Few clues emerge on fate of teens missing on fishing trip [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Is there a thread about this already? I couldn't find it.

The kids have been gone for five days.

Few clues emerge on fate of teens missing on fishing trip

By Associated Press - Jul 28, 2015
BY MATT SEDENSKY

JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers endured a fourth night of an anxious search for two young Floridians born and bred as boaters who went missing on the high seas. ... The Coast Guard scoured an area the size of West Virginia with no sign of the boaters by early Tuesday. Petty Officer Anthony Soto said Tuesday that the search area remains 50 miles off the coast of Jacksonville and expands as far north as Savannah, Georgia, and as far south as Cape Canaveral.

The 14-year-old boys’ vessel was found capsized on Sunday morning. But relatives and friends of the teens were clinging to hope that the expertise they acquired boating and fishing in their short lives was enough to keep them alive while apparently lost in the Atlantic.

“This isn’t something that he’s new at,” said Carly Black, the mother of Austin Stephanos, in an interview with television station WPBF. “I think they feel better on the boat than they do on land.” ... The mother said she wouldn’t even “bat an eye” about the boys’ ability to survive at sea.
....

The ordeal began as a teenage summer adventure: The boys were last seen Friday afternoon buying $110 worth of fuel near Jupiter and were believed to have been heading toward the Bahamas. Thunderstorms and heavy rains were forecast in the Jupiter area later Friday afternoon. However, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor called it “typical South Florida weather” that didn’t provide an immediate answer to what happened to the teens.

Missing Florida teens' boat found overturned and empty

By Laila Kearney, Reuters on Jul 26, 2015 at 6:05 p.m.



14-year-olds Austin Stephanos (L) and Perry Cohen are showing in this handout provided by the United States Coast Guard in Miami, Florida, July 26, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. Coast Guard/Handout via Reuters

I think the youngest person to sail around the world alone was 17 years old. Hmmm: make that 16:

5 teens who have sailed around the world solo

He came close: Robin Lee Graham

Hey, he had a cat with him: