Coast Guard Saves 4 off Dragger

[Tamaroa]

Coast Guard rescues 4 from sinking dragger
By SARAH MARTINEAU, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD -- Local fishing vessel owner Carlos Rafael paced the floor, smoked two packs of cigarettes and drank a gallon of orange juice early yesterday as he waited for word about a crew of his in danger.
Mr. Rafael said he paced for the next 90 minutes while a Coast Guard helicopter plucked the Lady Patricia's four-man crew, one by one, from a life raft in 15-foot seas about 30 miles east of Monomoy Island, according to Coast Guard personnel.
At 1:40 a.m., the helicopter crew radioed that all four men were safe.
"It was a lifetime waiting for that phone call," he said. "It could have been a lot worse. I could have lost men and I didn't."
The crew had lost its battle against 15-foot seas, high winds and water flooding a rear compartment, Mr. Rafael said.
When water flooded the deck, the men decided to abandon Lady Patricia, he said.
The $750,000 vessel sank with 35,000 pounds of haddock on board, a catch valued at $35,000, Mr. Rafael said.
The Coast Guard received a distress call about midnight yesterday, according to Petty Officer Andrew Shinn.
Capt. Armando Silva, Antonio Pedro, Jose Soares and Joao Bernardo threw on survival suits and jumped into a life raft, he said.
"These guys were prepared, and it saved their lives," Petty Officer Shinn said. "During the (voluntary) dockside exam (on Dec. 3), the Coast Guard officer who helped them out helped them put the survival suits on correctly. It was critical."
The Coast Guard helicopter hovered over the boat about 30 minutes after the emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, was activated -- a response time Mr. Rafael called "excellent service."
Nearby Coast Guard vessels from Nantucket and Woods Hole stood by, along with the local vessel Let It Ride, in case the helicopter needed assistance, Petty Officer Shinn said.
The Coast Guard flew the men to Air Station Cape Cod, where they were examined and released, according to Coast Guard personnel.
The men suffered mild hypothermia, but otherwise escaped uninjured, according to the Coast Guard.
Mr. Rafael picked the men up early yesterday and took them for mandatory drug and alcohol tests at St. Luke's Hospital, he said.
"It could have been a horror show," Mr. Rafael said yesterday. "You can always replace steel but you can't replace lives."
The men were on their way home with a substantial load of fish they had caught in 20 hours, he said.
Lady Patricia was a shrimper out of Louisiana when Mr. Rafael bought the vessel six years ago and refitted it as a dragger, he said.
Mr. Rafael owns more than a dozen New Bedford-based vessels, as well as Carlos' Seafood, a fish-processing plant.

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