Quote Originally Posted by clamchucker View Post
Though the Made to Sea's Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon was new, functional and registered, the crew had been unable to manually activate it, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin Henry, a crew member of Coast Guard Station Shark River.

"The EPIRB was stuck aboard the boat and was manually deployable,'' Henry said. "They couldn't get to it in time.''

Those aboard were able to grab a hand-held radio and put on the life jackets, two things Henry credited with their survival.

"If it wasn't for their preparation, this rescue wouldn't have gone as well,'' he said.

Compounding the difficulty of locating the life raft was what Boardman described as the "total, inky black'' of the sea during the early morning hours.

"You can't even describe how dark it is out there. There's no lights from the city, the
moon had just set,'' he said. "There's nothing darker than out there.''

The Coast Guard was unable to provide the names aboard the Made to Sea, but Boardman said all five of the men rescued were uninjured, though a "little shaken up.''

After the rescue, the Fat Cat continued contact with the Coast Guard and brought those rescued back to their own home port in Belmar.

"When you hear that distress call, you instantly go into rescue mode. If somebody's in trouble out there, you have to go help, there's not even an option,'' Boardman said. "It was quite an adventure. One I'll never forget.''
This proves that you can never have too many "fail-safe" systems aboard on a canyon trip. EPIRBS can save your lives, but not if you can't get to it. Sometimes the old fashioned radio and PFDs are your last line of defense. Redundancy is a good thing. In this case, they were most fortunate to have another boat close by. Superb job by the Fat Cat in the rescue.