Is a E what you said the same as what are fishermen use up here in the frigid waters..life saving suits?
Is the water that far out down in Florida cold? or Warm?
We also use devices that are locators. (cant think of proper terminology right now)
IIRC the guy who had the boat was an avid fisherman along with his Dad.
Did the storm come after they were out at sea?
We lose about one F/V a year up here.
The old time Captains have a hard time with some idiot deck hands bringing meth aboard.
Use to be just boozers in the past and that is easy to detect before leaving port.
Yes, it came up after they were out there. The morning was calm, someone commented on Fox the calm is actually normal right before a cold front moves in this time of year.... when it hit it hit fast and a deep sea fishing boat came back in early because they were taking waves over the bow and it was miserable.
Emergency position indicating radiobeacons (EPIRBs) use satellite communications. The Coast Guard would know exactly where you were in about 4 minutes.
The water in the gulf is 68 degrees right now. It generally doesn’t get below 60 in winter. In the summer it can get to high 80s.
Because of the high number of pleasure boaters with little experience there are a lot of people that get into trouble.
One guy had 11 people on a 12 foot boat. From 5 months to 68 years. They stayed offshore too long and were swamped by a storm. Luckily they were only a few miles offshore and the water was warm.
They said a cold front came thru Saturday & most boats that were out, returned by around noon that day.
They said a cold front would trigger very choppy water conditions that far out in the gulf!