James Phillips (right) and Curt Hall (left) two of three fisherman who were rescued after eight days adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, reunite with Ben Walker (center) at a homecoming party at the Phillips’ home Sunday in Blessing.
Posted on 08/31/2009 3:40:53 PM PDT by Wardenclyffe
CORPUS CHRISTI — Curiosity brought Eddie Yaklin and his friends to an oil rig 50 miles off his normal route for an evening of fishing, but what they brought back with them is an experience Yaklin likely will never forget.
Yaklin was traveling from Louisiana back to Texas on the Affordable Fantasy, a luxury yacht. He spotted an oil rig on the boat’s GPS system, about 50 miles from his planned trip and after discussing it with friends, at about 5:30 p.m. they decided to circle the rig and fish.
“We had circled the rig once and then out of the corner of my eyes I saw something up ahead,” Yaklin said. “I told my friends, ‘There’s something over there, let’s go see what it is.’ ”
Yaklin said after getting closer, he could see someone waving what appeared to be a white flag. He continued going toward the white flag, but called the U.S. Coast Guard when he saw three men on what appeared to be capsized catamaran, Yaklin said.
The three were reported missing Aug. 22 after they left Matagorda, about 90 miles southwest of Houston, on a fishing trip and never returned
Yaklin said that during the hours he spent with the three men on the boat, they told stories about their survival.
“They survived on one cracker a day and a few sips of beer,” Yaklin said. “It was unbelievable what they went through.” The men had also rationed bubble gum and used a hose to suck fresh water out of the internal “washdown” tank. Fishermen often keep such a tank to wash fish slime off their boat when they are out in the salt water.
The Coast Guard had called off its search Friday after scouring 86,000 square miles of water without finding them.
(Excerpt) Read more at caller.com ...
James Phillips (right) and Curt Hall (left) two of three fisherman who were rescued after eight days adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, reunite with Ben Walker (center) at a homecoming party at the Phillips’ home Sunday in Blessing.
One HELL of a story.
Difference between these guys and the 4 football players, these guys were prepared. An EPIRB woulda been even better.
I knew a guy who had the same thing happen off the coast of San Diego. They floated around for something like two weeks, ending up in Mexican waters. They were out of water for days and had no shade or sunscreen. The sunburn was horrific. He said that since then, nothing in life seems challenging or unpleasant any longer.
Sailing a catamaran in those waters just does not seem too smart to me.
What, exactly, do you think a catamaran is? There are some very large and very nice catamarans.
ANother interstig story from a while back...
A man who spent three months adrift in the Pacific Ocean aboard a damaged sailboat can set sail again in a $4,400 boat he received as a gift.
Since being rescued last month (Oct, 2002) from his damaged sailboat off the coast of Costa Rica, Richard Van Pham has received several gifts from around the world, including a new 25-foot sloop.
The donor, bioengineer Erwin Freund, said Pham deserves it.
“He appeals to our alter ego,” Freund said. “I’d like to be carefree and sailing. He’s living the way I’d like to.”
Happy ending here as well.
A snip from another article:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6989792
Hawkins says he, Phillips and Curtis Hall, were spending the night at sea on Phillips’ fishing boat when he woke up to find it taking on water quickly.
“Once I put my leg down and the water actually reached up to my knee, I just kind of jumped up and tried to wake everybody up,” said Hawkins.
Their boat capsized and they survived by sharing crackers and chewing gum.
“We jumped ship and next thing you know, everything was floating in the water,” said Hawkins. “We knew automatically it would be a survival test.”
They survived for eight days until Corpus Christi car dealer Eddie Yaklin found them sitting on the hull of their boat Saturday night, just hours after the U.S. Coast Guard had called off its search.
“Somebody’s standing up there flagging a white flag and it turned out it was a t-shirt,” said Yaklin.
Within minutes, they were aboard Yaklin’s 58-foot luxury yacht, where after rationing crackers for a week, they got to indulge in a steak dinner the crew happened to be cooking.
I know what a catamaran is. Of course, there are some very “nice’ ones — whatever that means — and I have seen some extremely well-apponted ones.
My point is that, in open ocean, a catamaran can be very tippy.
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