Coastal Commader Saves 4 Lives Aboard The "Intensity" Near Atlantic City
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Arnold Collona and crew with a "souvenir" from the rescue.
"Coast Guard Crew, Seatow Rescues 4 Near Atlantic City, New Jersey"
(from piersystem.com August 12, 2009)
ATALANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY -- The Coast Guard and Seatow rescued for people aboard a 26-foot boat 13 miles off the Coast of Atantic City, New Jersey Wednesday.
The Coast Guard received a call at 4:425 p.m. from a crew member aboard the Intensity reporting they were taking on water.
A Seatow boat arrived on scene and rescued the four people from their life raft. A rescue boat crew from Coast Guard Station Atlantic City arrived on scene and transferred the four people aboard the rescue boat.
The four people were transported to Station Atlantic City.
There were no injuries reported.
"He had an emergency Postion Indicating Radio Beacon that was properly registed, which made it easier for the Coast Guard to locate him." said Thomas Peck, a search and rescue controller at the Coast Gurad Command Center at Sector Deleware Bay in Philidelphia. "he also had lifejackets and a liferaft, which aided in the chance of survival."
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A NOTE FROM THE CAPTAIN:
"So guys sorry this took so long I was just way to tired mentally and physically to even think about typing this all out last night or even this morning. Well anyway it’s a new day and here is the story. Our boat was the INTENSITY a 25ft Carolina Classic out of Trump Marina in Atlantic City. We left the dock at around 1:30am heading for the Toms Canyon. We had lines in the water just before sunlight and fished the area till around 9am. Without any hits we decided to start and make our way down towards the Carteret where we picked up about 5 nice size dolphins on a pot. It was now around 11:15am with still no tuna in the boat, when we decided to pick up and run to the Lyndenkol we arrived by 12pm and by 12:30pm we had a nice 80lb Yellowfin in the boat. At around 1:30pm we decided to call it a day and start our journey back to AC. At around 4:15pm 10 miles off of Atlantic City is when the story really begins. All of sudden the engine shut down and all the alarms on the boat start to sound, we raised the the engine hatch to only find smoke coming from the motor I then looked down into the bottom of the engine room and seen water pouring in from the rear billage. Once we looked in the back of the boat we knew we were really in trouble, we seen water pouring in from the back near the outdrive on the transom. No clue what happened since there was already 6 inches in the bilge just after maybe 30 seconds. Immediately we knew this was really not going to end well. At that time it was all instinct and everyone did exactly what we needed to do to get off this boat safely, it was as if we trained for this. I got on the radio and had to make one of the most scariest calls on that radio that I have ever imagined “Mayday mayday mayday, this is the Intensity were going down, and were going down fast” while two of the other guys got our Revere life raft and vests along with our flares and anything else we could possibly need from the cabin my father was trying to figure out if there was any way to stop this leak. After we figured out there was no way of stopping the leak we deployed the raft and put our vests on. In about 20 minutes the cabin was fully submerged and the bow was starting to go under. At that time we activated our EPIRB and figured it was about time to get off this boat and into our Revere life raft. We then floated around for about another 20 minutes and watched as our boat along with all our lures, spreader bars, Penn 50s and fish sunk lower and lower into the water. Sea tow was the first to arrive on the scene and pulled us from the raft at the same time the Coast Guard Helicopter and a private charter arrived to try and assist (I forgot the name of the charter boat but if anyone knows the name please let me know I owe him some shots). And that also goes for any of the other guys who heard the call on 16 and made an effort to come and help us, we all appreciate the effort and we cannot say thank you enough. The Coast Guard cutter arrived shortly after and we were transferred from the Sea Tow boat onto the cutter. Sadly enough the boat was lost, maybe if the coast guard got there just 5 minutes faster we would have been able to save it but what are you going to do you can always buy a new boat. At least we are able to walk away from this with our lives and with one hell of a story to tell our kids. Good news out of this whole thing was that our tuna was in a tuna bag on the deck and when the boat sunk the tuna actually floated to the top. So with a little convincing to the Sea Tow captain we were at least able to go fish our nice tuna out of the water and get some nice steaks for dinner tonight. I would just like to thank again the US Coast Guard and the Brigantine Sea Tow along with any of the other captains that heard our calls and made an effort to try and help us. We would also like to thank Revere Life rafts cause without them we would have been floating around in the water for about 30 minutes. Having to abandon your boat is a scary enough situation without adding the fear of having to get in the water, by having our Revere 6 man Offshore Commander life raft we were able to have some form of security in our safety and for that we are extremely grateful."
Thanks Again,
Nick Colonna