Father and his kids missing at sea

[weavis]

[weavis]

Stop with the personals.

[weavis]

One more comment and both will be issued a personal warning followed by a strike from the board.

Your choice.

[sharkwatcher]

The bigger question here is why was a father of three teens moving his boat from Sarasota Bay, to Ft. Myers, going outside instead of the ICW, with a frontal system bearing down on them? After seeing pictures of his boat and having lived in Sarasota for 10 yrs, I can offer a few speculations. These are just my speculations and since I didn't know the family, not based on any personal knowledge or facts.

There are a number of anchored boats just outside of the Marina Jack's mooring area that meet the legal definition of "Derelict", no working MSD, expired registration, and questionable propulsion. I know that the FWC, Sarasota Co. Sherriffs Dept and the Sarasota water cops have had a very active policy for tagging and removing derelict vessels or encouraging marginal vessels to "move along".
It is possible that their boat fit into the marginal category and they were ask to relocate or make repairs. This would explain their need to move. The fact that they had no working VHF to communicate with the numerous bridges and a possibly unreliable OB would explain why they chose not to traverse the ICW. Lacking a VHF, it is also possible they had no weather radio so they were unaware of the deteriorating
weather until it was too late and without a VHF, unable to even call for assistance when the S#*T hit the fan. I'm sure if they were ask to leave or threatened with their boat being impounded, no one in Sarasota would ever admit to that. It is a real shame that father and 3 kids were lost due to possible official "bullying", lack of maintenance, poor planning, lack of safety equipment and plain ole bad luck.

[Nick Stephens]

Thank you weavis. Unfortunate that you have to say something, but thank you.

That being said, this is to everyone reading this thread.

I grew up in boatyards, marinas and in anchorages in southern California. We weren't rich. We lived among people that weren't rich. I can very easily relate to this family. It seems it is a very unfortunate tragedy that yes, could have basically been solved with money. I don't condone handouts by any means, but instead of laying blame and postulating on someone else's lifestyle choices, maybe you find someone like this family. Maybe you see what safety equipment they have, and maybe you help them out. Maybe that's a better use of all the energy this thread has generated.

[zeehag]

we can do shoulda woulda coulda forever. yes he shoulda taken the icw.
prolly woulda been still alive.
coulda been a lot less of a mess.
but it is done. r i p to the family. have the boys been found yet?

with little to no money it is difficult to pull a wad of cash out yer ass. i know. i had to come 300 miles with only receiving vhf, no transmission. oops. seems a furycame took care of that. and the hand helds i bought specifically for trip failed mid trip . ok... so i am broke. we were fortunate than cabo corrientes winds laid down and so did seas. i was spozed to catch 2 meter seas on my trip--those disappeared. i was damn lucky, yes. so shoot me for no epirb not yada yada yada. this family had no such good fortune.it is most sad. but this still happens.
yes he shoulda gone inside. perhaps he thought there was an obstruction of some kind, perhaps he didnt know about the icw there. it is gorgeous, btw.
btdt.
much safer than open ocean. is why we used it when we did. other than the awesome views encountered inside, it is nice n safe. one must have charts to run it. and a depth sounder.
but we can sit for hours and diss this family.
what is done is done. hindsight is not their option, unfortunately. may they r i p

what i wanna know is why the folks who stated in socialmedia that they saw flare didnt go to the aid of the flare sender. they SAID they were told was a training exercise... but, training exercises, i have watched while under way , use many many flares. these folks only sent one or two.
THAT is an issue.
perhaps some special training for new sailors to respond to flare sightings appropriately should be taught in the classes yáll are so proud to have been taking before departure might make life safer? after all, flares themselves do nothing. set them off they make a light that the sender counts on someone seeing and responding appropriately to seeing. .

ok.

now those who actually SEE the flares need to learn how to respond appropriately. not just sail on. respond. this smells of kitty genovese reactions by the witnesses to the flares. all watched no one responded.
could appropriate responses have saved at least one member of this family from dying?

[snort]

and maybe you help them out.

The reason why we're on this planet that we sometimes lose sight of.

Boating is just a nice diversion while we try to live this out.

[weavis]

thanks to all for calming the heck down.. Appreciate it..

[weavis]

here in Palma, there is a private train that runs to Soller.
As it leaves Palma, it runs up the main street. the driver follows the traffic signals in his journey.

I watched a woman cross the road in front of the train AGAINST the walk signal, and when she realised the train was closer than she thought, she began to run.

She tripped in front of the train. I watched in slow rising horror as the driver threw on his brakes and saw his face in shock..



At the last second, she managed to swing her legs out from under the approaching train...

She is a local.

Knew better, took a chance, and got it wrong and at the last moment got away with it. I say by one second.

She got lucky. But she might not have.

Stuph happens.

[tuffr2]

Here is a pic of the spent flare that was reported they found.



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[DDabs]

So I saw a report on the local news about the mast finding turning out to be a false report?

[Hanksy]

Might be the wrong place for the question but what do people do if they see a white flare? I know it's for collision avoidance but what do you do a) if you see a white flare and can't reach anyone on VHF? And b) see a white flare and know there is a search and rescue mission happening nearby?

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[psneeld]

Originally Posted by Hanksy

Might be the wrong place for the question but what do people do if they see a white flare? I know it's for collision avoidance but what do you do a) if you see a white flare and can't reach anyone on VHF? And b) see a white flare and know there is a search and rescue mission happening nearby?

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in both cases report it to the normal search authority....it's their job to correlate the flare report value.

[Adodero]

The flare that was found was found earlier in the week, prior to them "seeing" a flare at night.

The "mast" turned out to be fishing gear and a crabpot, so there was nothing to see there, it was a false report.

[tuffr2]

With additional weekend boating activity I am hoping the odds of finding someone alive has increased. I know north of there boating activity really increases on the weekends.

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