CEDAR KEY, Fla. — The Coast Guard located a missing 53-year-old woman aboard her 22-foot boat 35 miles west of Cedar Key, Tuesday.
Rescued was Doreen Bauer, 53.
At 7:41 p.m. Monday, Sector St. Petersburg watchstanders received a call from Oliver Bauer, stating his wife left Cedar Key Marina aboard a 22-foot pontoon boat and had not returned. He reported she should have returned before sunset. Watchstanders also received a call from Bauer's friend reporting she called, said she was out of gas, and didn't know where she was.
A Station Yankeetown 24-foot Special Purpose Craft-Shallow Water boatcrew, and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew were launched to commence the search.
An Air Station Clearwater HC-130 Hercules aircrew located Bauer waiving her arms aboard her boat at 7:26 a.m. Tuesday.
A commercial salvage company arrived and transported Bauer and her boat to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission boatcrew. FWC transferred her to shore with no reported injuries.
"Thankfully, Mr. Bauer contacted us as soon as he suspected something was wrong," said Joseph Mathieu, a search and rescue coordinator at Sector St. Petersburg. "We cannot stress enough the importance of having a float plan and working radio communications. We recommend all boaters let someone know where they are going and when they plan to return, and always have a VHF-FM marine band radio and EPIRB. Cell phones are not always reliable on the water."
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