A man clinging to a cooler in the Gulf of Mexico was rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter team Thursday, after this boat was stranded overnight in the turmoil caused by Hurricane Milton.
The man, only identified by officials as “Capt. Dave,” was able to make contact with the coast guard on Monday to report that the fishing vessel he was working on had become disabled approximately 30 kilometres off John’s Pass, Fla.
A local coast guard crew, with the help of an Air Station Clearwater helicopter crew, flew out to airlift Capt. Dave and another crew member to safety.
But around noon on Wednesday, the owner of the ship called officials to say the captain had returned to the ship around 3 a.m. that day, in the hopes of making repairs and bringing the boat to safety.
Just hours before the hurricane made landfall, officials made contact with Capt. Dave, who reported that the boat’s rudder was fouled with a line and had become disabled. Coast guard staff lost contact with him, but not before they were able to advise that he put on a life-jacket and hold tight to his emergency locator beacon.
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At the time, according to the coast guard, the captain was navigating his stricken boat in six- to eight-foot-high waves and around 50 km/h winds, with conditions rapidly deteriorating as the storm approached.
On Thursday morning, as the storm moved away from Florida, searchers located the man about 50 kilometres off Longboat Key, clinging to an open cooler.
Video of the rescue shows a coast guard diver lowered from a helicopter before swimming over to the man to pick him up.
“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” Lt.-Cmdr. Dana Grady, Sector St. Petersburg’s command centre chief, said in a statement.
“To understand the severity of the hurricane conditions, we estimate he experienced approximately 75 to 90 mph (120 to 150 km/h) winds, 20 to 25 foot seas, for an extended period of time to include overnight,” Grady continued, estimating the man was in the water for nearly 24 hours.
“He survived because of a life jacket, his emergency position indicating locator beacon and a cooler.”
The man was taken to Tampa General Hospital for further care following the harrowing ordeal.
Rescue operations in the wake of Hurricane Milton are ongoing after the Category 3 storm tore through the Gulf of Mexico before leaving a trail of destruction across a wide swath of the Florida peninsula.
In a video posted on Facebook Thursday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office shared the rescue of a 14-year-old boy who was found clinging to debris after becoming stranded in floodwater.
The video shows the officers arriving by boat and lifting the teen from the water.
While Milton caused extensive damage, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the area was spared from the worst-case scenario that officials feared.
Millions of Floridians remained without power Friday.
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