A buddy of mine asked to borrow some fishing gear for a trip on a friend’s new boat. They planned to head 100 miles offshore to the floating rigs in search of tuna, leaving just after sundown on Friday night.

After some convincing, I was able to persuade him to take my ditch bag. It included a ResQLink VIEW RLS and a satellite communicator, just in case they encountered any trouble.

Yesterday, my wife and I planned a quick afternoon trip to Sand Island, one of Mississippi’s barrier islands. We both left our cell phones behind and walked a couple of miles along the coastline. We returned around noon and found several missed calls from both the Coast Guard and my mother, who is the emergency contact for the EPIRB and satellite communicator.

The Coast Guard out of New Orleans informed me that both devices had been activated! They were looking for more information about the vessel and its occupants. I only knew the model of the boat. My wife and I quickly scrambled. We began to call and text every mutual friend we could think of. Eventually, we got a list of five names along with an emergency contact number.

The Mobile Coast Guard was preparing to launch both an aircraft and a vessel to provide assistance. They told us the boat was approximately two hours away. Since we were already on a boat and located just over 40 miles from their last known GPS position. We figured we could reach them within an hour. Despite low fuel for a 100-mile round trip, we decided to go, uncertain of the emergency’s nature.

With the help of radio contact from a circling Coast Guard plane, we located the twin-engine boat, which was dead in the water. One battery had failed violently, and when it did, it took out the second battery, leaving them without VHF radio communication 54 miles from the boat launch. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard vessel, which had an estimated two-hour arrival time, experienced mechanical issues and had to return to Dauphin Island.

I ended up pulling the battery from my port motor to give to them and rewired both of my motors to run off the starboard battery. We managed to get their boat started, and they followed us back into the Mississippi Sound.

I recalled reading a chilling story a few months ago about a similarly sized vessel that sank within 20 miles of the location where my friend had been stranded. They had a borrowed PLB on board, which everyone agreed had saved their lives. I’m incredibly thankful that my friend and his crew were not in the water when we found them. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been to locate a boat with no communication 50 miles offshore or when the search might have even begun.

Working with the Coast Guard was a great experience. We found the stranded vessel with little difficulty, thanks to the aircraft. They were even able to drop a handheld VHF radio onto the boat to restore communication.

If you fish offshore or participate in any remote activities, buy an PLB/EPIRB. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use it, but if you do, it could be invaluable.