July 25, 2003 - Palm Beach men
rescued after multiple searches
Two men were rescued this afternoon at 1:30 by a Good Samaritan 70 miles
east of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The men, Paul Baynes and Roy Davis,
both of West Palm Beach, Fla., were found clinging to their overturned
21-foot boat by the Good Samaritan Wave Paver. One of the men had
a minor leg injury, but overall, both were in good condition.
Baynes and Davis left Jupiter Inlet, Fla.,
Wednesday morning without a radio or flares. They had left a float
plan with a friend. When the men hadn't returned that evening, a
friend called the Coast Guard to report them overdue.
The Coast Guard completed seven air searches with
Air Station Miami Falcon jets, Air Station Clearwater, Fla., C-130
aircraft and an Air Station Clearwater Jayhawk helicopter, and also
dispatched the Coast Guard Cutter Bluefin to search.
The crew of the Wave Paver was enroute to Cape
Canaveral from the Bahamas when it spotted a flock of birds circling
overhead. They went to check out the spot the birds were flying
over to see if it was a good place to fish, when they spotted the men
and their boat adrift. The men were brought to Coast Guard Station
Cape Canaveral by the Wave Paver about 2:30 p.m. today, to be
transferred to local emergency medical personnel.
"These individuals did three things that directly
contributed to saving their lives. They filed a float plan with a
friend, wore their life jackets and stayed with their capsized vessel,"
said Lt. Cmdr. Carmen Bazzano of the Coast Guard's Rescue Coordination
Center in Miami. "By doing so, we were notified of their distress,
they were better able to stay afloat for an extended period of time, and
they provided a bigger target for potential rescuers to see."
"At the same time, some potentially deadly
mistakes were made," continued Bazzano. "Their boat had neither a
VHF-FM radio to call for assistance or flares to signal distress to
nearby vessels or aircraft." The cutter Bluefin is an 87-foot
patrol boat home ported in Port Canaveral, Fla.
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