Stranded boat captain survives Hurricane Milton’s fury off Florida’s coast: officials
.png "A stranded boat captain off Florida’s west coast survived Hurricane Milton’s 20-foot seas using a life jacket, emergency beacon, and cooler.")
A boat captain stranded off the coast of Sarasota earlier this week as Hurricane Milton encroached — bashing him with 20-foot seas and blistering winds — survived the harrowing experience because of a life jacket, emergency beacon and a cooler, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” said Lt. Cmdr. Dana Grady, Sector St. Petersburg’s command center chief.
On Thursday, a Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued the man, who has not been identified, about 30 miles off Longboat Key, long after Hurricane Milton had made landfall and torn through the state.
Around 1:30 p.m., he was brought to Tampa General Hospital for treatment, the Coast Guard said. The helicopter crew began their search for the captain around 5:30 a.m. However, this wasn’t the first time they rescued the man recently.
On Monday, the captain radioed the Coast Guard for a rescue because he and a crew member were stranded on a disabled fishing vessel, the Capt. Dave.
Around noon Wednesday, hours before Milton’s landfall, the fishing vessel’s owner told the Coast Guard the captain had gone back out to sea to make repairs to the boat but hadn’t checked in for hours, officials said.
The Coast Guard was able to contact the captain, who told them he was again stranded and unable to make it back to shore. At the time, Milton’s dangerous weather was starting to come in — about 30 mph winds and 6 to 8 foot seas.
The captain was told to hunker down, dawn a life jacket and stay close to the ship’s emergency position beacon. He would spend the next several hours facing the brunt of Milton as the Coast Guard was unable to get to him until the next day.
“To understand the severity of the hurricane conditions, we estimate he experienced approximately 75-90 mph winds, 20-25 foot seas, for an extended period of time to include overnight,” Grady said. “He survived because of a life jacket, his emergency position indicating locator beacon, and a cooler.”
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