Wind, Waves, and A Suicidal Boat

By Chris White

(The Boating Channel / Review) -- Author Chris White is no weekend warrior heading out for well-planned adventures in a comfortable vessel to do battle with the sea’s bounty. For twenty-five years he has worked the waters off Alaska boating in minimal craft and under horrendous conditions. His commitment was to run his own commercial fishing business, beginning his career with an old rented boat that was determined to rest in peace. This slim volume of stories covers the more than two decades White has spent fishing the frigid Alaskan waters - the close calls, the bad decisions, the terrifying storms of the Bering Sea with fifty-foot waves and hundred-mile-per-hour winds, and the undying optimisim of a man who has found his purpose and his soul leaving behind the security of solid ground... More

U.S. Coast Guard Rescues 2 of 6 Missing Boaters

MIAMI, FL, September 25, 2007 (USCG)- The Coast Guard has rescued two of the six missing boaters Monday after they departed Miami en route Bimini, Bahamas Saturday afternoon on a 47-foot sport fisher.

The names of the rescued are Guillermo Zarabozo and Kirby Archer.

Missing are Jake Branam, captain of the vessel Joe Cool and his crew, Kelly Branam, Scott Campbell and Sammy Cary.

Family members reported the vessel overdue at approximately 5:45 p.m. Sunday after the vessel failed to return to Miami Beach Marina at its scheduled time.

The Joe Cool was found by crewmembers of the cutter Pea Island late Sunday evening 160 miles south of Bimini. Boarding team members from the Pea Island discovered the abandoned vessel in disarray with the life-raft missing.

Zarabozo and Archer were found by an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter approximately 12 miles north of that location and taken to the cutter Confidence.

According to the Global Positioning System on board the vessel, the Joe Cool made several erratic movements and began heading south about halfway into their voyage.

The Coast Guard immediately began searching with a HC-130 aircraft from Elizabeth City, N.C., the Cutter Confidence, the Cutter Pea Island and an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Miami deployed to the Confidence.

The Cutter Pea Island is a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Cutter Confidence is a 210-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Port Canaveral, Fla.

E-20 Gas Amendment Offered To Energy Bill

Boat/US Magazine

SAG HARBOR, NY, September 22, 2007 (The Boating Channel)

Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) and Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA) are sponsoring an amendment to the energy bill that can help Boaters avoid damaging their marine engines and fuel tanks with gasoline blended in high concentrations of ethanol.

According to the story, "Shadegg learned firsthand of the destructive power of ethanol in marine fuels when he pumped E-10 gas into the fiberglass gas tank of his 1973, 28-foot Bertram, Inevitable. The tank degraded rapidly, resulting in thousands of dollars of damage to the boat and its engines."

The amendment adds roadblocks to the permit process for states to require gas blended with ethanol concentrations higher than 10%.