Posted on 08/21/2019 5:42:46 AM PDT by pnz1
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —
Five days after two firefighters left Port Canaveral on a fishing trip, the search for them has intensified and moved north.
Brian McCluney, a member of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, and Justin Walker, a Fairfax, Virginia, firefighter, were last seen leaving the Christopher Columbus Boat Ramp in Port Canaveral in a 24-foot fishing boat, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Advertisement
Officials said the pair were believed to have gone offshore around 30 miles and were expected to return around 6 p.m. They were heading toward a fishing spot known as 8A reef.
McCluney's wife, Stephanie Young McCluney told WESH 2 News that search crews on Monday had found her husband's tackle bag about 50 miles off the coast of St. Augustine. Following the discovery of the tackle bag by a Good Samaritan, the Coast Guard said it would be focused on the area where that bag was found.
(Excerpt) Read more at wesh.com ...
Yeah. Odds ain’t good.
Pray for miracles.
When we moved to Virginia we brought our 20 foot center console along after fishing it as much as 90 miles offshore in the Gulf of Panama. My son and I took it on one trip to the Gulf Stream some 70 miles out off Virginia Beach. We never did it again. I bought a bigger boat. Let’s just say the trip home was “memorable”.
I bought a 15 foot plywood lapstrake runabout in 76. Put her in Long Island Sound. Did a lot of fishing that year. A couple of times I found out what happens to a tiny craft like that when the weather changes. It’s not pretty nor fun. Suffice it to say I sold it the following spring and bought progressively bigger boats after that.
Sold my last one, a twenty footer last week. Not bad on fairly calm days. The only days I have been going out of late.
I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been scared on boats. Open water is not something I take lightly (back in 79 I moved my location to the south shore and the Atlantic). A couple of times it was very iffy that we would make it back. An acquaintance was working on a long line cod boat out of Moriches. They went out pretty far. On his last trip they got all the way back to the inlet on a rough day with a stiff tide running and got flipped in Moriches inlet. The two others on board swam to shore. He never made it.
Life’s a b*tch and then you die.
Back when I was seriously sport fishing offshore my buddies and I made a number of trips out of Oregon Inlet in the dark to be in the Gulf Stream when the sun came up. We never had any trouble because we just followed the charter guys through the channels. When you make that trip you pass quite a number of wrecks.
30-50 miles out is a long ways when the weather gets rough, especially in a small boat.
Besides natural occurrences, there’s also the element of drug smuggling bad guys. My father was a Florida commercial fisherman and said it got so bad out there that if someone was signaling distress, they couldn’t go help them because of the high probability that it was smugglers who would be more than happy to kill them and take their boat.
Tell me about it. The one trip we made with the 20 footer I think we averaged about 5-7 mph in 5-6 foot seas for the last 50 miles. It was like spending the day in a washing machine.
I hope this thread isn’t chok-full of Concern Trolls like other websites’ threads.
I couldn’t even mention a failure scenario and possible search area without being attacked by highly concerned Concern Trolls. So I called the USCG directly. Spoke with them for an hour. We exchanged info and ideas. I gave them some information they passed up to Jacksonville. Concern Trolls had a big saddy with that.
I’ve done it both on the gulf of Mexico, and on lakes Michigan and Erie.
I’ve been on lake Michigan with 30’ swells in a 14’ boat. You’d go down the trough and see nothing but water over you. If a wave ever broke over you it would all over.
Future reference: What’s a life worth? 5 lives???
I would NEVER take a charter without knowing I had half a chance at surviving in the water until rescue...and that rescue would know my location.
https://www.passagemaker.com/trawler-news/epirb-vs-ais-vs-satellite-devices
“Officials said the pair were believed to have gone offshore around 30 miles and were expected to return around 6 p.m. They were heading toward a fishing spot known as 8A reef.”
8A may be 30 miles from the dock but it’s 14 miles from the Port Canaveral inlet which unfortunately is a few miles beyond cell phone range. They had already sold the boat and removed the VHF radio. So beyond cell phone range and no VHF on board. It gets worse but I won’t get into it.
8A may be 30 miles from the dock but it’s 14 miles from the Port Canaveral inlet which unfortunately is a few miles beyond cell phone range. They had already sold the boat and removed the VHF radio. So beyond cell phone range and no VHF on board. It gets worse but I won’t get into it.
That’s very interesting. All I hear on the radio here in Jax the past few days is “Help us Search for the firefighter”, press conferences from various fire folks, etc.
I have to believe Joe Q. Public average boater would not be getting such an outpouring of support if they were missing at sea.
“I have to believe Joe Q. Public average boater would not be getting such an outpouring of support if they were missing at sea.”
I’ve read of P-3 Orion and even a JSTARS being used in the search. We all want the most resources searching for lost loved ones but I’m pretty sure none of us would receive such support. But the DoD has a long history of dedicating search assets at their discretion. However from all the evidence I’ve seen it’s pretty clear the boat went down and the men perished NLT Saturday evening.
Lots of ppl apparently consider such to be ‘not helpful’. Sure, lets just drag the family along thru every up and down with each new piece of flotsam until they’re mentally exhausted. “Todays the Day!” for 5 days now. Like that’s helpful? It’s more akin to the behavior of an antagonist in a psychological thriller. “Today’s the day you’re going to see your loved ones again” -then it’s not -again and again. It’s not considerate it’s tormenting.
A lot of the small boaters here in South Georgia have gone out searching today.
Here in the marina we’re stuck in (prop issue on the sailboat), there is a Jacksonville news crew running around.
From the news I’ve seen, if they are finding bits in the water, it definitely isn’t a good sign.
Why would they take off on a boat they’d already sold (and removed radio)?
“Why would they take off on a boat they’d already sold (and removed radio)?”
Supposedly one last fishing trip with his Fire Fighting school buddy from VA before transferring the boat.
So if he removed the VHF, why? Was he going to buy another boat? What other equipment was removed? The Coastie said he wasn’t known to wear a life jacket. I asked him if they knew PFDs were removed, like at the house instead of in the boat. He mumbled something and trailed off. So it’s not looking good for the man’s judgement. Worse yet the engine was known to have issues but they headed out to a reef beyond cellphone range w/o the VHF?
It gets worse but I’ll hold off as the search continues. Lots of people still hope they’re alive. Sorry, but after reviewing what is known my 37 years of small boating says the boat sunk and they’re gone.
I think the search ATP is pretty much to protect his reputation and legacy for his family’s sake. I can’t fault that.
Agree. Those tiny ships get tossed.
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.