Five fishermen are on dry land after a scary experience in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday afternoon.
The captain and four passengers were on board the 32-foot vessel named “Stick-Um” out of Hudson when the boat started taking on water.
Jeff Kennedy was one of the passengers and knew something wasn’t right about an hour and a half into the trip.
“I noticed that the back end of the boat was pretty low and the equipment back there was starting to get a flood from the backwash of water,” said Kennedy. “I started moving stuff forward and that’s when we lost the port engine. And then we lost the other engine, and that’s when things started happening really quick.”
Kennedy and the others on board are experienced boaters, and while they hadn’t gone through anything like this, they knew what they needed to do and what equipment they needed to get their hands on.
But the clock was ticking and the water was flowing in rapidly. It was clear the boat was not going to remain afloat.
“And within three or four minutes of the time that we lost that last engine, the boat was down and rolling over,” said Kennedy. “Now, it was a really bad situation.”
The men clung together and used life preservers and other materials, like coolers, for floatation. The captain was able to get his epurb device, or radio transmitter, to alert authorities that they were in trouble.
A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 crew was in the area training when they got the call and responded to the area.
They were there within minutes.
“There was a Coast Guard on site right away. As soon as I saw that C-130 and he kept circling the whole time and, um, so that provided a lot of comfort to us. We knew that things were going to be okay,” said Kennedy. “And we just had to hang there with the equipment and sit there and float for a while.”
A boater from Tarpon Springs was also in the area and plucked them out of the water until the coast guard rescue boat arrived.
Mike Redding was also on board. He says he didn’t really have time to think about what was happening or what could’ve happened if they hadn’t been rescued so quickly.
“You’re in shock. You didn’t plan for it. It was just thrown at you,” said Redding. “It was a life lesson. If you’re calm enough in your life, you’re not going to be excited over something like that.”
Representatives with the Coast Guard say this is an example of why they try to emphasize the importance of having the proper working safety equipment on your vessel every time you leave on a trip.