Two Boaters Rescued Clinging to Cooler

Two Florida boaters were stranded in the Gulf of Mexico last Sunday when their boat sank in less than a minute. Fortunately, they had put on lifejackets and grabbed a floating cooler to hang onto as the boat went down. Veteran anglers on another boat came across the capsized vessel and knew that there would be people in the water.

There’s Somebody Out There

Adam Vetter posted video of the rescue to Facebook on Monday. He and three friends, Rob Wells, Fred Heidgerken and Joe Steplyk, were returning from a fishing trip around 6:30 p.m. when they encountered the capsized boat about 12 miles off the coast of Hudson Beach on Florida’s west coast.

“I knew there were people out there,” Vetter told the local NBC news affiliate. “There’s somebody out there.”

The boaters tried to reach the United States Coast Guard to see if the boat had called in, but couldn’t get a good signal. This is another reason why BoatTEST.com recommends having a VHF radio on board. The group marked the location of the capsizing and continued to shore to alert the authorities.

The Cooler Floats

 A couple miles from the sinking boat, Heidgerken spotted something white in the water. As they boat got closer, the crew realized the object was the cooler and clinging to it were Jeovanni Villacis and Yunior Pupo. The two had been fishing and suddenly noticed a problem with water puddling in their 16 1/2’ boat. They tried to bail the water, but it was too late. The boat went down by the stern.

They managed to grab the Coleman cooler and were hanging onto it when a couple of lifejackets floated to the surface. They put them on and tried to swim to another boat when they saw it, but the current was too strong. After about four hours, Heidgerkin and his crew spotted the capsized boat and knew people had to be nearby.