AMERICAN tourists on an annual July 4 fishing trip were plunged into the Gulf of California in the middle of the night after a flash storm upended their boat, killing at least one US man and leaving seven others missing.
The Mexican navy will today extend its search area for survivors after meeting with various rescue agencies, despite earlier reports they were considering turning their efforts to recovering bodies nearly two days after the early Sunday morning accident.
By early yesterday, 19 of the tourists and all 16 crew members had been picked up by the navy or other fishing boats after clinging to coolers, rescue rings and life vests for more than 16 hours.
Mexican navy Captain Benjamin Pineda Gomez said he had no name or details about the man who died. But he said with the warm weather and water temperature, it's still possible the others missing are alive.
"A person who casts away can survive many days. That sea is calm," he said.
The 35-metre vessel, the Erik, sank about 100 kilometers south of the port of San Felipe around 2.30am local time on Sunday, the second day of a weeklong vacation fishing trip the men had organised for several years each Independence Day holiday.
The boat capsized less than three kilometers from shore, but the navy extended its search 100 kilometers deeper into the gulf later on Monday after scouring the area by helicopter and aeroplane and finding nothing, Pineda said.
Most of the 27 men are from Northern California and had made the trip before, eating gourmet dinners on board every night and coming home with ice chests full of fish.
Those rescued were in good condition with a few scrapes after bobbing in the intense sun and gulf waters that were about 25 Celsius.
Photos released by the Mexican navy showed several sunburned fishermen in T-shirts and Bermudas waiting to get on a bus.
They were taken to a clinic for checkups, then to their hotel. One diabetic survivor was taken to a naval hospital in San Felipe.
According to the Baja Sportsfishing website, the Erik has been on the Gulf of California, known in Mexico as the Sea of Cortez, since 1989.
It was built in Holland and was equipped with stabilizers to handle the turbulent North Sea.
The California Secretary of State website says Baja Sportfishing's business licence has been suspended.
0 comments:
Post a Comment