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On Friday, November 12, 2010, Arlen
Gastineau and two of his friends left Safety Harbor Florida for fishing trip
on the Gulf of Mexico.
About 28 miles offshore, it was choppy and a little rough.
We decided to stop and fish at that point. We caught nine Grouper, one Keeper
and then decided about 3:30 or so to
head back and we noticed we were taking on
water. The first thing we did was to throw out the anchor, raise the motor check it out.
There was in the cowling, so we knew it was bad.
By that time we all had our jackets and secured.
At approximately 6:30 that night the boat capsized.
Fortunately, all three men were wearing their life jackets.
When the boat went over, my buddy on the front was at the
bow, and he pulled up the anchor rope.
And I was about six or seven feet behind the boat after
I got in the water. So I swam and pulled up to the side of the boat.
And he wrapped the rope around us and tied it
to the front of the boat. Waves hit off of the boat so they would come to your face.
So my buddy told me he never seen anybody hold their nose for 18
hours like I did. But I didn't like that salt water.
We kept talking to each other throughout the night. Finally about 12:30
a.m. I found the light switch on my watch and checked the time.
And we had been in the water six and half hours, and I said this is going fast.
We'll be up out of here soon.
When he had not returned as planned, Mr. Gastineau's concerned relatives
notified the Coast Guard. The U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg and Station
Sand Key began a search and rescue operation.
Using ships, planes and helicopters, the Coast Guard looked for the men throughout the night,
but was unable to locate them. The next morning Hernando Beach
Coast Guard Auxiliary pilot David Lemon was asked to join the mission.
They were searching all night with helicopters and had not been able to find them
using their night vision goggles and their forward looking infrared, so they expanded the search
and called out the Auxiliary to run one of the search patterns and a C-130 that was running the other one.
We were tasked with a first light search, meaning that we would be out there at sunrise.
We had a search action plan assigned by the Sector commander to keep us
separate from the other C-130's that were also in the same search area.
We proceed out then. We flew a pattern at approximately 500 feet looking
for boats in distress.
So it was about 11:30 when the C-130 came over.
They were looking at boats and said, "they're fishing, they're fishing, there's three guys
in the water."
After 18 hours in the water, a Coast Guard plane spotted the missing
boaters. The Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Florida
Department of Fish and Wildlife worked together to bring them back
to shore.
We responded to the target area with the C-130.
So we orbited over the top of them and then provided, being the only
on scene communications guard and relaying the target location
to the responding surface vessels.
I recently joined Dave on an Auxiliary air patrol and asked him what
someone should do if in a worse case scenario if they found
themselves in the water following a boating accident.
Ideally you'll have your life preservers on. It's too late to get life
preserver on once you're in the water and the boat's upside down. Ideally
you have your life preserver, then try to get back onto the boat and stay with the hull
Some boaters don't wear their life jackets because they know how to swim.
But it's really important to have your life jacket while you're still
on the boat, in case you end up in the water. Just ask Mr. Gastineau.
Nobody plans to get thrown overboard. Nobody plans to swamp their boat.
So if it's going to be an unplanned event, it's going to be an emergency situation.
You'll be in the water with whatever you have on at the time.
And if your boat capsizes, stay with the boat.
Absolutely important. We can see an upside down boat that's 25 feet
long a lot better then a head floating in the water in a life jacket.
We got an empty boat it looks like out here.
Sector St. Pete, Sector St. Peter Auxs 41 Papa Delta.
While we were out on patrol, Dave spotted an overturned canoe.
After contacting the Coast Guard in St. Petersburg, he saw a fishing boat
nearby. Switching to radio channel 16, he was able to
contact the boat. The fishing boat set off for canoe, but found it empty.
We later learned that the canoe had drifted away from its dock wihout anyone noticing.
Everyday that we go out, we're on a search pattern. We're always looking out for somebody
who might be in distress. Typically when somebody's in the water they may or may not had time to
announce their problem or request a
distress call. And just by looking out the window and observing the water as we're flying
over it. Being on the alert for an emergency situation I saw the
canoe was obviously upside. So that immediately then started
the SAR practice of notifying the authorities. Determing
whether if there's anybody in the area that needs help. The bottom line is that you're helping somebody
esle. I spent 10 years on active duty flying throughout the Pacific
and then I went into the civil service for 30 year as a science advisor
in different staffs around the world. After 41 years of doing
this in the Navy, I figured might as well keep it going in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.