# Near tragedy and rescue Saturday



## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

A good friend of mine had an eventful trip off Galveston on Saturday. 

Coming back in about 3:30 from a full day of fishing and releasing huge snapper, he decided to go a little out of the way and check out the new reef ship MV Kraken 67 miles out. Near a buoy, he spotted an arm waving on the surface and pulled up to 3 exhausted people whose 30ft Wellcraft had sunk just a short while before he arrived. Got them on board and was told of 5 others who were still in the water. Spotting debris in the distance, he located the other group and got them on board too...all of them wearing life jackets. The 5 Iraq War veterans, 2 women, and a 16 year old boy said they had been on their annual diving trip when their boat started taking on water and their motors and bilge pump shut down. Got off a distress call that was answered by a shrimp boat that never showed up. He got them back to port right at dark and they called the USCG who knew nothing about the incident, as the shrimp boat never notified them!!

Thank God my friend decided to make that last stop of the day!!


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## saltaholic (Feb 19, 2005)

Wow!!! Crazy story glad they are safe. Epirb and PLB are must haves


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## BullyARed (Jun 19, 2010)

Wow! Glad they were all saved. You all are their protected angels! Someone watched over them! Shame on the POS shrimp boat.


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## trapper67 (Mar 23, 2011)

Dang it they are lucky !!!


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## briggss1 (May 27, 2006)

I hate to say it, as I have the highest respect for the Coasties, they may have been instead out flying their Dolphins around to target private recs for snapper inspections. I know they can't respond too what they don't know, but nevertheless....

This is why I have double and triple redundancy on EPIRBS, etc. I thinks its also alarming that they got separated as to me that's 1 step closer to catastrophe. I keep lots of rope on board and lots of floatation. That shrimpboat...I wish there was a way for the CG to find out who that was.

I am so happy that you were there and kept this disaster from becoming a tragedy!

A good reminder on the ditchbag. I added to mine:

Garmin inReach Explorer with subscription
Redundant EPIRBs
Handheld Marine VHF
3 SOLAS 1000'+ 40 second SOLAS Flares
5 SOLAS handheld flares
3000 mW badass laser pointer (the kind for astronomy)
All of the other typical items.
Also, my boat has foam flotation, so my instructions to my crew is no matter what...stay tied together and stay tied to the boat (unless its on fire). Get on the boat keel when it rolls.


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

Just to be clear, I was not there. My friend who has been wanting me to go out with him as soon as work allows picked them up in his 28' Grady White.

He said the 3 that were separated had been trying to swim to the buoy for 30 minutes and were worn out. The others were drifting with the debris and reeked of gas and oil.

I don't know if they were wearing wetsuits since it was a diving trip, but I wonder how long they could last in 74 degree water before hypothermia set in.


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## briggss1 (May 27, 2006)

Mr. Saltwater said:


> I don't know if they were wearing wetsuits since it was a diving trip, but I wonder how long they could last in 74 degree water before hypothermia set in.


Not long enough. Also why I want to add Type I vests to my storage, since they self-right to keep the head/face out of water.


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## John the fisherman (Nov 19, 2012)

Wow, glad they were saved. I always take epirb, spot, handheld radios, gps, strobes and flares in my ditch bag, plus I keep a spare bilge pump mounted threw a hatch cover. I have had to use it too. Plus keep manual pump. 

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## Get'er Wet (Aug 25, 2016)

Thank God your friend was there. A lifesaver for sure. 


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## Slightly Dangerous (May 21, 2004)

*Wow!*



briggss1 said:


> I hate to say it, as I have the highest respect for the Coasties, they may have been instead out flying their Dolphins around to target private recs for snapper inspections. I know they can't respond too what they don't know, but nevertheless....
> 
> This is why I have double and triple redundancy on EPIRBS, etc. I thinks its also alarming that they got separated as to me that's 1 step closer to catastrophe. I keep lots of rope on board and lots of floatation. That shrimpboat...I wish there was a way for the CG to find out who that was.
> 
> ...


Your post is so out of line I could scream. I hope you feel real good about your high and mighty attitude.


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## dinmax82 (May 15, 2013)

Wow lucky people!

But they definitely needed more safety equipment on board.


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## briggss1 (May 27, 2006)

Every time I hear these stories, I buy more safety gear. This makes me want a 6 man rescue raft again. Hopefully we get more details on what happened to learn (if they know). 

I was talking to a friend last week who was on a trip that had the hull delaminate on the fly and had they stopped they would have been swamped. Kept it on plane and kept pumping and bailing all the way inshore and to the boat ramp .....


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## steve0983 (May 14, 2007)

I'm glad everyone made it home safe and want to share a lesson learned from myself about 6 weeks ago. My boat had 2 strokes before I bought it and had oil sludge in the bilge from the previous owner. I didn't have float switches because they would get stuck on and burn up the bilge pump and kill the battery when wired direct. I went offshore on a nice day and at 20 miles was losing speed and the bow was rising, looked in the hatch to see a ton of water. Turned on both bilge pumps and headed towards shore and pumped it all out. The source is a long story that is fixed now but lesson learned was there had to be a better float switch available than the cheap kind you see at academy. I attached a photo of what I installed and hope it can help another boater from getting in these situations. The only reason you guys didn't see me on the news being rescued was it was calm enough to maintain momentum and a good float switch would have prevented the whole event.


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## Cabollero (Jun 1, 2011)

Slightly Dangerous said:


> Your post is so out of line I could scream. I hope you feel real good about your high and mighty attitude.


I agree. The laws are stupid but they are the laws. It's like blaming a cop for looking for speeders rather than solving a murder he didn't know occurred and hasn't been reported yet.


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## SS721 (Sep 12, 2015)

In high school, we would run the 18 foot bay boat with good buddies of ours out the the rigs and end up 30-40 miles out of Freeport. No vhf or any safety equipment. Looking back makes me cringe of what trouble we could have found ourselves in. Hearing this makes me think of how lucky I got. Glad to hear they made it back. Didn't hit me until the motor died the last time we went. Spent a long time before we got the motor to turnover. Needless to say, I won't leave the ramp with out a full proof ditch bag and plan. 


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## briggss1 (May 27, 2006)

Slightly Dangerous said:


> Your post is so out of line I could scream. I hope you feel real good about your high and mighty attitude.


Sorry you feel that way - wasn't my intent. Was referring to the current threads stating that USGC air operations are being flown to target private recreational vessels for targeted Red Snapper searches (which to me also sound a little like unreasonable search). I have trained and worked with the Coasties for years and have nothing bad to say really about their professionalism - but this is unacceptable IMO. Plus, the point of my post was 1) thanks to God for their rescue and 2) safety related (ditch bag, etc.).

So are you OK with this or does the fact that someone is not OK with that make them "high and mighty" in your books? Serious question and I am genuinely confused.


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## briggss1 (May 27, 2006)

Cabollero said:


> I agree. The laws are stupid but they are the laws. It's like blaming a cop for looking for speeders rather than solving a murder he didn't know occurred and hasn't been reported yet.


Same here. My problem with your analogy of the cops is you need to say "_cops using the primary high end department resources and maybe a team of detectives to enforce a 35 mph speed limit on a rural farm road that everyone knows (including them) should be 65, all because 2 people on that rural farm road don't like the traffic ands paid off their local politicians to lower the speed limit so that they would discourage even driving there to begin with._ "

Sure the cops don't make the speeding laws, but they certainly have a say in how they operate and what they focus on - for example all other crimes." Maybe I am off-base and just didn't see it. If so, sorry in advance. Again - thank GOD these guys were safe.


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## fISHBUD (Oct 16, 2005)

In my youth, I was in a boat that sank. The boat had foam and we stayed with the boat but...you would not believe the amount of fuel,oil etc that gets in your eyes, nose and mouth. Not very pleasant!


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## mstrelectricman (Jul 10, 2009)

God was watching out for those folks. A ton of luck thrown in to boot. Of course they got a big dose of bad luck to end up in the water.


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## pomakai (Jun 7, 2012)

I'm just very happy that your buddy ,for whatever reason (maybe divine intervention) decided on that course change and was able to help those folks. Karma will catch up with that shrimp boat and hopefully he won't have to depended on someone like himself .

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## Coastaltim (Sep 9, 2004)

Wow
That's way better than them winning the lottery. Just wow.


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

I spoke briefly to another guy who was on the recovery boat today. He said the owner of the sunken Wellcraft told him the scariest part of the whole ordeal was having to call his wife and tell her he sunk the boat.


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## Fin Reaper (May 31, 2012)

Mr. Saltwater said:


> I spoke briefly to another guy who was on the recovery boat today. He said the owner of the sunken Wellcraft told him the scariest part of the whole ordeal was having to call his wife and tell her he sunk the boat.


He sunk the boat or the boat sank.... ? Lol big difference. Wonder why it went down.


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## travpeg (Nov 9, 2013)

Mr. Saltwater said:


> I spoke briefly to another guy who was on the recovery boat today. He said the owner of the sunken Wellcraft told him the scariest part of the whole ordeal was having to call his wife and tell her he sunk the boat.


THAT is funny!

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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

How is it going gents, Hope everyone is having a great year out on the water. This was actually my boat that sank. 3 were brothers of mine whom had been blown up with me while we were kicking isis in face during our deployments in Iraq. 1 is a Marine brother of mine whom had a grenade detonate just feet away from him. 1- slide, 1- 26yo daughter, and 1- 16 year old. So 5 Purple Heart recipients, and 3 family members.
Would you mind emailing me your buddy's contact info? I'd like to give him a proper thank you, and maybe buy him and his mates a beer. I owe him my life, and of those whom are extremely close to me....


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## gater (May 25, 2004)

*Boat*



SerTre said:


> How is it going gents, Hope everyone is having a great year out on the water. This was actually my boat that sank. 3 were brothers of mine whom had been blown up with me while we were kicking isis in face during our deployments in Iraq. 1 is a Marine brother of mine whom had a grenade detonate just feet away from him. 1- slide, 1- 26yo daughter, and 1- 16 year old. So 5 Purple Heart recipients, and 3 family members.
> Would you mind emailing me your buddy's contact info? I'd like to give him a proper thank you, and maybe buy him and his mates a beer. I owe him my life, and of those whom are extremely close to me....


Glad this turned out well for you and your brothers. While on the subject of thanking people, thank you for your service and please pass that thank you along to your brothers as well. Glad this turned out good for all!


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## Lostinpecos (Jul 9, 2013)

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## hog (May 17, 2006)

saltaholic said:


> Epirb and PLB are must haves


INDEED!!
IMO- No One Should go offshore without them and a SPOT tracker.
If you can't afford one of the above, stay home until you can. JMO

Better to be safe than sorry.


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## fy0834 (Jan 18, 2011)

Fin Reaper said:


> He sunk the boat or the boat sank.... ? Lol big difference. Wonder why it went down.


I'll bet she views the incident... "He sunk the boat"


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## briggss1 (May 27, 2006)

SerTre said:


> How is it going gents, Hope everyone is having a great year out on the water. This was actually my boat that sank. 3 were brothers of mine whom had been blown up with me while we were kicking isis in face during our deployments in Iraq. 1 is a Marine brother of mine whom had a grenade detonate just feet away from him. 1- slide, 1- 26yo daughter, and 1- 16 year old. So 5 Purple Heart recipients, and 3 family members.
> Would you mind emailing me your buddy's contact info? I'd like to give him a proper thank you, and maybe buy him and his mates a beer. I owe him my life, and of those whom are extremely close to me....


Simply wow. Glad you all made it back and thanks for for !


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## mstrelectricman (Jul 10, 2009)

SerTre said:


> How is it going gents, Hope everyone is having a great year out on the water. This was actually my boat that sank. 3 were brothers of mine whom had been blown up with me while we were kicking isis in face during our deployments in Iraq. 1 is a Marine brother of mine whom had a grenade detonate just feet away from him. 1- slide, 1- 26yo daughter, and 1- 16 year old. So 5 Purple Heart recipients, and 3 family members.
> Would you mind emailing me your buddy's contact info? I'd like to give him a proper thank you, and maybe buy him and his mates a beer. I owe him my life, and of those whom are extremely close to me....


Thanks for y'all s service. Mind telling us what happened? Glad you are still with us and your experience may help others to avoid what happened. Knowledge is always good.


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## POC Fishin' Gal (Nov 20, 2009)

Thank you all for your service and so glad you had a guardian angel out there that day.


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## dbarham (Aug 13, 2005)

SerTre said:


> How is it going gents, Hope everyone is having a great year out on the water. This was actually my boat that sank. 3 were brothers of mine whom had been blown up with me while we were kicking isis in face during our deployments in Iraq. 1 is a Marine brother of mine whom had a grenade detonate just feet away from him. 1- slide, 1- 26yo daughter, and 1- 16 year old. So 5 Purple Heart recipients, and 3 family members.
> Would you mind emailing me your buddy's contact info? I'd like to give him a proper thank you, and maybe buy him and his mates a beer. I owe him my life, and of those whom are extremely close to me....


I thank each and every one of yall. 
I hope karma gets the shrimp boat capt Too!


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## Monarchy (Jun 3, 2004)

SerTre, it would be my pleasure to take you guys out this summer. I run out of Aransas Pass. Send me a note if you'd like to discuss. 
[email protected]

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## captcarl (Jun 17, 2017)

Thank you and crew for your service and glad for safe outcome. Any insight on what caused boat to sink, general model of boat inboards/outdrives/outboards, suspected leak area, etc.. might be helpful to folks to learn from your experience. Best regards!


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

Thank you, sir.


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

Yes indeed! We weren't in the water more than an hour! It's surreal even to this day thinking about it! Would still like to give our rescuers a formal thank you.....
Definitely acted as our guardian angels that day. I told my brothers that this trend of us escaping death when we hang out has got to stop! Lol. I've been blown up 3 different times, and so has most of my brothers whom I served with.


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

As to what happened. Here is what I can honestly share.
I had a 1989 30' Wellcraft coastal. She was powered by twin Yamaha 250's two strokes. She had / stress fractures that were fixed while doing the annual bottom job 3 years ago. And never had any other come up. I had 2- 1200gph bilge pumps in the bow, just under the cuddy cabin. Had 2- 1800gph in the stern. That morning, prior to leaving, my oil reservoir sending unit went out. So she sat in the marina for about 2-1/2 hours while I hunted for the part. No signs of any water leaks. One of my Bro's is now an aviation technician. He specializes in surveying aircraft for soft spots and mechanical issues. He was actually the one who replaced the parts. He even said that he never saw anything that would cause him to be concerned about. Granted boats are different from aircraft, but his eyes would seem more prone to point things out of the ordinary. While we were underway, we made a few stops picking up garbage and random debris. Sometimes we would cast into seaweed beds. We would drift for maybe an hour or so, and never had anything out of the ordinary. Once we got to the Kraken reef. We moored up, and began getting our dive gear ready. Maybe 30-40 minutes. Someone noticed water in the cuddy cabin so I took a look. The discharge holes showed water being pumped out. The stern had both pumps discharging. By this point we had water on the back deck. So we cut loose from the mooring, and started the engines, we began moving, with hope of the water draining from the scupper holes. Eventually the port side motor flooded and stalled. Few minutes later, the starboard followed the same fate. Once both motors stalled, it was no more than 3-5 minutes for the boat to be gone. The only thing I could think of, is that maybe something broke, the hull delaminated while underway, and once we stopped, it was too late. I had type 1 PFD on board. Sent a distress on the AIS, sent a man overboard on radar, and called out a mayday call. Had someone with a country accent, leading me to believe it was an American answering my call. They asked for my position, so I gave them our coordinates. I don't mean to sound cocky or stupid, but having Homebase through so many near death experiences, I never lost my composure while everything was going on. I remember telling everyone to put on their vest, and eventually to abandon ship. So now, my boat is somewhere in the Gulf, and from what I remember, in about 140' of water. All of my fishing gear, all of my dive gear(and my brothers) gear, gone..... Not to mention my boat.
Unfortunately, when I parked the boat and trailer last year, I didn't activate my insurance. I didn't want the extra $240 a month expense while the boat was Justin sitting on the trailer. And with my Bro's flying in, trying to coordinate everything, everyone's sleeping and eating arrangements, I never activated NYC insurance. So my boat sank with all of our gear, and didn't have any insurance to cover it. From this experience, I will never go offshore without a life raft, a personal epirb, and a satellite iMessage that I can send and receive emails and text messages. Also have a ditch bag with a hand held VHF, extra water, and Jesus with us......
I honestly wish I had a for sure answer on what happened. For my mind sake......


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

POC Fishin' Gal said:


> Thank you all for your service and so glad you had a guardian angel out there that day.


Thank you!


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## planohog (Nov 1, 2006)

Glad your safe, when nearshore I keep PFD's and handheld , out ready to go 
Thank you for taking time, to write up the story . we all learn from it 
Regards Terry


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## ibtbone (Oct 7, 2013)

again sir, thanks to you and your family, we are free, 
you and your brothers must be part cat, nine lives perhaps? glad yall are safe and with us to fish or fight another day, 

much gratitude to yall for your service


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

PM sent.

Thank you for your service and sacrifice!!!


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

Yes sir. This experience definitely motivated me to add more items toca ditch bag!


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

ibtbone said:


> again sir, thanks to you and your family, we are free,
> you and your brothers must be part cat, nine lives perhaps? glad yall are safe and with us to fish or fight another day,
> 
> much gratitude to yall for your service


Yes, my dad told me the same thing. How many cat lives do I have left. Lol


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## Doghouse2 (Sep 10, 2005)

First of all glad you are safe and commend the guys that helped out. 

Just a quick story and bit of speculation. When I was younger a buddy was helping me clean our Wellcraft 25 Coastal. I was in the boat he was outside of the boat(it was on the trailer). I was trying to hose some blood out and he kept using the outside hose to spray back up the thruhull scupper drain shooting water at me. 

Long story short most of the Wellcrafts have plastic thruhulls and he very next day on another trip the very first stop we really the bilge is full and we are going down. Quickly figured out the water was coming thru the thruhull at the waterline. Duck tape wrapped around a trout cork became a very quick plug. Saved the day and the boat. 

Once the water was pumped out we realized the thruhull was cracked in half on the inside of the boat. Easy fix but could've been a disaster. Didn't try to blame him but suspect that little bit of pressure cracked it. Honestly was probably brittle and about to crack either way. Since then have avoided plastic thruhulls like the plague. 

Keep plugs available at all times. 

Very sorry for the loss of you boat and gear.


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## John the fisherman (Nov 19, 2012)

I have known to people who had plastic thru hulls and had them break on them. My world cat had plastic thru hulls, so first thing I did was replace them all. Lot of work and not fun. Wish manufacturer would spend an extra 300 and put all metal first time. 


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## tjahnke77 (Jul 5, 2017)

My husband David Jahnke was one of the guys involved in the rescue that day. I still stand in amazement at the events of that weekend. For us, there were so many things that had already been put into motion for the upcoming weekend and offshore fishing was NOT one of them. But....when God decides he needs you, plans miraculously change. Looking back on this, I am happy to say, that I witnessed god moving mountains. We are very happy that all 5 service men and family members are home safe and sound.


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

Wow. That's a pretty crazy story. Glad you guys were able to fix it. There are so many scenarios that have gone through my head about the incident. Just can't have a for sure way of finding out.... that's what drove me crazy for a few days!



Doghouse2 said:


> First of all glad you are safe and commend the guys that helped out.
> 
> Just a quick story and bit of speculation. When I was younger a buddy was helping me clean our Wellcraft 25 Coastal. I was in the boat he was outside of the boat(it was on the trailer). I was trying to hose some blood out and he kept using the outside hose to spray back up the thruhull scupper drain shooting water at me.
> 
> ...


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## SerTre (Jun 16, 2017)

I cannot thank you, and your husband enough! You are so right! God definitely placed those men on that boat for us on that day! I have my life to thank them for that! Please let you husband know that we are very greatful, and would like to possibly have dinner with y'all one day. There are 2 families that live locally, the rest are out of town. 
Again, THANK YOU! THANK YOU!THABK YOU!



tjahnke77 said:


> My husband David Jahnke was one of the guys involved in the rescue that day. I still stand in amazement at the events of that weekend. For us, there were so many things that had already been put into motion for the upcoming weekend and offshore fishing was NOT one of them. But....when God decides he needs you, plans miraculously change. Looking back on this, I am happy to say, that I witnessed god moving mountains. We are very happy that all 5 service men and family members are home safe and sound.


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