Nothing Worse than vital equipment failures.
The crew of the commercial fishing vessel New Age began taking on water Wednesday forcing the captain and crew to abandon ship. When the Coast Guard arrived they found the crew had deployed their life raft and all three were wearing survival suits. The first reports are that the dewatering pump crapped out. The Captain and crew were not in the raft when the CG arrived and one man was injured while trying to board the CG ship and taken to the hospital.
The Owner Gets The Bad News
In the meantime, the owner of the vessel for over 30-years Chris Wheeler was just returning from a vacation. "The first question out of Chris's mouth when he was talking to the Coast Guard is 'How is my crew? Where is my crew?' " According to CG officials.
This Takes Balls!
Winkler then rounded up a boat and steamed out to the vessel in an effort to save her. He had CG close behind following him out. Mr. Winkler was able to get onto his boat, which was still floating and drifting, and use pumps he had brought to get enough water out of the vessel so he could do his best to get her into Belford, N.J., the nearest and safest port, Ms. Stoloff said.
"He is steaming the boat right now," she said around 6 p.m. A Coast Guard cutter was trailing him. "They saved that boat," she said. Ms. Stoloff received a call from a petty officer with the Coast Guard, who, alone on the boat, updated her. She said he should be at the port in three to four hours.
I’m waiting for confirmation from the CG that all is well.
