BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Broward Sheriff’s Office released video Monday that shows five men being rescued at sea last month after their boat submerged.
According to BSO spokeswoman Gerdy St. Louis, Marine Patrol Unit deputies rescued the men around 10 a.m. Jan. 7 after their boat sank to the bottom of the ocean about three miles east of the Hillsboro Inlet.
St. Louis said in a news release that the deputies headed to the area after receiving a distress call from the boat operator via VHF (Very High Frequency) radio.
The boater told Deputies Daniel Rocha and Jay Dunning over the radio that his boat was taking on water and they were located a few miles offshore near the Hillsboro Inlet.
Other agencies joined in the search, but they only had a vague idea of where the boaters were.
St. Louis said dispatch notified the deputies a short time later that they received a hang-up 911 call from a boater in distress and noted latitude and longitude coordinates.
She said Rocha converted the coordinates to degree and decimal minutes using a GPS coordinates converter app.
“The new information indicated that the stranded boaters were further out than expected,” she wrote in the news release. “Deputies Rocha and Dunning immediately changed course and headed toward the GPS location pinpointed on the map.
“Once in the area, they spotted smoke coming from a handheld flare and knew they were close. An orange life raft then appeared in the distance with three individuals inside and two others outside of the flat floating structure holding on for dear life.”
St. Louis said the 2002 30-foot Rampage boat the group was on had fully submerged by the time deputies arrived.
The deputies notified the U.S. Coast Guard as they rescued the five men and pulled them one-by-one onto their boat, providing them with life jackets and water.
St. Louis said the deputies also checked to see if any of the men required medical attention and dispatched Pompano Beach Fire Rescue to the dock, but the group said they did not need medical attention.
“Onboard, the rescued men expressed their gratitude to the deputies,” St. Louis wrote. “They said they did not think they were going to make it if the deputies had not found them when they did. One of the individuals even hugged the deputies after the group arrived on shore to demonstrate his appreciation.”
The deputies credited the successful rescue to the GPS conversion, which identified their exact location. They also said having a VHF radio, a life raft, a flare, and life jackets onboard a boat is crucial in an emergency and can mean the difference between life and death.
For more information about boating safety, visit the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Boating Safety.