Sailor Disappears in Florida

[Cheechako]

Dingy tracks and footprints in the sand... then ... nothing.... Atlanta boater presumed dead in Fla.*| ajc.com

[slomotion]

The skipper's concern, motivation, and even courage are admirable, but I don't know what kind of "help" he thought he was going to get in those conditions or why he would take the risk. It should be noted that that storm took a lot of people by surprise.

[Reality Check]

The guy had never sailed the boat before and apparently had only been on it a few time over the prior 3 days before taking her out for the 1st time.... in a Tropical Storm. He apparently had no charts/ instruments or knowledge of the waters or didn't use them as Camel Back is a well know and marked shoal.

Just a long list of bad decisions resulting in a bad outcome. Had he stayed with the boat everything would have been fine. St Andrews Bay is not a really difficult place but you do not go out into any area you don't know anything about with out checking for weather conditions and getting some understanding of the charts and your instruments. By 5 PM the conditions here in Panama City were far passed the conditions any reasonable boater would venture out. While the storm was not well know until mid day by most people. It was well know by about almost everyone by 5PM when bands of heavy rain and strong wind were moving across the bay and city.

Probably the only reason someone at the docks didn't stop him was that everyone else had already secured their boats and were in safe cover themselves and no one was around to stop/ warn him.

No reason this should have ever occurred. Total lack of knowledge and disregard to obvious hazardous conditions, appears to be at blame.

Locally several variations on what "actually" occurred are floating around by those who were involved with the search/ rescue event. Some are even more unbelievable.

[Zydeco]

Cam's boat was on the same dock as us at the Panama City marina. There were several people on the dock that day. He went out around 2 pm. At the time, the sun was out and the wind wasn't too bad, just a little gusty. I talked to him right before he went out. He knew a tropical storm was coming. He said he was expecting to get wet. I assumed he would head back in before it got too bad.

[Ram]

Too bad he dident make it, he could have learned a lot from all the mistakes he made--the sea is unforgiving and just one wrong step and your swept off the planet forever (until the next life) Im one of the lucky ones that can look back and say wow I wont do this or that again, and have become more and more careful over the years, but there was a time when I could have done the same thing as this guy-and if you look back far enough perhaps we all could have!

[Chief Engineer]

You step up into a life raft....if the boat ain't sinking stay aboard