One Survivor Found Search Continues But It Looks Bleak

March 3, 2009

The Coast Guard yesterday located the missing boat upside down some 38 miles from sure with only one of the four missing men clinging to it. The St. Petersburg Times reports in this morning’s edition that the four friends were anchored and fishing for amber jacks when a wave flipped the boat over Saturday. The four men attempted at first to flipped the boat back over but were not successful. In life vests they all tried to cling to the slippery hull as the cold water zapped their strength and the relentless waves pounded on them. By Monday only one man remained with the boat the other three had slipped away into the vast sea.

Just after noon, the crew of the cutter Tornado, from Pascagoula, Miss, spotted a tiny orange dot bobbing in the turquoise gulf. They pulled closer, and saw a man sitting upright on an overturned boat. He was wearing his life vest and had pulled a hood over his head.
He seemed to be clinging to the exposed propeller.
The cutter crew sent a smaller boat to rescue the man, who turned out to be Nick Schuyler. They gave him a dry blue Coast Guard uniform. A helicopter lowered a metal litter.
Schuyler was flown to Tampa General Hospital where he was in serious condition: dehydrated, cut and bruised — but able to tell his dad, “Hi, Pops!”
His mom, Marcia, passed out when she heard her son was still alive.
From his hospital bed, he told her that he survived by telling himself that she was not going to go to his funeral.
“That’s what kept him hanging on,” she said.

The Coast Guard is continuing the search and hold out hope that the others will be found alive. We’ll continue to follow the story .