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Old 10-10-2011, 01:21 PM   #1
KJ
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S**t happens

<h1>7 boaters survive 20 hours in Fla. waters; 1 dead</h1>
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MIAMI Seven people, including a 4-year-old girl, survived 20 hours at sea by clinging to their capsized boat and a small blue cooler after their vessel flipped during a fishing trip off the Florida Keys, officials said Monday.

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An 80-year-old woman who was with the group is missing and presumed drowned.

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Three other women on board told rescuers they didn't have time to grab life jackets for anyone except the girl when two waves suddenly flipped the boat off Long Key in choppy, rainy waters Saturday afternoon, Seaman Kendra Graves said.

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Three men on board tried to help the 80-year-old woman, but she went under the water within minutes of the 22-foot-long boat capsizing, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Robert Dube.

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"She was one of men's mother he could not hold onto his mother and she went under," Dube said.

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At some point, the boaters drifted apart three women and the girl hanging on to the cooler; three men holding on to the boat.

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A commercial fisherman spotted the capsized boat Sunday morning, Dube said, and rescued the men clinging to its bow. The women and girl were soon picked up by the Coast Guard, several miles from where the boat had capsized.

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The group of women started waving and yelling for help when they saw the Coast Guard vessel, Graves said.

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"They were hanging onto the cooler. It was afloat but its main purpose was to keep them together," Graves said.

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Once aboard, the women asked about the men.

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"They wanted to know, `Where are our husbands?'" Graves said.

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The identities and conditions of the survivors had not been released as of Monday afternoon.

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All of the boaters were family members who had left Layton, in the Middle Keys, to go fishing early Saturday, Dube said. The women said they had been fishing from their anchored boat about 3.5 miles off the Middle Keys when the boat flipped.

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The Coast Guard met the commercial fishing boat to bring the men ashore for medical attention. The boaters were wrapped in blankets and treated for shock and hypothermia.

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"They were all pretty happy to see each other," Graves said.

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It wasn't clear if the boaters were aware of a small craft advisory that had been posted early Saturday warning of wind speeds of 23-38 mph and seas 7 feet or higher as torrential rains poured over the Keys and South Florida.

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"They shouldn't have been out there," Dube said. "It was nasty from the get-go."

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The conditions improved by early Sunday, and while spending long hours in choppy water would have been difficult, the warm waters off the Keys were survivable, said Bill South, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Key West.

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The child and a couple of other boaters were taken to Fishermen's Community Hospital in Marathon. Calls to the hospital early Monday were not immediately returned.
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Old 10-10-2011, 04:38 PM   #2
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Re: S**t happens

A tradgedy, seven people in a 22 footer in small craft warning weather ??? That is sad!
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Old 10-10-2011, 07:01 PM   #3
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Re: S**t happens

Quote:
Steve wrote:
A tradgedy, seven people in a 22 footer in small craft warning weather ??? That is sad!
Steve W
*Seven people*on a 22-foot boat?* Sounds overloaded.* And with small craft warnings, they should have been wearing PFDs.* Poor Grandma.
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Old 10-11-2011, 10:14 AM   #4
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Re: S**t happens

Without trying to be patronizing, it's true that we have many, many such family outings like this in So. Florida. The families go together, play together, and often do the Miami thing with what they can afford "together". They are, indeed, accidents waiting to happen, and its a miracle that more of them don't. But I can tell you for sure is that they bring the same family togetherness from wherever they come, and when you add a boat to the soup, the danger ramps up. According to locals, the Grandmother's favorite thing to do was be out on the boat, and for many of them, that often takes priority over risk, forethought, life vests, ability to swim, or even listening to the weather forecast. There's just too many families in 22 footers around here for the water Authorities to control.
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Old 10-11-2011, 08:01 PM   #5
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Re: S**t happens

Eight people
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