It seem just like an ordinary day for 3 fishermen who were planning an over night fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico. It can be a lot of fun to go deep sea fishing, but not sure I would want to at night. Being on a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico after the sun has went down sounds like a scary fishing trip to me. It would be really scary for the 3 fishermen that made their 1 night fishing trip; turn into an 8 day survival trip on the high seas in the Gulf of Mexico.

The 3 men were from Texas and their names are Tressel Hawkins, James Philips, and Curtis Hall that decided to take that fishing trip on Friday August 21st. I think all 3 men figured they would be spending Saturday night back in their homes with some fish in the freezer and a nice little tan or sunburn. That wasn’t the case when the boat started to take on water that night and soon it would cap-size and leave all 3 men clinging on for their lives. They made a really smart move when they saw that the boat was going to be useless to them and grabbed up some potato chips, crackers, bubble gum, and 3 gallons of fresh water.

I’m not sure the exact details or what was going through their minds, but I can guess what they were thinking. I’m sure when the sun came out on Saturday, they knew they would have to flag down a passing boat or get an airplane or helicopter to notice them from the air. The men did see oil rigs, boats, and even a helicopter from the Coast Guard, but nobody saw them. It must have been a terrible struggle for these 3 men and it would take 8 days before another boat would rescue them and bring help to their cap-sized boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Little food and water makes any situation a bad one and being in the salty waters couldn’t have helped any. One man had a swollen leg due to the jelly fish that were stinging him. The days were filled with hot, sun rays beaming down and all 3 men suffered terrible sunburns from being exposed to the sun’s rays each day. I can’t imagine the fears they had at night when you couldn’t see nothing and the chances of a big shark swimming by and having you for a late night snack.

This story is really incredible and its amazing the 3 men survived for 8 days. Even the Coast Guard gave up hope of finding these 3 stranded fishermen alive. I don’t know if I truly trust the whole story right now and it does make you doubt the survival effort. It truly is amazing if these 3 men survived on the food and amount of time they said they were trapped in the ocean. I’m sure a full investigation will be done on this survival story and we will get more details about the things these men had to endure over these 8 days. It’s a “movie of the week” story, if it does turn out to be true. I will look forward to watching this one on TV; when someone decides to turn this great-ending story into a movie.

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Tags: gulf of mexico

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