Quote:

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Originally Posted by mmareno (Post 2813488)

IThe four friends were able to put on life vests and huddle together, but eventually became separated, he said.

Hospital officials said he didn't want to talk to the media.

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Sounds fishy....no pun intended.

Whats that they say about hindsight,it's 20/20.

Bottom line is one guy is still here and if he says they dropped anchor on a perfectly good boat when it was rough and it took on water and captsized then it was their fault, if the boat was inop then they should have rapped a jacket or something around the anchor and put it in the water but not on bottom and hoped the current would drag them along so they werent just getting tossed around, they make an anchor that does that but I dont know anybody that has one. Or maybe they do like me on my fishing boat and just leave the anchor tied to the cleat and the boat was hit by a wave and when it flipped the anchor fell out and set itself. I would have to think we will learn atleast 80% of the truth in the next few days.

In Oct. 2002 I was caught in the Gulf Stream going to the Bahamas in my 42 Sonic, was fine one minute then started getting bad real bad we were at the halfway point when it got real real bad. 15-20 footers no lie. It was me and my wife best friend and his girl. The girls were holding on to the back of the seat kneeling on the floor and crying so loud I could hear them over all the other noise, all I could think about was not seeing my kids again we took so much water over the bow and in our faces I could barley see from the salt water in my eyes and I still dont know how the bilge pumps kept up. We stuffed it so hard one time it tore the bow light off. It wound up taking 5 hours to get from Lauderdale to Bimini. thats 50 miles. By the time we got there I could not open my hands and they wanted me to fillout the customs paper work, both my shoulders had knots so big they hurt for a week. All the glass in the coolers was broken like $500 worth, the microwave, the refridgearator, the TV, something hit the Elec. planel and smashed it and alot of the hinges were broken. I put the boat back together as good as I could with duct tape to finish our 2 week vacation. When I got back to the Sonic plant I told them I needed to leave the boat for some repairs. They took one look at the inside and had to go get Jay Ross to look at it. He asked me if I worked for Consumer Reports. We told them the story and when we were done they told us that a 32 foot boat went down at around the same time and place and all 6 people were lost. Jay told me not to worry about the boat and that he would fix it for me. I left the boat there till March when I and 2 best friends went back down to go back to the Bahamas my wife will never go again unless I buy a ship. The boat was better than new and he didnt charge me a dime. So I know a little about the fear and horror they went though and if I wasnt in a 42 foot boat that was built for the ocean we would have been dead.

I hope they rest in peace and maybe some others will be safer.

Lapseofreason great post...lot of good info...thx

Prayers for the families.

Updated: March 3, 2009, 9:30 PM EST CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - As the four fishing buddies huddled together in the dark, clinging to their capsized boat miles off the Florida coast, a helicopter's light shone down upon them.

Tragedy at sea Photos: The search for Marquis Cooper, Corey Smith and William Bleakley has been called off. Here are images from the Coast Guard's rescue of Nick Schuyler, the sole survivor of the ordeal.
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Photos: Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper left the world too soon. We look back at some of the images of them on the field.
For a while, as the boat drifted in the rough seas, Nick Schuyler could even see the city lights from shore. But the men drifted away as the hours passed, Schuyler told a friend after he was rescued, with the two NFL players aboard disappearing first, leaving him and his college football teammate hanging onto the hull.

"The waves were just so much. They never got a break," said Schuyler's friend, Scott Miller.

The Coast Guard called off the search Tuesday for the other three: Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former University of South Florida player William Bleakley, three days after their boat capsized Saturday.

Miller said Schuyler told him from his Tampa hospital room that the men initially hung together, trying to come up with plan. Bleakley swam underneath the boat and retrieved three life jackets and a cushion.

Easygoing and an avid fisherman, Bleakley gave the others the vests, Schuyler told Miller, and at least intially was the one clinging to the cushion.

"Will was there as long as he remembered," Miller said. "I want everyone to know Will's a hero in this whole thing."

Bleakley and Schuyler were former South Florida teammates, and the 24-year-old survivor had helped Cooper and Smith train at a gym.

After scouring about 24,000 square miles of ocean, the Coast Guard said it had done all it could to locate the men. Capt. Timothy Close said officials were sure that if there were any more survivors, they would have been found.

"I think the families understood that we put in a tremendous effort," Close said. "Any search and rescue case we have to stop is disappointing."

Bleakley's father appreciated the Coast Guard's effort.


The Coast Guard has suspended its search for Marquis Cooper, left, and Corey Smith. (Getty Images)

"I think they were not to be found," Robert Bleakley said.

Schuyler told rescuers after they plucked him from the ocean Monday that the boat was anchored when it capsized.

"He said basically that Will helped him keep going," Schuyler told Miller. Miller said he had also known Bleakley since the sixth grade. Eventually, Bleakley also got separated from the boat, leaving Schuyler alone.

Shortly before the search's conclusion was announced, the missing men's family and friends embraced and sobbed outside the Coast Guard station. They left without talking with reporters.

"He'll be an inspiration for me for a long time," Robert Bleakley said later of his son. "He always has been. I told everybody, I call him my hero."

Lions running back Kevin Smith called Corey Smith "a good, quiet guy, who always put in an honest day's work."

Kevin Smith, a Florida native, said he has been fishing as far off the coast as the four men, in boats larger and smaller than the watercraft that capsized.


Nick Schuyler, the lone survivor, was rescued 35 miles off the coast on Monday, clinging to the overturned vessel. (Cliff McBride/Tampa Tribune / Associated Press)

"The No. 1 thing when you're out there is, you have to respect the water," he said. "I know those guys had safety vests. I'm trying not to even think about it. That's a tough way to go."

Close said some family members asked about continuing the search on their own, which he discouraged but said the Coast Guard wouldn't prevent. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission may be heading out Wednesday to recover the boat.

The Coast Guard hadn't had more detailed conversations with Schuyler "due to his physical and medical condition," Close said. Schuyler was in fair condition and told hospital officials he didn't want to speak to the media.

Cooper, 26, was selected in the third round of the 2004 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers out of Washington. He played 26 games for the Bucs in his first two pro seasons, then led a nomadic NFL existence.

Cooper and Smith, 29, became friends when they were teammates at Tampa Bay. Smith signed with the Bucs as an undrafted free agent in 2002, and spent last season with Detroit before becoming a free agent. The former North Carolina State standout recorded 42 tackles (28 solo), three sacks and 10 special teams tackles in 2008, his best NFL season.

Bleakley, a 25-year-old former tight end from Crystal River, Fla., was on the USF football team in 2004 and 2005. He had one reception for 13 yards in his career, which also included some time on special teams.

Stuart Schuyler said his son is an instructor at L.A. Fitness and had helped train Smith and Cooper.

boating tragedy
 

Big heavy guys on a small 21 foot boat in rough seas go up to the bow to pull the anchor. Boat nose dives into a wave swamping the boat. No EPIRB, no time to trigger the MMSI. Tragedies can happen quickly.

I saw on the news that they are going to retrieve the boat today. The white/silver contender with tripples they showed on FOX 13 is my neighbors

An even more bizzarre tale.

"Schuyler allegedly told investigators that Cooper and Smith took off their own life jackets in a "bizarre story," according to the St. Petersburg Times.
"We were told that Nick said the two NFL players took their life jackets off and drifted out to sea," said Robert Bleakley, father of William, 25, told the newspaper.
Schuyler said that two to four hours after the boat tipped over in rough waters, one of the two NFL players decided he'd had enough. A few hours later, the second one did the same thing.
Schuyler also said that Bleakley's son, who had stayed hanging on the capsized boat with Schuyler, told him he saw a light in the distance and decided to try and swim for it, the paper reported.
"I think he was delusional to think he could swim someplace," Robert Bleakley said.
Ray Sanchez, Cooper's cousin, said the Coast Guard told him the same thing, but he cautioned that Schulyer might not be recalling the incident clearly after such a traumatic experience.
"We're not 100 percent sure where his head was at," Sanchez told the St. Petersburg Times. "He'd been through a lot.""

http://news.aol.com/article/missing-nfl-players/363480

Any word on the men..