisted to safety. To say the crew was ecstatic at being able to effect the rescue would be an understatement!

“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner," said Lt. Cmdr. Dana Grady, command center chief of Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg.

Lt. Landon Klopfenstein, one of the helicopter crewmembers, said, “It was great because all that kind of came together to where our initiative resulted in us finding a guy that's been holding on to a cooler for 24 hours — like, through a hurricane. Survival equipment is priceless”

FMI: www.news.uscg.mil/