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JACOB H. FRIESCoast Guard crew members returning from helping hurricane victims in New Orleans pluck four friends on a fishing trip from the gulf's angry waters.
CLEARWATER - In the back of a Coast Guard helicopter, Petty Officers Bret Fogle and Nesward Marfil could finally sleep. They were headed home. They were leaving New Orleans where they had spent a blur of days pulling 100 people from rooftops and highway overpasses.
About 2 p.m. Tuesday, their Jayhawk helicopter was only about 10 minutes away from Clearwater when it suddenly banked hard to the left, waking up Fogle and Marfil.
Lt. Kurt Kupersmith, who was at the controls, had seen something and turned around. A boat, maybe?
"I wasn't sure, but something just didn't look right," Kupersmith said. "I wanted to take a closer look."
* * *
Luke Van Ness, 60, a retired electrician, had captained the 22-foot Wellcraft boat into the Gulf of Mexico about 9 a.m. He and three friends from the Elks Lodge in New Port Richey planned to fish for grouper and red snapper.
About 15 miles out, they stopped. The seas were getting rough, so the fishermen dropped anchor, put some lines in the water and waited for the chop to calm down.
Nothing was biting.
Charles Butler, 65, a retired Clearwater police officer, suggested they try to troll. He put one line in the water, then another. Almost immediately, he hooked a small tuna.
Van Ness stopped the boat as Butler began to reel in the fish.
Then a 6-foot wave slapped the boat, flooding the stern, soaking the battery and killing the motor. Water poured in.
Butler dropped the reel, shouted at Terry Farmer to grab some life jackets.
A second wave slammed the boat, flipping it over and tossing the four men into the water. The life jackets disappeared.
The overturned boat bobbed in the gulf, mostly submerged, the bow sticking out a foot and a half. The men tried to hold on, but their hands kept sliding down the smooth hull. Waves rolled over them. They coughed up salt water.
After an hour, they were able to stretch a rope from the bow to the engine. They grabbed on. With other pieces of rope, they lashed Clem Duncombe, 74, to the boat. He was turning pale.
They passed the hours talking and telling bad jokes.
"I guess we won't make the Lodge meeting tonight," Butler said. "Hope they understand."
They contemplated a night in the water. They would tie Duncombe, whose lips were turning blue, on top of the bow. The rest would huddle around him, close together for warmth.
They had no way to call for help. Their cell phones had sunk to the bottom. So had the radio. They tied two white handkerchiefs on the end of Butler's fishing pole, the one thing they had. Van Ness waved it back and forth. There was no one to see it.
Then, after 41/2 hours, soaked, hungry, baked by the sun, they heard the roar of the Jayhawk helicopter. Van Ness frantically waved the pole. The chopper flew over.
"I think they missed us," Butler told Farmer.
Then it banked around.
"We all knew then it was going be okay," Butler said.
* * *
Fogle dropped 10 feet from the Jayhawk into the water. He swam to the boat, grabbed Duncombe and kicked backward. He passed Duncombe to Marfil, who was dangling from the powered hoist. Petty Officer Rob Jerger then pulled the pair up.
Farmer, 52, followed, then Butler and Van Ness.
"We'll never be able to thank those guys enough," Butler said. "We're just so grateful... Those Coast Guard guys had been out there in Biloxi, in Mobile, in New Orleans and they just happened to be flying low and there were sunny skies."
Once on the ground at the air station in Clearwater, Duncombe was taken to Morton Plant Hospital with symptoms of hypothermia. Butler said doctors told him Wednesday Duncombe had suffered a heart attack and was undergoing surgery.
"We're hoping the best for Clem," said Van Ness, the captain. "Outside of us, everything else can be replaced."
Once on the ground, the Coast Guard crew members scattered and returned to loved ones. One colored pictures with his 4-year-old son. Another partied with friends in Ybor City. Another hugged his bulldog Geronimo.
Each said he was happy for a moment of rest far from New Orleans, the chaos, the lost children, the stranded mothers. Compared to that, rescuing four fishing buddies was easy.