The Huffington Post is reporting that American tourists on an annual July 4 fishing trip were plunged into the Gulf of California in the middle of the night after a flash storm upended their boat, The Eric, killing at least one U.S. man and leaving seven others missing.
The Mexican navy said late Monday that it will extend the search area for survivors after meeting with various rescue agencies, despite earlier reports that they were considering turning their efforts to recovering bodies nearly two days after the early-Sunday-morning accident.
By early Monday, 19 of the tourists and all 16 crew members had been picked up by the navy or other fishing boats after clinging to coolers, rescue rings and life vests for more than 16 hours.
The boat capsized less than 2 miles (3 kilometers) from shore, but the navy extended its search 60 miles (100 kilometers) deeper into the Gulf later Monday after scouring the area by helicopter and airplane and finding nothing, Pineda said.
Most of the 27 men are from Northern California and had made the trip before, eating gourmet dinners on board every night and coming home with ice chests full of fish.
Charles Gibson, a police officer with the Contra Costa Community College District, said people on the boat were awoken by other passengers and the crew as it began to sink.
Mariana Martinez reports that most "were in the water for over 16 hours," said Gibson, who gone on the fishing trip twice before. "We hope that the information is getting to our families that we are here and that we survived." It is also being reported that the dock was closed because of bad weather but the captain of the boat took it out anyway.
For some reason, people tend to think that they are invincible. Unfortunately for the crew and tourists, this wasn't the case. If the dock was closed and boats were not supposed to go out, then why do it anyway? Sadly, seven people may have lost their lives over a poor decision.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
In other news: Candorville: You See Right Through Me.