Tampa Boating Tragedy

My resent trip to St. Petersburg FL was great except for the boating tragedy that took place off the coast at St. Pete.

Yahoo link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=a ... &type=lgns

We followed the story from the beginning and it was so unfortunate and yet so preventable... there just was no reason or rime to the facts... and I hope that at the very least, boaters, fishermen and anyone that plays or works in or around large bodies of water will take heed to this tragedy and think about what you are doing.

These guys were physically superior to most of us... they were intelligent, strong and had all the right things going for them but they made one fatal mistake... they just got stupid... as hard as that is to say... it is the absolute truth in this matter.

You just don't get in a small boat... 23' and go 50 or 60 miles into the Gulf or the Atlantic or any other large body of water with out being prepared... especially when the weather report was totally against boating and the warnings had been issued for several days as to what was coming.

15' seas... 63 degree water... 20 to 40 mph winds... there is no damn way that anyone using their heads would venture into that scenario ...

My take on this tragedy is that you had 4 macho guys that loved to fish... who just let their machismo get in the way of good sense... they figured that they were bullet proof and could deal with any emergency that arose.

One of the guys had a GPS with coordinates in it that he left at home... another had a GPS emergency unit that would broadcast a signal when activated, giving their exact location. If this device had been on board these guys would have been picked up in a matter of hours.

The only thing that I could hope for in the aftermath of this tragedy is that anyone considering a boating outing would simply prepare themselves for the unexpected.

The one thing that frankly was a miracle in this situation was the fact that Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida player, actually survived the ordeal. That he lived 48 hours in those conditions is nothing short of the miracle that everyone says took place.

Take heed everyone. If this happened to these guys... it can certainly happen to you.

Be like the boy or girl scouts say................ BE PREPARED AND DON'T LET STUPID GET IN YOUR WAY.

_________________
Bill Marx, Sr.
"FREE STATE BAIL BONDS"
"FREE STATE INVESTIGATIONS"
DCJS: 99-176979
Cell: 434-294-0222

"Endeavor to Persevere" "Lone Watie"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that , comes from bad judgment" "Will Rogers"

Some cop buddies, an attorney of the law firm I am contracted to, and a couple of clients of mine and I are going deep sea fishing 3/27-3/29. off the coast of Ga. We've chartered a commercial fishing boat for a 12 hr outing. Something I've been wanting to do for years now. I usually over prepare for things, just because "Murphy" loves me so much...lol, but yeah, we'll "be prepared" as much as possible.

Here's the other thing to, when our number's up...it's just up...that's it. There is a reason why none of them exercised any kind of emergency planning. It just simply was thier time.

I get aksed frequently about the dangerousness of our jobs. My pat reply is this " If you have not already wrapped your brain around the fact that you are already the walking dead, then you haven't faced your own mortality. My job is no more dangerous than anyone else's, because in the end, it's not up to us when we die...it's up to God."

_________________
River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601

The old joke is that I don't want to be sitting next to the guy on a plane when it is his time to go. But I think there is efficiency in there somewhere, God just gets them all together and it is time for them to go.

However being a pilot and an instructor, new pilots are taught there is always a chain of events that lead to an accident, it is never one thing or action that caused the accident to happen and just one decision or change in attitude can break that chain and lead to a totally different outcome.

What is sad is that you had several people who most likely deferred to the more experienced person on the boat, even though they knew there was an issue with what they were doing.

Just by reading the news stories you can tell that more than once this group of people of varied background and experiences were shown that there was a problem with what they were doing and they all ignored the warning signs.

My thoughts and prayers go out to their families.