Coast Guard, good Samaritan rescue 2 after boat capsizes

MH-60 Jayhawk, ©USCG (archive)

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan rescued two boatersThursday after their 25-foot boat capsized 50 miles west of Naples.

Rescued were Frederick Cunningham, 42, and James Nipper, 48.

At 5:56 a.m., watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received a Mayday via VHF-FM radio channel 16 from a man stating, "Mayday, Mayday - this is the vessel..." but the transmission was lost. Two additional calls from the same man were received but no usable information could be heard. 

Sector St. Petersburg watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast and launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew and HC-130 Hercules airplane crew, fromAir Station Clearwater, and a boatcrew aboard a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium from Station Fort Myers Beach. 

At 7:48 a.m., Coast Guard Seventh District command center watchstanders received an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon alert from the 25-foot commercial fishing boat.

The Hercules aircrew spotted two boaters clinging to the hull of their boat at 8:03 a.m. The Hercules aircrew remained on scene until a good Samaritan aboard the commercial fishing boat, Denise Marie II, responded to the UMIB and rescued the two boaters from the water. The Denise Marie II crew transferred the two boaters to their sister ship, the commercial fishing boat "Father and Son".

The Station Fort Myers RBM boatcrew transferred the boaters from the "Father and Son" to the RBM and transported the boaters to Pelican Pier Marina with no reported injuries.

“The MAYDAY and EPIRB were both critical to finding and rescuing these two boaters, said Lt. j.g. Diane French, watchstander at Sector St. Petersburg's command center. "The MAYDAY gave us the initial notification of distress, but not all radio transmissions—particularly those so far offshore—provide us with an exact fix or line of bearing. In this case, without either, the search area was very large. The subsequent EPIRB activation was the key to narrowing down the area and giving the aircraft a more precise location to search.”

An EPIRB sends a boater's position to rescue personnel once activated in an emergency and the Coast Guard recommends all mariners have one aboard their boat.

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Coast Guard finds missing boater 35 miles west of Cedar Key

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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