Here's an amazing real-life rescue-at-sea story: Ghost Boat with Garmin GPS Leads Father-Son Duo to Man Overboard
Once on board the other boat, Jack killed the engine and did a quick scan.
I was expecting to see somebody who was probably dead or passed out in the cuddy cabin,” he said. “But there was nobody. And I was like, ‘Oh, somebody fell overboard.’ We were thinking somebody died.”
He was able to find a wallet with an ID in the cabin and take down all the person’s information, and they called the Coast Guard and relayed the events of the day. It was at this point that the Coast Guard suggested looking on the mystery boat’s GPS to see if any information could be gleaned that way. The boat had a Garmin GPS marine system, and while Andrew said he hadn’t been familiar with Garmin units prior to that, it was easy to use, allowing him to figure it out quickly.
“I figured out that you could do all this touchscreen stuff, and he’d started a track when he left Wilmington Beach. I had a track all the way out. So, for the next 20 to 25 minutes, I literally went through point, point, point on this whole track all the way back to where there was a spot about a mile from us or so where he had laid down a point.”
Or, for a more entertaining (and longer) version of the story, with pictures and illustrations, you can find it in Reader's Digest: How a fisherman's own boat rescued him from drowning
How could it have happened? We will never know. But all three men favour a theory—one that elevates this rescue story to a true fish tale.
Having safely reached home and tearfully reunited with his family, Scheller went to tidy up his boat. That’s when he noticed that one of his five fishing rods was missing. Yet there were only four on the boat when the Shermans found it.
As the trio thought about the boat’s route, as mapped by the GPS, a theory took hold.
Don't miss the great picture of father-and-son Sherman receiving their commendations from the Coast Guard!
Yay for Andrew Sherman!
ReplyDelete