Dramatic rescue video

Thanks for bringing this up. Rough day, inlet to Destin can be tricky with wind against current--there is a dredge pipe, which is pressurized, and Littoral current pulls the towing boat and tow toward the dredge pipe and floats. Boat Is a wake board bow rider type of boat--not designed for open ocean. Overloaded with 9 POB, Not having life jackets on. Very bad decisions by the capsized boat's skipper.

The "tow boat" apparently was a crew boat for the dredge. I am sure they saved the day. I question the wisdom of towing a boat in those conditions with the people aboard. There was fantastic use of PWC by the lifeguards. The video was local Sheriff's patrol boat, well managed, but very difficult situation--nice use of body cam.

Good rescue--every body goes home that night!
 
Nice to have all those rescue assets within minutes of the event. Some places you would be lucky to see any rescue vehicle or vessel in an hour.

That sheriff, captain or ??? did a lot of yelling (at other boat and PWC's) I would wonder if half of that was heard or intelligible to those intended, due to ambient noise level, others screaming and engine noise? A hailer or VHF might have been more productive.

Shows how fast things can go south. Agree, those folks should have been removed from the towed boat, first.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Sadly, how prophetic.

'America' could be the sinking boat's name - resulting from people's poor choices.

TBD: identity of the rescuers.

Aye.
 
I would wonder if half of that was heard or intelligible to those intended, due to ambient noise level, others screaming and engine noise? A hailer or VHF might have been more productive.
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I had the same thoughts. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s boat (Rescue boat), has the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s tactical frequency which he was using most of the time. I suspect that he also has one marine VHF radio, but didn't seem to be using it. Under the circumstances, he was using both hands for throttles/shifters and wheel. He may not had the luxury of picking up a mic and talking to the crew boat doing the towing, or a loud hailer. You do see his hand out pointing--who knows what radio communications occurred before the video. The yelling did't seem to be effective. Okaloosa County Sheriff’s has a dedicated marine unit, with 3 boats, and two beach ATV. There are 8 officers specifically assigned to that detail. There are also at least 2 Florida Marine patrol boats in that area, and a fully maned USCG station--which is were the rescued victims were off loaded.

I had wondered about the transfer of the two victims from the sport fisher in relatively rough waters, but seeing where they were taken to, the sport fisher might have had difficulty in those waters, and pier--best to keep the family together.

Not sure what the role of USCG was there--the Rapid Response boat was tied up at the dock. I suspect there is a line between where the SO and CG works. Also most likely the distress call went to 911, (lack of marine VHF in the wake board boat) and SO responded.

The Okaloosa Life Guards haveup to 23 seasonal employees (March thru November) and 5 full time empolyees. As well as beach safety and surf rescue details, there are 2 PWC according to web sites, but three were on scene, and the 3rd, could have been from adjacent Walton County. The use of PWC has dramatically changed the course of beach rescues, where as most patrol boats cannot operate in the surf, the PWC are ideally suited. The Okaloosa Co. Lifeguards have two portable radios: one is Life guard only the other is mutual tactical frequency. But, it would be almost impossible for those to be used to transmit during this type of operation.

A few years back the Florida Marine Patrol didn't have Marine VHF radios--and relied on a 6 meter frequency for radio dispatch form Panama City which could be many miles away from the scene of an incident. I believe that they now have Marine VHF, and a mutual aid tactical frequency radio.

The vessel doing the initial towing is clearly identified at seconds 14 and 15 as "Crew Boat". This is a crew boat working for Mike Hooks LLC.
 
The use of PWC has dramatically changed the course of beach rescues, where as most patrol boats cannot operate in the surf, the PWC are ideally suited.
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I was impressed with the PWC in this video, used as a rescue craft. I have not seen that before, and my first thought was "Huh, so there is a useful purpose for a PWC after all... :)
 
I think the rescue was amazing, however they did it. No one was lost, the rescuers were doing what they were trained to, it all went well. I have no idea as to how to do it better, it all seemed smooth.

I'm curious how it turned out past the rescue. Was the towed boat a total loss? While everyone was saved, did anyone get hurt? Was the boat owner/skipper cited? Anybody know?

Boris
 
Chris, Yes there is actually (at least) one useful purpose for those critters, (besides flare targets :oops:

That Sheriffs boat had twin outboards, He could have been steering and driving with one hand on the twin throttle controls.

An incident frequency (off Marine VHF 16) would have been a useful choice, like maybe vhf 22 (or another, like 9) :shock:

Oh well, pre-planning and inter-agency issues are not new.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

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What's amazing to me is how much people 'know' when they have not been in
that situation; and, just talk about it.

Aye.
Grandpa used to say: "The wise man speaks when he has something to say,
the fool when he has to say something."
 
That Sheriffs boat had twin outboards, He could have been steering and driving with one hand on the twin throttle controls.
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Not in those conditions with the current and seas. His boat is a deep V hull. There were strong currents pushing both the towed boat, the crew boat doing the towing and Sheriff's boat sideways, as well as the heavy currents in the pass.

If. you notice he had to make several passes to keep his boat under control, yet avoid danger to the towed boat and PWC.

Was the towed boat a total loss? While everyone was saved, did anyone get hurt? Was the boat owner/skipper cited?
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Boris, a boat which was submerged and would have had further damage as it was swept under the dredge discharge pips into shallow waters, would have been an insurance "total loss". The video cited at least two were injured.

There are some other private party videos and still photos on the internet which clarify the rough conditions, the necessity for the Sheriff's SAFE boat to circle back and difficulty of control, and show that the boat sustaining further damage as it hit the dredge pipeline float and went under the pipeline.
 
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