"If one of us didn’t
get to that rig we weren’t going to make it."
Aaron
Pilcher, 29, describes how he and fellow fisherman Mike
Prahm, 25, survived for nearly two days after their
23-foot Mako capsized in the Gulf of Mexico about 35
miles off Freeport, Texas, May 16. Unable to radio for
help, the men clung to the overturned boat through the
night, then fashioned a drift sock to bring them closer
to an offshore oil platform. Realizing this could be
their last chance for rescue, they attempted to swim to
the structure, but a strong current pulled the men away
from the rig. Pilcher managed to reach a second
platform, climb a ladder and contact authorities. Prahm
later was rescued by the Coast Guard about two miles
away.
— Interviewed by staff writer Jason Fell
Click play to listen Play
time: 6:42
Welcome to the new
Soundings Rescue Channel, a multimedia news platform that includes
video, photos, audio and exclusive news stories. The July issue of
Soundings will carry an in-depth print account of the events off
North Carolina.
The Coast Guard in North
Carolina knew Sunday night, May 5, that a 37-foot sailboat nine
miles off Oregon Inlet was having problems in a growing storm. They
were maintaining hourly contact with the crew on board Seaker — a
70-year-old man and two women — when at 3 a.m. Monday an EPIRB
signal came in. But this was from the sailboat Lou Pantai. A
half-hour later a second EPIRB signaled, this one from the 54-foot
sailboat Flying Colours, and by 6:15 yet another EPIRB, from the
67-foot sailboat Illusion, had been triggered...
Read full story
View Slideshow NEW —
The owner of Flying Colours,
J. Robinson West, discusses the boat,
the storm and the missing crew.
Updated May 17
SEAKER
RESCUE:
Coast Guard pilot Lt. Cdr. Daniel Molthen gives Soundings a first-person
account of how his team hoisted a family of three from the
storm-battered sailboat Seaker.
Petty
Officer Benjamin Harris, deck hand on the rescue boat,
describes how the Coast Guard assisted the crew of the
36-foot ketch Shekinech. The boat, with four people and
one dog aboard, was being battered against the rocks May
27 on the south side of Lopez Island, Wash. As the crew
of a 33-foot small response boat from Station Bellingham
pulled Shekinech off the rocks, a helicopter crew from
Air Station Port Angeles monitored and recorded the
scene. No one aboard Shekinech was injured.
Aaron
Pilcher, 29, describes how he and fellow fisherman Mike
Prahm, 25, survived for nearly two days after their
23-foot Mako capsized in the Gulf of Mexico about 35
miles off Freeport, Texas, May 16. Unable to radio for
help, the men clung to the overturned boat through the
night, then fashioned a drift sock to bring them closer
to an offshore oil platform. Realizing this could be
their last chance for rescue, they attempted to swim to
the structure, but a strong current pulled the men away
from the rig. Pilcher managed to reach a second
platform, climb a ladder and contact authorities. Prahm
later was rescued by the Coast Guard about two miles
away.
