Thread: Tragedy in Mobile Bay

1 confirmed dead; four boaters unaccounted for after severe weather capsized boats at Dauphin Island Regatta | AL.com

At least one person has died after a patch of severe weather disrupted the Dauphin Island Regatta Saturday afternoon, leaving more than 100 sailors to struggle with harsh winds and rain.
At least one person was confirmed dead, said Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, but he did not know the cause.
"Apparently there were a number of vessels that became distressed, either capsized or what have you. They were scattered anywhere from Dauphin Island Bridge all the way out into Mobile Bay and across to Fort Morgan. It was a wide area," Collier said.
"When the storm came through the sailboats were in varying places -- all the way from Dauphin Island to Middle Bay Lighthouse."
Many needed to be pulled from the water after their boats capsized. The U.S. Coast Guard was still searching for several missing boaters around Mobile Bay Saturday evening.
Richard Mather, 52, of Mobile, was aboard a 39-foot O'Day sailboat along with a crew of seven people, when he saw two boats collide. They had heard about the forecast of thunderstorms, "but we were not prepared for a gale," Mather said, "which is almost like a 30-minute hurricane."
They were not participating in the race, and were able to pull three people onto the vessel about two miles north of the Dauphin Island Bridge. None of the people appeared injured. "They were exhausted but they were fine," he said. "Their boats sunk so fast that they didn't have time to grab life preservers."
Coast Guard officials said they responded to a report of multiple capsized vessels around 4:30 p.m. Two response boats, an airplane and two helicopters were deployed to search for the missing people.
"There wasn't a clear number how many people were in the water or missing," said Carlos Vega, a Coast Guard spokesperson. He said there were about 119 vessels and as many as 200 people participating in the race.
As of 11:40 p.m., four people were still unaccounted for, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The race was scheduled to start in the middle of the bay, north of the Middle Bay Lighthouse and east of the Mobile Bay Ship Channel. From there, they were to proceed to Dauphin Island, eventually ending the first leg of the course at the headquarters of the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.
Around 4 p.m., wind gusts as strong as 59 mph swept across areas of Fairhope, according to the National Weather Service. But forecasters predicted storms with the possibility of damaging winds around 60 mph in areas west of Interstate 65.

Update (to include 1st hand accounts):
1 confirmed dead; four boaters unaccounted for after severe weather capsized boats at Dauphin Island Regatta | AL.com

Battered by wind and rain
Kevin Maurin, a veteran of seven regattas, said he'll never forget this one.
Getting caught in a fast-moving storm packing hurricane-force winds out in the middle of Mobile Bay has a way of leaving such an indelible mark.
Maurin said he and seven others aboard a 30-foot Catalina sailboat were about 3 miles south-southwest of Middle Bay Light when one of the crew received an ominous phone call.
"It had been a beautiful day up to that point. We were having a good race and having a good time. Maybe two or three minutes before it hit us, we got a phone call warning us that it was headed our way," said Maurin, who is also president of this year's Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.
"They said it was headed our way. We had just enough time to check the radar and 'boom,' it was on top of us."

"It was that long before we could even start to see, just to get our bearings and get the boat back on course," he said. "I can't speak for what happened on any of the other boats, but I know what happened on our boat. It scared the hell out of me."It was shortly after 3 p.m when the storm's eastern edge slammed into the boat. For the next 15 or 20 minutes, Maurin said the vessel was battered by blinding rain, blown nearly horizontally across the bay's surface now roiled with abnormally large waves as the gale moved toward the Eastern Shore.
Maurin said one of the crew kept an eye on the boat's wind-speed gauge as the storm reached its peak. He credits the experience of boat captain Joseph Arbour with keeping his crew safe.
"If Joe hadn't have been our captain, I don't think we would have made it," Maurin sid. "He's my best friend in the world. I trust him with my life and never more than today.

'Boats all over the bay'
Capt. Glenn Kornegay, with the Baldwin County Marine Resources Enforcement Division, said he and a fellow Baldwin County officer pulled two people from the water about a mile south of the Theodore Industrial Canal Channel and Gaillard Island.
The man and woman were sailing the regatta on a 16-foot Catamaran when Kornegay said, the man told him the wind from the storm blew his female companion off the vessel.
The man jumped in after her, and Kornegay said that was the last time either saw the boat as the wind and waves quickly pushed it out of sight in the limited visibility caused by heavy rain and 4- to 5-foot seas. Both of them had on life jackets.
Luckily, the woman saved her Iphone even as she fell in the water and was able to contact the Coast Guard.
"She was actually on the phone with the Coast Guard and saw us before we saw her. She she told the Coast Guard to tell the boat with the blue lights on to turn due south and they'll run right over us," he said. "The Coast Guard contacted us and that's what we did."
Kornegay said the pair was in the water about 45 minutes. He said even as the Coast Guard called off the search at dark, he wasn't sure if anyone was left in the water.
Kornegay said it was such a huge event and was really confusing. "In no time there were search and rescue boats all over the bay," he said. "I pray to God that nobody's left out there."

Related story with first hand accounts:
Dauphin Island Regatta sailors share their experiences of a day when 'freaking hell broke loose' | AL.com

"It was a great day, everybody on the boat was having fun," Maurin said. "All of a sudden, within seconds, boom."

According to him, Arbour immediately ordered the boat's two sails lowered, which likely saved everyone from ending up in the water.
"As soon as they dropped, freaking hell broke loose," he said. "I was in the middle of it and it was terrible."

A similar move helped save the day for the crew of Tony Hines's 26.5-foot boat. Blown six miles off course by the wind and waves, about an hour from the finish line, Hines and company dropped their sheets and watched as their mast came very close to submerging, which could have sunk the boat.

And although it was at times at an 80-degree lean, the mast did not succumb, and after a while, the group decided to press on.
"Everybody on the boat was kind of frazzled," Hines said. "We just said, 'Well, we've got to get to dirt somewhere, so let's just go ahead and finish the race.'"
It took them 2.5 hours to finish.