Hoax?

Some news out of the Palm Beach Post

Mystery deepens after boater's call for help
By Rochelle E.B. Gilken

If the emergency call from a hand-held radio was genuine, there could be nine people clinging to each other right now in the stormy waters of the Atlantic.

The group would include four children and a woman with an injured leg. All would be wearing life jackets and drifting north a few miles offshore at the pace of a steady walk.

Their boat, the Blue Sheep, would be at the bottom of the ocean just north of the Boynton Beach Inlet.

By 11 a.m. today, they would have been adrift for 36 hours, fighting for their lives in warm water that's increasingly turbulent from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Alberto.

Ever since a call came in at 10:49 p.m. Sunday from somewhere out in the ocean, a massive U.S. Coast Guard-led rescue effort has scoured the waters and sent out pleas for information.

But officials haven't found a shred of evidence that anyone is out there. Late Monday, they suspended their search.

All they have is a 63-minute conversation, often interrupted, with a captain calmly claiming to be taking on water, then losing his ship.

"The whole back of the boat is submerged. My batteries are under.... My lights are flickering on the radio. I'm taking on water. What do you want me to do?" the man says in a five-minute portion of the call that was released Monday.

He had no satellite tracking system, no emergency flares, no cellphone service. Just a compass and a VHF hand-held radio.

The call offered few clues, but it was enough to launch a search over more than 1,000 square miles between Boynton Beach and Fort Pierce.

"If there's any evidence there's a possibility somebody could be out there, we launch something.... We had an hour conversation with somebody saying they were in distress, with children in life jackets. It would be irresponsible of the Coast Guard to not go," Petty Officer Dana Warr said.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also helped in the search.

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There are two possible explanations for the mystery:

• It could be a hoax.

• It could be that people are out there and relatives or friends haven't contacted officials, despite national media attention.

The captain claimed that his name was John Tobin and that his wife, Carol, injured her leg.

"My wife's injured. I don't know if she broke her leg or what she did. I have no idea," he said.

Former Coral Springs residents matching those names were found safe in New Jersey. Officials haven't found another couple with those names.

If it is a hoax, it could be similar to the occasional false mayday reports the Coast Guard receives. It might have been an effort to divert patrol boats from a more nefarious operation, such as an incoming shipment of drugs or illegal immigrants.

But it would be a costly move. The offense is a felony and could result in up to 10 years in federal prison and a bill for the cost of the search. Total expenses for this effort have not been tallied, but a C-130 plane costs $11,266 an hour to operate, a Jayhawk helicopter costs $8,905 an hour and the various boats cost between $419 and $1,700 an hour.

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If you would like to hear the distress call, click here.

This is a disturbing story if it proves to be a someone's idea of a prank. Alot of resources were diverted to this search. What if a real boating accident had happened and help was delayed or unavailable because of this search?

Florida is certainly full of nuts. If those responsible are caught, I got a Knucklehead award awaiting them.

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