Catamaran crew rescues fishermen
Five men were pulled from choppy ocean waters off Boynton Beach on Saturday morning after their fishing boat sank about four miles offshore.
The cause of the sinking? A marlin, which yanked on a hook until the boat started taking on water, according to one of the men.
The captain and crew of a passing 55-foot charter catamaran saw the five men bobbing in the water and plucked them from the sea before handing them over to the U.S. Coast Guard, which arrived on the scene shortly after the rescue.
The Coast Guard said it received a call about 9:24 a.m. that a 31-foot pleasure craft with five people aboard was rapidly taking on water.
Palm Breeze charter Capt. Charles Mount, Elena Markel and her 13-year-old daughter Stefania were returning to Boca Raton from a charter trip when they overheard the Coast Guard talking to one of the distressed men on the radio.
“One of the guys said they were sinking and it happened by the Breakers [hotel],” Elena Markel said. “We had just passed there, then suddenly the captain started screaming, ‘Elena, drop the sails down.’”
The men were clinging to the sinking boat. The catamaran moved closer and lifejackets were thrown to the men, who swam to the catamaran and climbed aboard. By then, their boat was completely submerged.
Once on the deck of the Palm Breeze, one of the men said they had been fishing and hooked a big blue marlin that pulled their boat backward and it took on water and sank.
The Coast Guard sent a helicopter and a 45-foot emergency response boat from the station at Lake Worth Inlet. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers joined the rescue effort.
“Then the Coast Guard came over and transferred the men to the Coast Guard boat,” Markel said.
The men were taken to the Lake Worth Inlet Coast Guard station. Their identities were not immediately available but there were no reports of injuries. They were in the water for more than 30 minutes, Markel estimated.
The charter trip was supposed to be one day and the catamaran was scheduled to return to Boca Raton on Friday. But Markel said they stayed overnight in Palm Beach after going to a friend’s lobster party.
“If we had not stayed that night we would have missed the rescue,” she said. “Maybe it was meant to be.”
Markel had taken Stefania along on the overnight trip because it was Take Your Child to Work Day, she said.
“What an experience for her,” Markel said. “I told her, ‘Now you’ll have the best story to tell, ever, about working with your mom.’ ”