Number 1 lesson always always always stay with the Boat.

I have a 14 yr old that goes to school with one of the missing kids. She got her boating license (required in FL for anyone born after 1981). She was all excited, so I said great now we can load up the whaler with snacks/drinks and I can drop you and your friends in at the ramp and you can call me when you are done........She screams: REALLY?

My response: Ummmm no!

She just ran the boat last weekend from Palm Beach Inlet (Lake Worth) to Jupiter in 1-2 confused seas (12 miles total). Timing was a bit off, boat was banging a lot (I was a passenger). She got through the inlet and said that isn't as much fun as she thought it would be. She was riding jet skis as a passenger at age 4, running small boats since age 6 but when it is all her responsibility she didn't think it was that fun anymore!

It is possible that they weren't able to once it capsized. Think about it, banging up/down with every wave, not sure you want to be water level with it. Current will move the boat a lot faster than a kid (ever jump off a boat in a current only to find it is really hard to swim back to the boat again).

Boat also had black bottom paint indicating it spent time in the water, probably had growth on it making it really hard to get back on top of it.

I attended a Coast Guard safety seminar once at a boat show and the stories they told were simply amazing. You look like a coconut floating in the water to them during a search. However any light source can be seen for miles when they are searching using infrared (mirror, simple flashlight or pulsing beacon). They showed video of in water rescue and things they saw from several miles away. The lesson was "give yourself a chance for them to find you!" Ditch bag food/water, life raft, EPIRB, quality jackets, portable radio/sat phone, laser lights/high intensity flash lights etc. One coastie mentioned most people have life saving gear in their kitchen (food, water, flashlights, etc).....Why not stock the boat too? Coolest thing they showed was a life jacket with a strobe light that flashes when it gets wet........stupid simple idea but genius!

CG reports 1-3 ft seas, 11-13 knot winds with thunderstorms rolling through


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Zif50R03A

WOW my thoughts and prayers are with these boys and their families.

Spent 20 years windsurfing in 20 - 30 mph winds Surface current speed in these conditions which is the speed of which the top 3-4 feet of water will travel is 2 knots or more.

In these conditions in 4 hours which was the time after they were reported missing they could have been blown 8 miles offshore by the West winds.

So suddenly you are not just running up and down the coast a mile or 2 offshore in the helicopter looking for them but 8 miles offshore and increasing by the minute, now they are close to getting caught in the Gulfstream and now we have a whole new variable.

On a 30 mile coastal search your search grid is growing at the rate of 1 square mile per a minute.You cannot search that much ground per a minute so you are continually falling behind in your search.

Doesn't matter how slimy the boat is or that you are even on the upturned hull.. Dive under the boat and get a lifejacket and some line to keep you tied near it. A boat is usually always spotted . A Bobbing head not so much.

I did a search and rescue for a sunken jetski 20 miles offshore., Even from the air it is a needle in a haystack and even after you spot the object it is unreal how quickly you can lose site of it again.

I am in no way for a Government for more rules but I think it should be a law that any vessel operating outside a inter-coastal waterway should have to carry a Epirb.

Used one to save my azz years ago.

You can buy them for 300 bucks these days . Whats your life worth?

Very bad news and although it doesn't look good, never give up hope, there is still a chance of a happy ending.

I was caught out many years ago off the east coast of Australia in 30-40 knot winds and breaking seas up to about 12'. My companion was not much of a boatie but had the insight to grab a few lines and tie them to rails and cleats and also make a few knots in the ropes to hang on to if disaster struck. Fortunately things were on our side that day but just wearing a safety vest and and a plan to cling to the ropes made us both feel a lot more at ease.

I have lost a friend at sea and it could have been avoided. Take care, always allow for the worst case scenario before heading out.

Thoughts and prayers for the boys and their families.

Jon.

Ocean was flat on Friday. Storms were coming and going, though, so they could have been caught unprepared.

Hoping for the best but time decreases the odds for sure.

Flat near shore but get offshore 5-10 miles and the 25 mph West winds have you in 8 footers.

How far out is the Gulfstream in that part of FL?