Three men rescued after fishing boat capsizes
Three men rescued after fishing boat capsizes
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- What started off as a good ol' time among fishing buddies quickly turned into a life or death situation near Fort Desoto.
Bob Keliher and Erik Houtz joined their friend Bart Hauke on his boat and headed out to Egmont Key early Wednesday morning on a mission to catch grouper. But their trip was cut short when the three men were thrown into the water.
"Steering cable broke, turned the wrong way, wave came over and flipped," Hauke said.
Within seconds the three men were swimming in open waters looking for something to grab onto.
Houtz managed to hold his cell phone out of the water to call 911.
"That's why you pay your cell phone bill, and why you pay your taxes you know," Hauke said.
The phone died seconds after the call, but the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the Coast Guard were already on their way for the rescue.
The rescue was successful and the men went mostly unharmed, but they admit they had doubts they would live to tell about their adventure.
"It was scary, and I was thinking about God, my wife and my kids," Keliher said.
"When you think about Egmont Channel, it's the third most sharkiest area in the world," Houtz said. "We were catching 10 or 12 sharks before we went over."
"These guys were following me," Hauke said. "They were all strung out behind me, and so I knew if I didn't make it that would demoralize them, so I kept just fighting it."
The three friends had been fishing about two to three hours before their boat capsized. They had originally planned to stay out for a half a day until the waters got choppier. They said they didn't know about the small craft advisory that had been issued Wednesday.
The Eckerd College search and rescue team made up of seniors studying the field retrieved the sunken boat.
Hauke says he plans to sell the boat for a hot-rod.
