Don’t know how many heard about and/or followed the recent event in Cedar Key ….. but what took place is what is meant by “it takes a village”. Volunteers find missing 16-year-olds who disappeared paddleboarding near Cedar Key If you’re inclined read some of the discussions on the Cedar Keys in Our Eyes page on Facebook. Religion and political philosophy really didn’t matter this week.
I can't imagine what these girls went through. It was cold that night (50s here in St. Pete so probably 40s up there), on the water, on a paddle board (not even a proper boat).
It's amazing that they didn't suffer from exposure or anything. It didn't say but were they on two separate paddle boards or sharing one?
That would be awful. I know paddle boards are bigger than say a surf board but still, how would you be able to lay down on it? Maybe they lost their paddles and had to drift.
cousin lives in g'ville and was part of the search. those are some shallow, oystered up places. likely got caught in the wind in open water between the offshore key and downtown CK and tired out and likely sat down and rode it until they got close enough to shore. smart to not fight it. found almost due west of CK Son and I pulled a paddleboarder out of ten thousand islands about two months ago. he rode the tide and wind out, couldn't get back. never ride the tide out on any sort of manually propelled craft. paddleboarders often underestimate the wind too. reminds me of hiking the grand canyon. so many get in trouble because hiking down is easy. they go until they get tired and then oops...rescue me please. of the four times we have hiked in the canyon, two north, two south, we saw people getting assisted or helped people trying to get back up every time at home, we fish in passes that have solid tidal flows in areas close to where kayak rentals are. someone in trouble practically every weekend but especially on full moons and strong tides.
I had a cousin who drowned in a boating accident off Cedar Key back in 1982. Him and 4 others were in the water for 4 days before the coastguard helicopter found them. Jim died just hours before the chopper found them. Actually he wasn't my cousin his wife was. She won a law suit against the Levy county sheriffs office because there was a delay after they were reported missing and the search was launched.
I have fished that area for 50 years. Nothing to play around with and for sure not somewhere you venture out on a paddleboard. The shallow Gulf can look calm and tame but it is far from it. One good thunderstorm or just the tides like in this case can take you out to no mans land.
Me too. My father was born in Cedar Key and my mother in Otter Creek. Spent many days on the islands from the early 60s through 2017, when we sold the family homestead. We fished the area from Waccasassa Bay to the south channel of the Suwannee ….. countless hours drifting flats and sloughs for trout and the occasional tarpon, channel markers for cobia and a rare triple tail, chasing mackerel on Seahorse Reef, and had so many honey holes for reds couldn’t keep track of them. Caught a really nice king on the old bombing range reef many years ago. Got smashed by a leaping sturgeon while kayaking near Gomez hole at the end of the #4 channel south of the old clam farms. Man, I miss that place. So many memories…. so many great times. But a place where you learned the tides and respected the weather. My wife and I pulled 4 people from the water (we were in our 20’ Proline coming back from Corrigans reef) on the 4th July weekend in 1985 after they ditched their plane a just off (ENE) of Atsena Otie ….. just off the Big Dock. Thankfully, everyone was okay.
