Three Rescued After Floating At Sea Overnight

August 6, 2012

[Updated] Three men were rescued yesterday morning [Aug 5] after clinging to their capsized 17-foot boat for what is estimated to be 15 hours.

The Bermuda Maritime Operations Center [BMOC] said the three men went out fishing on Saturday when their boat capsized after taking on water.

A passing fishing vessel came upon the stranded men the following morning approximately 5 miles offshore in the area near Chub Head and rescued them. All men are understood to be fine.

BMOC received a call at 9.05am yesterday morning reporting that the vessel was overdue having last been seen at Paradise Lakes on Saturday afternoon. The boat’s passengers apparently told people they were going fishing.

Soon after that BMOC informed the Marine Police Unit and put out calls to all boaters to look out for the missing boat.

At 10.25am they received a report that the boat had been found by local fishing vessel, with the three men located in the water clinging to the boat in the area near Chub Head. The fishing vessel took the men onboard and transported them to shore.

Update 8.49pm: The full official statement is below.

At 9:05 AM on Sunday July 5th, the Maritime Operations Centre received a call from a member of public reporting that an 18 foot Bowrider design powercraft was overdue from the Spanish Point Boat Club with 3 persons onboard.

The reporting party was unable to confirm the name or registration number of the vessel in question but advised that the boat had last been seen in the area of Paradise Lakes on Saturday afternoon.

Bermuda Maritime Operations initially attempted to call each person by mobile phone which proved unsuccessful. Further information received from friends ashore indicated the vessel had intended to proceed offshore to fish – but that their exact destination was unknown.

Urgency Broadcasts to all vessels in the area requesting that they keep a sharp lookout for a vessel matching this rough description were commenced on Marine VHF Channel 16 while the Marine Police were also contacted and advised about the need for a possible search.

Just over an hour after the first report about the missing vessel, a local fishing boat contacted Bermuda Radio advising that they had recovered 3 persons wearing lifejackets from a capsized vessel in the vicinity of Chub Heads Beacon.

The 3 persons were confirmed to be the crew of the missing powerboat. They indicated that they had been in the water for approximately 14 hours total after their vessel had been swamped by building seas the evening before.

At approximately 11:30 AM the 3 survivors were landed ashore at Robinson’s Marina. It is ultimately hoped that further details regarding their mishap will become known in due course.

By all accounts so far, the occupants of the vessel were never able to make a distress call advising of their situation and no clear float plan appears to have been filed with next of kin ashore.

Update Aug 17: An additional statement issued is below.

Bermuda Radio received a call from a member of public expressing concern for the 20ft Powercraft “Obarcoeo Sonho” with 3 persons onboard, reporting they were overdue from a fishing trip.

Information regarding the exact details of vessels float plan was unclear, but appeared they had been offshore through the night. Bermuda Radio initiated Urgency Calls on Marine VHF Channel 16 for any information.

At 10:20am, the local Fishing Vessel “Frenchy” confirmed by radio they had recovered the 3 persons from the water in close proximity to Chub Heads Beacon, the powercraft “Obarcoeo Sonho” had become swamped with waves breaking at the reef line and ultimately capsized.

The crew managed to don lifejackets but were unable to send a Distress Call by any means. It transpired these men had spent nearly 15 hours in the water, highlighting this lucky escape for these gentlemen – we remind all boaters of the necessity to file an accurate float plan with family or friends ashore or with Bermuda Radio.

The 3 rescued crew members arrived safely ashore at approx 11:30am shaken and tired from the experience, but otherwise unhurt

Read More About

Category: All, News

Comments (9)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Steve says:

    Nob ends……..

  2. happy says:

    Glad they were found.

  3. swing voter says:

    bies r lucky

  4. Joanne Kippax says:

    Thank God they survived; must have been scarey!!! What no ship-to-shore radio? No flares? A lesson well learned!

  5. chris says:

    Yea… Big up the general public on this one.
    As for civil servants, they dropped the ball in my opinion.
    Harbour radio sends out a call, but no rescue boat is deployed.
    Then after the guys are found 15 hours later, no emergency vehicles on standby to ensure they are in good health upon returning to land.
    Cup Match or no Cup Match, I think it disgusting that less of a **** was given that day.

    • ridic says:

      good point there @Chris…

    • Nonsense says:

      I agree Chris

    • Logic76 says:

      Great job by the general public but let’s not be too swift to judge the BMOC and BPS. I know all of the BPS boats were operational this weekend and supplemented by the Regiment. Let’s be realistic though, at 9:05am a call was made to BMOC regarding an overdue vessel. The caller didn’t have information on the registration number, name of the vessel, or a possible location. BMOC attempted to call each person on board via cellphone and put out an urgent broadcast to all vessels on VHF channel 16. Just over an our later the three men were reported to be recovered by a local fishing vessel near Chub Heads Beacon. The men were in the water for approximately 15 hours, BMOC and the BPS were only notified of their disappearance an hour before their recovery. There’s not a lot more that could have been done with the information provided by the men and the caller to BMOC. Lesson to be learned: file a detailed float plan if heading offshore, know your equipment and its limitations. I personally invested in an EPIRB should such an event happen. If there were in fact no emergency vehicles on standby to evaluate the men when there were returned to shore then that is disappointing to say the least.

      • sugra says:

        Well said Logic. An hour between the actual report of an overdue vessel of whereabouts unknown and recovery of the men is not unreasonable given their location.

        A 17′ ill equipped vessel really has no business being that far offshore at Chub Heads in the first place. The outcome was very fortunate given the circumstances.