Posted on 03/04/2009 10:46:36 AM PST by Zakeet
As the Coast Guard ended its search for three missing football players whose boat tipped over in high Florida seas, the lone survivor said two of those lost gave up after hours in the frigid water and the third tried to swim to safety.
South Florida player Nick Schuyler told investigators that all four of the friends on a fishing excursion were initially wearing life vests and clinging to the 21-foot boat belonging to Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper.
But two to four hours after the boat capsized, one of the NFL players removed his life jacket and let himself be swept out to sea, the St. Petersburg Times reported. A few hours later, the other one followed suit.
"We were told that Nick said the two NFL players took their life jackets off and drifted out to sea," said Bob Bleakley, whose son Will Bleakley, 25, is also still missing.
After Cooper, 26, and Corey Smith, 29, were carried away, Bleakley and Schuyler hung on until morning — but then Bleakley decided to swim to get help when he thought he saw a distant light, the paper said.
He, too, took his life vest off, 24-year-old Schuyler told the families.
"I think he was delusional to think he could swim someplace," the Times quoted Bob Bleakley as saying.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I can’t imagine. It must have felt like days in that cold water. I don’t blame the families for not giving up hope but there’s a chance they might never be found. There are sharks in the Gulf.
It is a terrible tragedy but hopefully it will save others’ lives if they take heed, check the weather forecast and get an EPIRB.
It’s amazing the idiocy of some here accusing the lone survivor of somehow contributing to the deaths of the other three victims. As an avid boater I have been in cold waters before and can tell you that the lone survivor is part of an extremely small fraction of people that would have both the physical stamina and the mental toughness to last 47 hours in 67 degree water. In case you didn’t know, body heat radiates away much faster in water than in air of the same temperature. As for those who say they would have toughed it out... that is easy when you are sitting in a warm room and eating Doritos... but expose yourself to cold water, huge waves, and the hopelessness of a huge expanse of sea, and your thinking would change. I would say the average person would last less than a day before becoming completely delusional and despondent (along with immense pain from the loss of body heat). The lone survivor was a physical trainer, so he probably had great stamina and obviously had great mental fortitude. Unfortunately for the NFL players, their large size was most likely a detriment because more surface area and larger muscles radiate heat much faster than someone smaller. All in all this is a great tragedy that could have been avoided by heeding weather conditions. But for some people to act like they would have survived this and that the victims “gave up” need to go to Navy Seal training and see how long you last in the water survival test.
That was what I heard initially too. There’s an interview with Blakely’s father, he spoke to Schuyler by phone from the hospital. He told him that Blakely died with him, which gave his father some comfort.
Apparently it was Blakely who swam under the boat, got 3 life preservers and a cushion, Blakely wound up with the cushion initially. The story keeps changing a little bit each time.
Also, it seems Schuyler was aware enough to initially tell the Coast Guard about the 2 NFL guys drifting off after 2-4 hours. The CG also knew that Schuyler was suffering from hypothermia and might not have his hours and perception straight so they left no stone unturned and kept searching for the missing men. Not sure what he told the CG and what was relayed to the family about the fate of Blakely, but likely they were told early about his death because they were the first family to say that they don’t think the men were to be found and were making funeral arrangements for their son early on. The interviews I saw with the families said that the CG told them not to tell everything because you can’t be sure what’s totally accurate from someone suffering from hypothermia like Schuyler.
We’ll probably get the whole story fairly soon from Schuyler. I hope he’s getting proper psychiatric care, these kind of things leave scars on the survivors sometimes.
Thanks.
Seems kind of suspicious. But then again I’ve never been in that situation.
Ugh.
Read Doug, there’s nothing suspicious at all about what happened.
Your assumption about the water here and 21 foot boats is completely off base.
That boat is fine for what they were doing...it is even rated for 10-12 people I think.
It is a good hull design and a very sea worthy boat.
They probably took a rogue wave from the fast moving squall line that came through unexpectedly and that is all it took.
Their big mistake was not having all the proper equipment for fishing that far off shore.
Contrary to what you may think people take fishing pretty seriously around here and drinking and drugs are very rare especially early in the AM.
What I read the first day is they were trying to pull up the anchor because the weather was so bad. If they were all on the one side of the boat trying to do this the boat would have been unbalanced and a rogue wave easily could have sent it turtle.
Yeah, I posted before I read the whole thread. It sounds like the plot of a mystery story until you know the facts.
Thank God, LOL, we were thinking about trading you to Huffington Post for a moonbat to be named later ; )
Yeah I am not sure why they anchored. I learned how to fish off Nantucket before I came down here and we always had the boat under power. 3 would fish, 1 would remain at the helm managing the waves, etc.
Granted the water is a little rougher up north but the same concept applies...I think someone should always be at the helm when your fishing...but that’s just me.
btw...those squall lines came through here on Saturday with a vengeance...it was almost like something you would see in a movie that line had to moving at 30-50 miles an hour packing serious wind.
I bet they got caught up in that...they would have never even seen it coming.
Even my 5 year old said...it looks like we are having a hurricane.
Lets also add dehydration to the equation. No doubt they took in a fair amount of salt water when the boat capsized and if they’d been consuming alcohol this would only hasten the dehydration.
We call those microbursts out here, we get them in the summer on our lakes and it isn’t unusual for them to flip boats on the water...
I was wondering why they were anchored in a manner the nose of the boat didn’t rotate into the wind and the waves. Sounded like the anchor was off the side, which is not smart. The Gulf is also very muddy from what I understand, I imagine it is very easy for the anchor to get stuck and be difficult to pull in a hurry. I read where a large fishing boat gave up and went back to shore around noon on Saturday because the wave action was really bad.
I remember a jetliner being taken down in Dallas from that many years ago...crazy stuff.
Yes, that was Delta as I recall, wind sheer... wind is a nasty thing and people have to pay it the respect it needs.
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