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Father, son saved
after day at sea

They floated for 20 hours
after their fishing boat
capsized 10 miles offshore

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Luck.

It was the one thing that a Kaneohe father and son attribute to their surviving 20 hours floating in the ocean a few miles off Windward Oahu before being spotted by two boaters yesterday morning.

"We're fortunate God was with us," said Gerald Iseri, Jr. "If that brine bag (a Styrofoam container used to hold fish) hadn't popped when it did ... I don't think we could have swam all the way to shore."

Iseri, 33, and his father, Gerald Iseri, 62, had left the Heeia Kea boat ramp in Kaneohe at 5:30 a.m. Monday in their 24-foot white Seacraft boat, Ululani Elua, for what was supposed to be a routine day of trolling.

"We were coming home at around 2:30 p.m. after losing an ahi," said Iseri Jr., an engineer. "It was really windy and the waves were inconsistent."

About 10 miles outside of the Marine Corps Base at Kaneohe Bay a wave hit the back of the boat, capsizing it.

"It happened so fast. I couldn't grab the radio or anything else. ... We found ourselves in the water holding on to the bow lines."

For the next two hours the two ahi fishermen studied the currents and watched as the submerged boat slid toward Kahuku.

"We had to decide whether to stay with the boat or try to swim to shore. We had tried use the emergency radio beacon, but it was soaked and we couldn't turn it on."

Without anything to signal with, the two men decided to swim.

"We thought are chances for survival was pretty grim, hanging onto the boat without food and water and nothing to signal with. ...

"At times there were helicopters and planes flying overhead. ...We kept yelling, but no one saw us. It was like we were invisible."

Clinging to the 10-foot brine bag, the two were finally sighted by two boaters a mile off Kualoa Regional Park.

Iseri Jr. said there aren't enough words to express his gratitude for the searchers, the firefighters, the Coast Guard and park operators who aided in the search.

"When you go out into the deep ocean," he said, "you need to have everything on you to survive ... something to signal with, something to keep you afloat.

"It has to be on you. If it isn't, you just pray that you have some luck."