The Tuscon Citizen reports on a story involving 5 Jehovah's Witnesses who went on a fishing trip Sat. in the Gulf of California. 4 days later their boat was found adrift with no one on board. Life jackets were gone. Scuba divers searched the area, but no bodies were found. Their first error was not checking in for a fishing permit. The search continues. First story on the left at
Five JWs Missing
by Kenneson 22 Replies latest jw friends
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Scully
Sorry Kenneson, but the link doesn't reach any new stories. Would you mind copying & pasting it here?
Love, Scully
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Kenneson
That is the correct url address. I don't know how netstar shows up. You might want to type it in yourselves.
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Kenneson
I'm about to go to work. Sorry I can't do more. Search Tuscon Citizen and maybe you can get to the story that way. I don't know what the problem is.
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Abaddon
Well, that'll end up being used as "How should true Christian view recreation?"
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Gerard
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=103003a1_boaters_mexico&PHPSESSID=6bd1222c0b4177d54016216ca9694e9c Still missing at sea
'White caps' hamper search
Relatives pray for 5 Tucson fishermen, hope they had time to put on life jackets
LUKE TURF
Tucson Citizen
Samantha Brinke talks with her uncle, Mike Richie, in Mexico to get more information on her missing father, Mark Brinke, and his friends. She was talking to her uncle about going to Mexico if they had found nothing by 5 p.m. yesterday.PUERTO PEÑASCO - High winds today resulting in choppy "white caps" at sea were expected to hamper search efforts for five Tucson men missing since Saturday during a fishing trip.
No life jackets were found in the first search of the boat found adrift four days after the men left this port on a fishing trip, said Capt. Rafael Muñoz of the Mexican navy, which is involved in the search.
The missing vests "gives us hope they had them on," said Tucsonan John Eckhoff, a friend of the boaters.
Scuba divers yesterday briefly searched under the capsized 24-foot catamaran before towing it 15 miles east to Puertecitos, a fishing village on the Baja California side of the Gulf of California.
Officials will examine the craft more closely there.
Meanwhile, family and friends of the men await word in a trailer park's breezy lounge in this port town. The park is a stone's toss from the gulf.
All of the missing men are Jehovah's Witnesses. They refer to each other as "brother," and fellow worshippers from San Diego to San Felipe helped out in whatever way they could.
After finding the boat Tuesday night, authorities lost sight of it yesterday morning but found it again about 12:25 p.m.
The boat's owner, Carl Hopper, has 12 years' boating experience and dreamed of someday owning a fishing charter service, his wife, Leah, said. Hopper has had the boat for a year.
Everything seemed normal to her when her husband left Tucson at 3:30 a.m. Friday, she said.
"He was anxious to get here. He was up all night getting things together on the boat," she said. "He loves doing this."
She said her husband was studying for a captains license. He was last in the gulf in July.
Muñoz said Saturday night was windy in the San Felipe area, which created 4- to 5-foot waves.
Hopper and his crew planned to go across the gulf to San Felipe and return the same day. Each way is about four hours, he said.
"They didn't make it (to San Felipe)," Muñoz said.
Some of Muñoz's men were searching the coast and small islands in that area.
People on a plane rented by friends and family found the boat. Muñoz said it was spotted 80 miles southwest of Puerto Peñasco, 55 miles from San Felipe and 20 miles out to sea.
He said depending on the fishermen's conditions, they will be brought to Puerto Peñasco or Mexicali.
"It was bad timing and these people don't have enough experience," Muñoz said.
The 24-foot catamaran that five Tucson men were aboard in the Gulf of California before they went missing.He said the men's first mistake was not checking in with his office to get a fishing permit before leaving. Without a permit, the crew could be fined, he said.
In the three months Muñoz has been on the job, no one has died in the gulf.
He said he doesn't know of any other people who have gone missing in that period.
"It's rare," he said.
When a craft capsizes or has other problems at sea, Muñoz said, boaters usually are rescued within 24 hours.
A man who fell out of a boat Saturday night was plucked to safety, he said.
Some factors are in the crew's favor, such as the time of year - after the deadly summer sun and before winter's cooler water, Muñoz said.
The temperature in the gulf is about 84 degrees, he said.
"This is a gulf. It's not real open and the winds aren't very strong," Muñoz said.
Assuming they are alive, the men's biggest threat, besides drowning, is dehydration, he said.
In the lounge at Playa Bonita Trailer Park in Puerto Peñasco, cell phones are ringing and up to 25 people scurry to make updates available to everyone.
The volunteers filter out rumors, such as one that four white men had been picked up at sea by Mexican officials.
One of three planes searching yesterday took family members to San Felipe so they could get on two boats, each carrying a four-wheel drive truck.The trucks will be used to search two islands near where the boat was recovered.
Three Mexican navy vessels and one helicopter are searching, Muñoz said.
Hope is high during the day, Hopper said, but at night it's hard for 17-year-old daughter Carrissa to cope. The couple also has a 20-year-old son, Christopher.
"I'm torn apart," the daughter said. "One minute I feel really good and I n men missing in the Gulf of California.
The trucks will be used to search two islands near where the boat was recovered.
Three Mexican navy vessels and one helicopter are searching, Muñoz said.
Hope is high during the day, Hopper said, but at night it's hard for 17-year-old daughter Carrissa to cope. The couple also has a 20-year-old son, Christopher.
"I'm torn apart," the daughter said. "One minute I feel really good and I think about it, and the next minute I cry.
"This may sound weird, but I wish I was out there with them."
She planned to go on the trip but had to change plans, she said.
Leah Hopper said she's happy with what Mexican officials are doing.
"They're doing what they can, although we wish that they had more resources," she said. "We were hoping that the United States could assist us. They're not here yet."
She heard that U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was trying to get a helicopter from the U.S. Border Patrol to search, but she was told permission from President Bush may be necessary for the chopper to search south of the border.
The U.S. Coast Guard's 11th District is ready to offer air support, said Lt. Jennifer Cook of the district command center in Alameda, Calif.
Searchers will call their efforts a rescue operation for at least another two days, Cook said.
"The water down there is fairly warm and there's no indication that would be a recovery operation," Cook said.
Typically, Coast Guard searches involve multiple helicopters and planes covering vast areas.
Investigators have not determined what caused the boat to capsize, but possibilities range from weather to an encounter with whales that travel the gulf.
Cook said the whale scenario is not the most likely.Leah Hopper's sister, Lori Kolodge, came from San Diego to support her family.
She said her husband is banned from fishing in Mexican waters because of what her sister is going through now: red tape on top of tragedy.
"I would never want to deal with that," Kolodge said. "It's hell."
Friends of missing fisherman Darryl Holland said he can't swim. Despite that, Leah Hopper said Holland was "so excited" about the trip, as was everyone.
"(Hopper) has been a fisherman at heart since he was a kid," said Eckhoff. "Carl was fairly new at doing this. He's had the boat for about a year."
Leah Hopper said the biggest obstacle to her husband's dream of starting a charter business was living in Tucson.
He'd flirted with the idea of moving to San Diego, she said.
"I don't know, I'm just really puzzled about it," she said. "I don't think Carl would put anyone in danger."
Carrissa Hopper said the boat was built to carry up to six people and was equipped with flares and five or six life vests.
The five planned to fish for tuna and the boat was equipped with a "tuna tower," Leah Hopper said.
The tower allows someone to steer the boat from about 20 feet above the water.
Some people suggested yesterday the tower could have made the boat top-heavy.
Family members chartered one plane for a couple of hours Monday at $350 an hour, and three planes Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to about 6 p.m.
A Jehovah's Witness from Sonoyta, Son., offered the use of his plane in exchange for just fuel money, Leah Hopper said.
"We're all just staying really positive," she said. "I know everyone out there's praying."
Eckhoff said the one-day cost of using the planes was $3,300.
Some of Hopper's friends and family said they wished the United States was doing more to help.
Tucsonans can help with search costs by contributing to the Fisherman Relief Fund at any Bank of America.
Howard
Holland
Carl Hopper
Hopper42, originally from Tucson. Married to Lillian "Leah" Hopper. They have a son, Christopher, 20, and daughter, Carrissa, 17. Carl Hopper is a self-employed contractor who owns Carl's Painting.
Darryl Holland
42, went to Santa Rita High School. He is single, with no children. He is originally from Fort Wayne, Ind., but was raised in Tucson. He graduated from Sunnyside High School and took correspondence courses in computer programming. He is a programmer for a Tucson company that designs vehicle emission testing programs.
Randy Howard
47, originally from Phoenix. He and his wife, Sheryl, have two sons, Joshua and Michael. Randy Howard is a railroad engineer who has not worked since being injured early in May in a train wreck near Yuma. Sheryl and Michael are in Puerto Peñasco as the search proceeds.
Brinke
Joshua Howard
Joshua Howard21, Randy Howard's son. He is a University of Arizona student majoring in architectural design. He lives with his parents.
Mark Brinke
47, born and raised in Tucson. He is married to Jane Brinke. They have a son, Marlin Brinke, 22, and a daughter, Samantha, 21. He attended Catalina High School. He owns M. Brinke Construction Inc. in Tucson, which does commercial and residential construction.
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anglise
Try this link.
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/31031LOSTATSEA.html
Anglise
Edited to add
Sorry
must have been finding this whilst others had posted better links.
I will leave it anyway.
Anglise
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rocketman
Odd indeed, and sad.
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joenobody
Maybe it was their alternative escape plan to doing the "slow-fade"?
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Gerard
...and were expected back in port Saturday night.
That would be 6 days in the water tonigt!
Sad.