MISSING AT SEA

[Carsman]

When I was around 13 or 14, my dad & I spent many weeks putting together a really cool 16ft wooden boat kit. We worked on it together on many weekends, and many days when I got home from school I worked on it alone, and when my dad got home from work, after dinner, we both worked on it for a couple of hours. It took about 3 long months, but it finally turned out perfect!

Well the day came to trailer it 6 or so miles down to the marina. We got there, christened it, launched it into the water, and it sat perfectly level, no listing. We got into the boat, started the motor, took off and found out just how difficult boating can be. Especially around other boats. (It was before the days of required CC training to be obtained before getting on the water)

After riding a ¹⁄₂ hour or so, neither my dad nor I were happy being on the water, and were not happy boaters. The "fun for us was building the boat" (at that time) rather then riding in it! My dad sold the boat, and made $$$

When I grew up, as it turned out, I liked to ride in & own boats. Things changed, oh yeah, I finally took CC training class, and knew what I was doing. It does make a difference.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know why I care more about this story than so many of the other ones. I'm going to be very sad if they find bodies or absolutely nothing at all as time passes.

It's an interesting story.

For me, it's not as frustrating as a lot of other stories because the teens weren't completely vulnerable children and they were doing what they loved when they went missing, they weren't likely victims of another person, there's a sense of adventure in their story, and there's reasonable room for hope.

It will be wonderful if the boys are found alive. But, if they're dead, I hope their bodies turn up soon so their families can lay them to rest.

[Duchess]

I don't like being out on the ocean at all. It's very unnerving to me to look around and see nothing but water as far as the eye can see. It makes me feel vulnerable. Being out on a lake is another story, I've enjoyed that a lot.

[Duchess]

It will be wonderful if the boys are found alive.

Yes, it will be. I'm still hopeful. I know that's probably more & more illogical as time passes. I know what the chances are yet I still have hope.

We've probably all been these kids at one time or another, going off on our own adventure and never giving any thought to something bad happening.

[HairOfTheDog]

According to their parents, they were seasoned fisherman who considered the ocean their second home.

Still, they would have become vulnerable as soon as things went wrong and there was no immediate rescue available, same as if they'd been lost in the middle of nowhere on land, no doubt.

Anyway, if they're dead, I'm glad they at least died doing something they loved.

[sally]

If they are alive they're going to be dead soon. And if they're not found alive I hope they drowned immediately. Thinking about floating out in the ocean for days with sharks bumping you only to succumb to death anyway isn't a very pleasant thought.

[FAHQTOO]

I don't like being out on the ocean at all. It's very unnerving to me to look around and see nothing but water as far as the eye can see. It makes me feel vulnerable. Being out on a lake is another story, I've enjoyed that a lot.

Sane here. I'll never go on a Cruise.

[ramseycat]

Being on a cruise ship doesn't bother me. But any boat smaller and I get terribly sea sick. Not on the lake though.

[sally]

When I was around 13 or 14, my dad & I spent many weeks putting together a really cool 16ft wooden boat kit. We worked on it together on many weekends, and many days when I got home from school I worked on it alone, and when my dad got home from work, after dinner, we both worked on it for a couple of hours. It took about 3 long months, but it finally turned out perfect!

Well the day came to trailer it 6 or so miles down to the marina. We got there, christened it, launched it into the water, and it sat perfectly level, no listing. We got into the boat, started the motor, took off and found out just how difficult boating can be. Especially around other boats. (It was before the days of required CC training to be obtained before getting on the water)

After riding a ¹⁄₂ hour or so, neither my dad nor I were happy being on the water, and were not happy boaters. The "fun for us was building the boat" (at that time) rather then riding in it! My dad sold the boat, and made $$$

When I grew up, as it turned out, I liked to ride in & own boats. Things changed, oh yeah, I finally took CC training class, and knew what I was doing. It does make a difference.

Yeah, knowing where you're going and what you're doing definitely makes a difference. The guy that we rented the boat from was stoned and handed us a map that you had to read with a magnifying glass. Then he's like oh yeah, just go about five miles in the ocean and you'll find the grouper hole. Grouper hole my ass, more like the hole of death.

[Duchess]

When I was a teenager we would go out on the river in a boat and ride the waves behind the ships going up & down the seaway. It was so much fun and we did it countless times but when I look back all I can see is how very stupid we were. We could have been thrown into that massive propeller at any time. The things I used to think were big fun I wouldn't even consider doing now.

[username]

Fuckity-fuck. I was missing one critical piece of information in all my hopeful posts. I didn't read/realize until today that they FOUND THE BOAT.

I thought the boys were lost at sea IN A BOAT.

They're fish food.

[Maggot]

Davy Jones knows where they are.

[Duchess]

I'm not prepared to give up hope.

[sally]

Fuckity-fuck. I was missing one critical piece of information in all my hopeful posts. I didn't read/realize until today that they FOUND THE BOAT.

I thought the boys were lost at sea IN A BOAT.

They're fish food.

Yeah, I read they found the boat 170 miles offshore. I was thinking that maybe you were hoping they were floating on a cooler or something.

If I were the parents I don't even know if I'd want to find the bodies at this point. It's going to be horrific. I'd just hope they went quick.

[Duchess]

I'm in denial.

[Maggot]

I think I would rather get a vasectomy with a hot butter knife than get stuck floating out in the middle of the ocean.

[Carsman]

I think I would rather get a vasectomy with a hot butter knife than get stuck floating out in the middle of the ocean.

You might want to rethink that for a moment, it depends on "how long" you're stuck floating in the middle of the ocean! A day is not so bad.

[sally]

I think I'd rather get a hysterectomy with a hot butter knife than get stuck floating out in the middle of the ocean. Even one day would be awful, did you never watch Jaws?

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen footer. You know, you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. Well, we didn't know. 'Cause our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent, huh. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like 'ol squares in battle like uh, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the shark goes to the nearest man and then he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces. Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, Bosun's Mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He's a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm in denial.

The longest someone has survived stranded in open water is 5 days. That's what I read in the People article. Today is the sixth day the boys have been missing, but it seems the Coast Guard is still holding on to a bit of hope.

Here's a piece of that article from earlier today.

"We continue to search for the missing boys," said Capt. Mark Fedor, chief of response for the Coast Guard 7^th district. "We're constantly reevaluating the situation to determine our next course of action, however as each hour goes by, the situation becomes dire."

Hundreds have rallied to help the boys and their families, holding prayer vigils and taking out their own boats to search. But the stormy waters have hampered the efforts.

However, Cohen and Stephanos have the high temperatures in their favor. "With the water temperatures being a little warmer than typical, a person could survive for four or five days, possibly longer if they hang on to anything that floats," said Chris Caplan, who's been searching for the teens in a friend's plane. "These boys are everyday boaters. They know what to do to survive."

The Coast Guard has searched an area roughly the size of Kentucky – some 41,000 square miles. But as the days continue to pass, the discussion has turned to when to give up the search.

"That is a gut-wrenching decision," Fedor said Wednesday, according to CNN. "We are looking at all aspects of the case, but that is something we have to talk about as we move forward."

For now, though, he emphasized that the search remains "active and open."

http://www.people.com/article/florida-te...g-six-days

[Duchess]

It's being reported that the Coast Guard will suspend the search for the boys at sunset tonight. However, there are still many who will continue searching with their own boats and planes.