Posted on 07/30/2015 5:39:28 PM PDT by ScottWalkerForPresident2016
The desperate search for two missing Florida teens entered its sixth day on Thursday with no sign of the boys.
Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, both 14, were last seen buying fuel for their boat near Jupiter, Florida, on Friday. That boat was found capsized on Sunday, about 67 miles off the coast of the Ponce de Leon Inlet. But the teens were nowhere in sight.
The search has now expanded to the South Carolina coast, but officials are beginning to lose hope as the longest anyone has been know to survive in open water is five days.
(Excerpt) Read more at people.com ...
Currents can differ within even a yard of depth. The boat is on the top and the swimmers legs dangle even if wearing a vest.
The fastest swimmer (Olympic level) could swim in place against the gulf stream speed ~5 miles an hour. If you have clothes and a flotation vest you can’t swim fast enough to keep with the boat. Then imagine doing that in 6 foot swells...
compare this reaction to the little girl who “sailed around the world” and the cheers she got
Living like American kids should live. Sad but it happens. As a kid my friends mother said to me “if you boys drown I will never forgive you”. Powerful words that still guide me. Hope it turns out for them. Oh to be 14 again!
My fourteen year old called my today to say he and his friend had biked 7 miles down the highway and could I come get them. He is not supposed to do that. It’s busy, under construction and folks speed regardless. Kids...
I can only imagine their pain.
“I keep seeing this posted but I don’t understand how the ‘current’ can be so different in only a few yards apart.”
It has to do with weight and shape of the objects being moved in the water.
For example, a capsized but floating boat would offer less for the Gulf Stream to move it. It stays, more or less, on the surface. A person’s body usually hangs down in the water. The human body would naturally be moved by the Stream more easily.
They did know that. Anyone that does boating in that environment knows that.
I took it as immediate evidence that we would not be hearing from them again.
I don’t think the current is as much of a factor as the wind and the waves. The boat has a higher profile and would tend to follow the wind. The waves are going to also push it in whatever direction they travel. Neither will have as much affect on a body which is 95% submerged.
Do you have a pair of asbestos undies?
Just asking.
Please Lord, find these boys CG, their time is running out.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
5.56mm
Same here.
“Water temp is about 87*....a human in that temp will slowly have their body temp decrease to that temp”
Actually, 84° water is the temp in which you can maintain body temp. A diver’s best friend. The waters I used to play in was 84°.
Been watching this. Sorry to hear it. It struck me that they were probably involuntarily separated from the boat, as well.
“I have no doubt that God was watching over me during that foolishness.”
That is the fun of growing up; hoping first to survive the experience.
To be old and wise on must first survive being young and stupid.
My being alive today is proof there must be a God.
They surf, skate, play golf, football, basketball, fish, and hang with hotties on the beach. It's what they've always done here. I loved where I grew up, but I often think it would have been pretty cool to grow up here.
Pirates?
When I was their age decades and decades ago, we were not allowed in a boat unsupervised unless the boat was tied to the dock; when not tied to the dock, one or more adults (parents) were on board.
Never were we allowed under any circumstances to be on board a boat leaving the bay or harbor area and going into the open ocean, let alone when storm warning flags were up. Traveling the distance from Florida to the Bahamas as children in a storm alone on a boat would have been literally unthinkable.
“...their cardinal sin appears to have been not staying with the boat. Hard to know why even at 14 they didn’t know to do that?”
From what I’ve learned that was likely not possible. They went into a thunderstorm in an open-bow, low freeboard vessel. Their vessel swamped, rolled and broke. They apparently did not even have the opportunity, or foresight, to don their life jackets.
Their cardinal sin was going into a strong thunderstorm in a low-freeboard, open boat ensuring they’d be swamped. That is suicide in my book.
FL thunderstorms can be quite violent with 7’+ chop and gale force winds. Without a cabin a swamped vessel in such conditions is lethal to anyone around it. Keyword: swamped. A swamped boat is a totally different animal.
http://www.wptv.com/news/region-n-palm-beach-county/jupiter/10-years-ago-charleston-teens-survived-7-days-lost-at-sea-share-story-of-survival
What are the boating laws in Florida? Is it illegal for boys this age to be operating a vessel?
The Sea is not kind even on a Cruise ship you are in God’s hands.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.