Yeah, thats what I was trying to say.

The Coast Guard search is one thing but God bless the poor parents. I cant imagine losing my kid let alone not know what happened.

I think they found the boat during the search with the planes. My guess is they called in the location for them to go by sea.

If the phone was powered on it could have been GPS'd by the cell phone carrier within a few hours of them going missing.
Chances are it ran out of charge early on or was out of cell tower range.
Other than using it for that purpose whats kind of clue could there possibly be?? You gonna ask Siri what happened?????

Anyone can Monday morning quarterback the professionals who made decisions as the situation was unfolding from behind a computer 9 months later.

First the phone doesn’t have to be on for cell towers to know where it is. Jails are full of criminals who thought that. You have to take the battery out and sometimes that don’t even work until the internal power goes completely away.
As for the phone itself, how about a plan to go to the Bahamas and directions they planned on taking. Don't think they would have done an open water crossing without gps if they had it. Even if they did without gps the phone would have stayed hooked up to towers until it didn't and would have given the exact time they left and a general direction to search instead of just search "out there". Also not sure about 6 but iphone 5's gps works off of satellites not towers. Or there could have been a suicide pac talked about on the phone (kids text everything not use the phone). Or meeting up with an off shore drug dealer. Or maybe they saw (drug dealer or poacher) they shouldn’t have. Maybe one wanted to kill the other for screwing his girlfriend. Maybe it was something as simple as a tank of bad gas or a breakdown. Who knows? I just know with my extremely limited experience in these matters I would have secured and looked in the boat (the only clue to what happened) for what was there and what was not like signs of a struggle, breakdown, life preservers, personal stuff or an anchor and if I found a phone it would have been #1 to find out what was on it. Hell there could be video tape or pictures on it of exactly what happened live and in color. I know my 14 and 15 year olds, their phones are physically attached to their hands so I could see when having trouble one of them pulling out their phones and taking a vid or picture for a future bookface or youtube post.
Anything could have helped back then (a Discovery Channel crew just found a lost castaway on an island off the coast of Australia) and leaving the boat out there for towboat to get (when they can’t seem to find their own asses most times) was irresponsible at a minimum and more like negligent. They could have stayed on station long enough for another boat/ship to get it in sight. They could have had every mariner with a radio to go to that location with a simple radio call. Now that its 9 months later at least it may be good for what happened but loosing that boat and the phone that was in it was a major screw up.

Whenever there's an incident of this nature speculation is rampant , and it's not surprising to see it here , probably because of the nature of the 'reporting' .
I can't recall it being said anywhere in the early reports when the boat was located as to whether it was still upright and afloat or capsized . Knowing that fact would determine the action that the CG originally took .
IF it was still upright and floating then there would have been no reason for them not to do a preliminary search . However , if it was capsized then a quick dive underneath to determine that there were no bodies still accompanying the boat would have sufficed and the CG would have probably decided that a boat capable of salvage was needed as opposed to a simple tow back to port .
One of the photos released showing the boat just before the freighter secured it clearly shows that it was inverted , surface submerged and had a large chunk missing from the hull . It's possible that if it was in this same condition when the CG initially found it they had no way to get it onto their boat and it would also have been much harder to locate later on for the other guys .

Boat was found originally off Daytona and it was capsized. From memory, CG was on scene with a chopper and sent a diver to confirm it was the boat and that it was unoccupied. The next order of business was to refocus the search pattern, not rescue an old boat 75 miles offshore.

IMO the Coast Guard helicopter should have stayed with the boat until a CG boat could get to it to look for evidence. There very well could be clues on that iPhone. Now after so many months in a marine environment who know if data can be retrieved from that phone. I support Apple on their previous stands but I hope that they offer their resources to access the phone. There could be pictures, texts, calls that might bring some closure for the families.

I was at the inlet the day of the storm.....weather was nasty on land, nevermind on an open boat offshore. My opinion, kids were capsized very early in their trip but probably didn't survive the first night in the water. They might have been able to see land and tried to swim for it, current was running out the inlet at 2-3 knots which made swimming to shore impossible for even Michael Phelps. They simply got tired and either drowned or got grabbed by sea life. The cell phone is a waste of time being submerged in salt water for 6+ months. As far as "end of life" details, I suspect this rolled up fast and these kids were in the water in one big wave not texting cryptic end of life messages.

Since the story broke the parents have raised over 500K (go fund me, go fund also keeps 8% of funds raised so they made 40K too!), got lots of new law proposals and subsequently are running 2 separate foundations in the names of the kids. 2 things have never been really addressed: 1. kids bought $100 worth of fuel (no small amount for kids, they certainly wouldn't have put that much in the boat if they were planning to troll just outside the inlet for an hour or two 2. Kids took grandpa's boat without permission (one kid had his own boat but was grounded from using it, so they took another boat).

There is video of the CG talking with a diver at the boat, radio confirms "zero POB"...zero persons onboard and they pulled the diver out of the water and moved on. I would have thought they marked the boat with a tracking device to get it later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xCB7--6JkM

As a side note:

I was at the Biltmore Hotel this weekend with my kids, they have the biggest hotel pool in Florida (their own pitch), pool is 600K gallons and is over 1/2 acre. Guessing 250 X 100 as a size. I told my kids to swim the length of the pool and they could stop at the far wall (1/2 way point) and then swim back. Essentially a 500 ft swim roundtrip in a perfect environment (no waves, no salt water, no storm, etc). Both kids and their friend did it but were visibly winded (I did the same up and back an hour earlier and stopped a couple times (stood on bottom)......my arms felt like logs! My lesson for them was: Stay with the boat!

We had another lost boater 2 weekends ago. 3 guys and a 11 yr old in a 24 ft searay. The guy that stayed with the boat washed back to shore, the the other 3 died.

The Biltmore Pool (video is taken from the middle of the pool):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnNbbM9fZMo

How the heck was a cell phone still on board? As you say, why wasn't an EPIRB attached? I think the CG needs to review their protocols.

Children need to not only be taught how to swim but they must learn how to never panic, to remain calm and how to float on their backs with minimal effort while breathing deeply and resting. Their have been reports of people swimming many miles back to shore and that is how it's done.

You said exactly what I was thinking, but under these circumstances I just figured I would not state the obvious, why add insult to injury? I can tell you this, we were all 14 years old once and I am sure all of us made a poor decision or two....or ten. Fortunately most of us survived our poor decisions and most of us were smart enough to learn for our poor decisions.....it's called life. I'm 44 years old now, I've been boating since my early teens as my father always had boats when I was growing up. The first real boat(besides a pontoon with a 25hp OB) I ever drove was my dads 1988 Ranger bass boat, it was only about 19 ft, sat about a foot off the water and could run 65mph. Then in 1989 he bought a Sea Ray Pachanga 22, I got some experience on Lake Michigan with that boat and honed my skills. Then in the early 90's he bought a Donzi 25. By then I was in my early 20's and my dad hardy ever had time to take out the Donzi but I had plenty of time :), I would sneak that boat out all the time. I put more hours on that boat than he did and he was clueless as back then most boats didn't come with hour meters. He started suspecting stuff when one day he told me to try launching the boat at the ramps and I launched it quicker and better than he ever did, he was like "wow, you're pretty good at that". My demise was the time I chewed up a prop very badly, fortunately for me my dad ran aluminum props and I didn't kill the outdrive. The point to my story is kids do stupid **** and I guarantee we all did stupid **** behind our parents back so don't be so quick to blame the parents on this one.

At 14 in our boats we were limited to how far our gas would take us. We had rules but out of sight out of mind.

This thread just won't die....

The reason it got resurrected was they found the boat again, this time off the coast of Bermuda (last week). It had an Iphone in the center console but the boat has been capsized for months so just another clue to a mystery I guess.

Local paper indicated the families are feuding and the family that owns the phone wants it back, the other family wants the state officials to keep the phone in their possession.

I missed that, I just saw more bickering and assumed, well you know, the norm :)

I don't understand why the families are having such a issue with the phone.
I think they said on the news that now lawyers are involved etc. kind of sad.

Do yourself a favor and read my whole post.

This is exactly correct. The Coast Guard uses computer models to create search patterns based on environmentals and search object (person, boat, overturned boat, raft, etc). But now that the boat was found, thats hard DATA, not just theory. So now that they know where the boat drifted, they can recreate the search with a more accurate area.

Theres two huge glaring issues here. First, the boat was over 60 miles offshore. Thats going to take several hours for a CG boat to get on scene. Thats several hours that the helicopter is remaining on scene, not searching. (It was an MH-60 that deployed the swimmer, so they do carry that much gas, but an MH-65 only carries 2 hours of gas total so they can't remain on scene anyway..) Also probably the majority of a day that the small boat is not searching while they go to this boat, get a line on it, and tow it in. So now you have hard data on the drift of the boat and a more accurate search area, and two assets that aren't searching for several hours..?

The other issue is that the Coast Guard is not a salvage company, nor are they a towing company if you run out of gas. They will if there is a dire emergency or the DIW vessel is a hazard to navigation. But the CG is not trained to salvage boats, so trying to tow in a capsized boat? Theres a good change that it would have sank trying to tow it in, then how does that look..?

What protocol does the CG need to review? When the vessel was found, an SLDMB was deployed. Thats a self-locating data marker buoy. What that does is sends a signal the Coast Guard can track in order to obtain that DATA on drift and speed. One was deployed near the boat, however the boat wasn't able to be relocated later. Again, the CG is busy searching for two people now. EPIRBs are expensive, the CG finds adrift boats every day, who is going to pay for all those EPIRBs when the CG budget shrinks every year..?

Also, the people who extract data from cell phones and other electronic devices, even after being in saltwater, work for the CG. All other LE agencies send their stuff to the CG to extract the data...things you didn't know ;)

Let's be clear, this was the largest search the CG has ever conducted, something to the effect of 50,000 square nautical miles covered. The CG went above and beyond on this search. In district 7 (Georgia to Cuba basically) the CG has well over 400 search and rescue cases per year. Did you know there was a missing paddle boarder case at the same time as this one in Palm Beach? Nope, because celebrities didn't get involved in that case...

Some new interesting turns in this tragedy.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/487061443...#sp=show-clips

They are looking into fail play also at this time. The boys sent a message before they were lost. It stated we are ****ed. Also the Batt switch was off. The key was off. The Batt switch was in a very difficult place to reach. There are def some new twists to the story.

Unbelievable. Mom of Teen Who Went Missing at Sea with Friend Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Other Family

Frivilous lawsuit compounding the heartache of these two boys being boys. Adventurous, risk takers with that feeling of invincibility. I did the same stupid stuff when I was 12 in a 12' inflatable, heading out to the islands 14 miles out alone. Parents never knew. Kids do stupid stuff and most of the time it's fine and helps build character. Unfortunately this time it went wrong. This lawsuit isn't going to do anything but make things worse and more painful.

It's been all over the news here. Sad really,

The mom knew the other kids parents forbade him to go offshore without an adult and still sent em on their way in some pile of $hit boat without a anything .... I hope the family gets a big settlement, that is not even close to frivilous

Who says the mom knew where they were going? All they probably told her was they taking the boat and going fishing.....i don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times i told my parents we only hanging out at so and so's house only to end up across state line in wisconsin at union grove to watch some drag racing! :D

Show me one person who can totally monitor and control a 14yr old boy without chains and locks. :)

When I told my parents I was going out for a ride, they'd ask if you be back shortly, tonight, tomorrow ? And that's if i told them.

C'mon guys, at 14 a lot of guys have started their drinking, smoking weed, and having sex with girls, along with being very adventurous outside sometimes for a few days. Do your best to help guide them but you will never be able to control them.

It's like some people where never young...yeh. right.

I tell my kids all the time life is about CHOICES. A constant, never ending series of choices. Your life will become what your choices make. If you make stupid choices you will get stupid results. I was pretty adventurous as a kid, pretty normal I guess but I did not do some of the stupider things my friends did. My Dad always said better safe than sorry. "Live to fight another day." Another thing that influences the choices kids make is their goals. Short term goals, short term choices. Long term goals, longer range choices.

said in the article I read father of kid that owned the boat did not allow his son to take the boat offshore without an adult but the kids did it anyway. These kids were best friends I'm betting this wasn't the first time they adventured out without telling their parents and I guarantee the other parents knew the kids would go out on the boat fishing etc, probably often. If they didn't then shame on them for not having good communication with their son.

i grew up on the water. I have kids. If my 14 year old was hanging out with a buddy that had a skiff and they went on it routinely I'd be doing a little checking to ensure they didn't go out (like text where you at and confirm from time to time). Parenting takes big commitment, can't rely on your kids friends parents to do it for you. I can tell you I know the kids my kids hang out with and have a good grasp on who their parents are. If I thought this kids parents were aloof and didn't give a crap about them going offshore, my son wouldn't be there.

Way I've followed the story is ot isn't the other parents fault. Kids being kids ended tragic. Suing someone that has lost just as much as you is just as tragic and in my opinion shameful.

Absolutely Frivilous lawsuit

Lawsuit is a waste of time/resources. A little background, both sets of parents are rich (1-3mm homes), the kid being sued has a grandfather worth tens of millions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Divosta). Kid was grounded from his own boat so they took a boat from grandad's dock (not the super rich one). The "go fund" me account swelled to 462K (https://www.gofundme.com/blog/2015/0...a-462k-raised/) yet there is no accounting of how that got spent. Coast guard put on a pretty good search (FL to GA) outside of the family's attempt. I thought the go fund me was insulting considering the wealth of the families involved.

Irony: The grandfather that owned the boat that was taken.......owns a fishing/marine supply store yet the boat didn't have an epirb. My personal thought knowing the inlet, currents......kids got tossed in the water yet could see land/lighthouse and decided to swim for it....outgoing current was like 4 knots (can't swim against that for long) and kids were swept out to sea on day one. If they were loaded with fishing gear/bait/chum then it possibly was in the water/drifted with them which attracts the wrong kind of wildlife....game over.

Bad day, use this as a life lesson not a lawsuit. Both parents lost equally. There was a ruling a few months back that the salvage value of the hull ($500) was the limit that could be sued for.....I believe that was overturned, hence the lawsuit. In FL you only have 2 years to the date of the loss to start suing.

I never had sex at fourteen. :(

Sorry, at 14 did none of that , not even close. Smarter than that and afraid of my dad , he had full control over what I did. My daughter is 13, I get nervous when we`re at the beach and I don`t see her and her brother for 10 minutes. Much less here`s a boat go out and see ya later. That`s just ****ty parenting.
Maybe it`s different in Florida but my kids sure as hell wouldn`t be in that situation. It`s called parenting not hey were friends go out in the Gulf, it`s cool.:rolleyes:

Me and my buddies went out ALL THE TIME as kids and teenagers, our parents encouraged it and even bought us sh!tboxes. This is Long Island Sound, not some rinky lake (not that you can't get in trouble in a small lake). It enriched our lives, made us responsible, taught us how to think and get out of jams, and I wouldn't have traded that for anything, neither would my parents. To this day I think back on all the incredible experiences I had on the water, some good, some scary.

Sorry, but there's nothing wrong here IMO, it's an incredibly unfortunate accident. BTW...we didn't have GPS, cell phones, radar, LORAN or any other gizmo. This lawsuit is just another BS example of the absurdidly litigious society we live in today, nothing will be gained out of it except a measure of revenge.

^^^Couldn't have said it better. I was lucky enough to grow up the same way with a bunch of siblings and a bunch of friends.^^^^^

My nephew is 14 and can drive one end of our lake and back in the dark. This is not an easy feat even during the day. Don't roll your eyes on the lake thing....it's a treacherous place...we are called the granite state for a reason. :)

I trust my life with him in certain circumstances like this. He and his younger brothers are also fantastic snowmobilers and dirt bike riders. I would follow them anytime deep into the woods and mountains...and I have. :)

Many 'kids' have learned more by they are 14 at certain things than many adults ever have.

Add to that, I have a lot of women in my family and they are all real good at driving boats. My mom's 79 and still takes groups out pretty far. My niece is 16 and just got her boating liscense early this summer and is out and about with her friends and girl/guy cousins and friends whom all drive boats too.

People have different learning experiences growing up, therefore one person is not another.

WRONG. Scumbag lawyers will get lots of money.

And this is why we now have the problem with Millennials, you got to let the kids grow up, make mistakes and learn about life.

All good points but keep in mind this trip was a "scheme" by 2 14 year olds to head to the Bahamas.....neither had parental approval and the trip was underfunded, under-equipped and unfortunately planned on a bad weather day. I suspect they figured they would camp on a beach and sell fish/lobsters to tourists! This was an old single engine boat and while it could certainly make it on a nice flat day it is still a 50-60 mile trip across open ocean where lots can go wrong. Remember the pics of the OSO group that went a couple months ago to Bimini and came back with broken windshields, banged up crew.

These kids lived about a mile from the inlet...... Jupiter Inlet Webcam
I would expect they have been fishing, snorkeling and spearfishing that inlet for years so it is essentially their back porch so you could easily see how their familiarity would have given them the confidence to be out there (whether or not it is good or bad parenting is another issue). The lawsuit is going to sling accusations both ways but the fact is neither set of parents knew what their kids were planning to do that day. They fueled up just inside the inlet ($108 or so) clearly indicating they weren't just planning to fish around the inlet.......kids don't do stuff like put "extra fuel" in the boat but rather put in $20 and see how far that takes them.

Hard lesson to learn for those kids.......waste of time trying to prove a point with lawsuits as both parents lost the same thing.