Missing kids in Fla

[Boatsb]

Any loss at sea is sad. The kids this week. The bounty. The titanic. It's all about blame when the press gets involved. Something has to sell ads for the news and most news people couldn't give a rats ass about the people involved as long as they get their name out there.

The kids didn't belong there for sure but that's not making the family feel better.

[foleyjt]

At 14 years of age I did not have access to a boat of any kind. I did however have a ten speed bike
and there were plenty of times friends and I took the bikes to destinations that were not sanctioned
by parents, not known to parents, and not necessarily safe. 14 year old boys will test the limits,
using whatever assets are available to them. Bottom line, this is not the time to blame anyone, but a time to pray for these two young men and their families. There is plenty of time to figure out
fault, but the families will never fully recover.

Let's pray for a miracle, cause at this point it seems like that is what it is going to take for a happy ending.

[jim rosenthal]

Agreed. I remember my friends and I taking off from Manhattan and just deciding to ride our bikes down to the ferry and go to Staten Island. We got home at 11 pm or so. My parents were not happy about it.

[Freeebird]

At 14 years of age I did not have access to a boat of any kind. I did however have a ten speed bike
and there were plenty of times friends and I took the bikes to destinations that were not sanctioned
by parents, not known to parents, and not necessarily safe. 14 year old boys will test the limits,
using whatever assets are available to them. Bottom line, this is not the time to blame anyone, but a time to pray for these two young men and their families. There is plenty of time to figure out
fault, but the families will never fully recover.

Let's pray for a miracle, cause at this point it seems like that is what it is going to take for a happy ending.

Amen!

For any of you who want to follow this on a minute by minute basis, check out this thread on The Hull Truth. Can't post if you're not a member, but you can read reports as they come in. Lots of folks are monitoring this one and providing real time information.

http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-...reward-82.html

[magnawake]

At 14 years of age I did not have access to a boat of any kind. I did however have a ten speed bike
and there were plenty of times friends and I took the bikes to destinations that were not sanctioned
by parents, not known to parents, and not necessarily safe. 14 year old boys will test the limits,
using whatever assets are available to them. Bottom line, this is not the time to blame anyone, but a time to pray for these two young men and their families. There is plenty of time to figure out
fault, but the families will never fully recover.

Let's pray for a miracle, cause at this point it seems like that is what it is going to take for a happy ending.

At 14 I bought my own jon boat. My Dad paid for the motor. I had a trolling motor and bass fished from our camp on the river. I spent most of the summer on the river. My parents worked and my grandmother drove me down to the river. I took her bream fishing and those were the best years of my entire life. At 15 we had our drivers license and drove my Dads truck pulling his bass boat hours away fishing all night. We grew up being given lots of responsibility. Apparently these kids were kinda in the same boat. However, they did text their friends and say we are heading to the Bahamas. Man, what a crazy thing to want to do. What can you expect from a kid 14 yrs old. Thats something I would have done if I had access to the ocean. I must say I was crazy and very lucky to be alive. I know now God must have been looking out for me. Now I hope God is with these young boys.

[Freeebird]

I had my first boat at age 10 with no restrictions on where or how far I could go. You can only get into so much trouble with a 12' jon boat and a 3HP Evinrude with a 6 ounce integral tank, but there was plenty of opportunity for disaster.

I never will forget being in a boat that belonged to a friend's dad who had just replaced a 40HP Johnson with a 75HP McCullough on a 14' Larson runabout. It seems his dad was pretty upset that I was able to outrun him with my fourth boat, another 12' jon boat with a 9.8 Mercury. We were around 15 and had permission to take it for a "spin", and we were just cruising down the river in that thing while my buddy was gently steering from port to starboard and back, just enjoying the moment at speeds (35 or so) we had never seen before.

All of a sudden, the boat went sideways! You haven't lived until you've seen a 75 McCullough running alone across the top of the water and headed right toward where you are sitting! That sucker came off the transom and tried to jump back in the boat with us! Luckily the steering and control cables kept it from visiting the bottom of the river, but we were never allowed to run that boat again... even though his dad was obviously at fault since he mounted the thing. No, I didn't point that out.

Man, I just hope to God they find these kids. Seeing that old guy's Hatt go up in flames was bad enough, but at least money can fix that. Losing those boys can't be fixed.

[rsmith]

Going on 5days now gota figure they're gone. Talking to one of my old mates last night down in Boca he was saying the water has been unusually cold due to some up swelling currents. Said its been flat out every day too. Those of us that live here know the afternoon thunder bumpers are pretty much brief and normally isolated. Waterspout maybe? It will be all speculation. The fact that the motor cover was off there's a good chance that they broke down and just fell off trying to fix the motor. The boat will drift way faster than anyone can swim. Moral here is to do everything you can to stay with the boat. I think a lot of us on here that did crazy stuff on the water as kids can say there but for the grace of God go I.

[rsmith]

https://www.roffs.com/2015/07/roffs-...july-28-2015/#

[rsmith]

Ok soap box time. IMHO bare feet flip flops crocks or any other inappropriate foot ware have no business on your feet when on a boat. I've seen my fair share of people slip fall trip on boats. Every year when I was a kid the old man took me down to IG Goldberg's the only boating store in Philly at the time and bought me a pair of new topsiders. Not the fancy leather ones but the canvas Gilligan kind.

[saltshaker]

I have two young boys who I know will be boating solo shortly. This story has been very difficult for me to follow. I can't begin to imagine what the families are going through. I will say it is great to see many here comment on how we made some bad choices as kids. Blaming the kids or thier parents won't change a thing. I know there's a lot of things I did as a kid that could have ended badly for me or friends involved. All of us thought we were invincible at that age. Scott said it best, "I think a lot of us on here that did crazy stuff on the water as kids can say there but for the grace of God go I."