Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Rescued boaters A three-hour cruise to Molokai and back.
in high spirits
The men, 33 and 40, said they
and the dog, Lucky, could have
lasted 10 days if necessaryBy Harold Morse
Star-BulletinThat's all it was so Tom Zelko discarded thoughts of bringing along an emergency radio beacon, which can show the position of a missing boat to rescuers.
He won't leave it behind next time.
The cruise on the 15-foot Boston Whaler turned into a four-day drift after the powerboat ran out of gas on the way back to Oahu.
Zelko and boat owner Ian Buscher of Kailua survived by sharing a Pop-Tart a day, a beer in the morning and a can of juice at night. Their only water was from half a bag of melted ice. They also had to ration their limited supply of dog food for Buscher's Labrador retriever, Lucky.
In high spirits after being checked at Castle Medical Center last night, Buscher, 33, and Zelko, 40, said they could have lasted 10 days or more.
They were spotted in the boat about 3:10 p.m. yesterday from a Navy P-3 airplane about 50 miles northwest of Kahuku and lifted into a Seahawk helicopter about 5 p.m., ending four days of searching.
The Coast Guard received word the two were overdue about 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Searches were carried out by Coast Guard C-130 aircraft, Coast Guard helicopters and Civil Air Patrol aircraft, joined on Tuesday by the Navy P-3The two men and the dog left Kailua about 8 a.m. Sunday. Buscher called his wife by cellular phone from Molokai two hours later to say they'd crossed the channel safely and would be back by noon, the Coast Guard said. Buscher said the cell phone did not work in the middle of the ocean.
John Mariner, Zelko's brother-in-law, said the powerboat ran out of gas Sunday as the boaters zig-zagged in heavy fog searching for land somewhere off Makapuu Point.
A Coast Guard patrol boat was to retrieve the powerboat.
The men's wives, along with some close friends, were elated at Coast Guard headquarters after confirmation of the rescue, but both wives said they were always sure their husbands would be found safe.
"We never doubted it for a second," said Tracy Buscher.
The rescued men are very seaworthy and had made the Molokai cruise several times together; finding them was just a matter of time, she said.
"The ocean is their playground," she said.
The ocean is their life, chimed in Terry Zelko, who earlier had admitted a feeling of helplessness waiting for word.
"It's not something I would ever wish to happen to anyone else," she said.
Both wives praised friends who helped the Coast Guard make search calculations and who arranged for Civil Air Patrol aircraft to aid in the search.
Chris Haddy, 21, was the U.S. Navy rescuer who jumped into the sea yesterday to help save the two men and Lucky.
"It was a very cool thing, to be part of the rescue, to save someone's life," Haddy said enthusiastically. "It feels good."
When word came that the boaters had been located, the squadron moved into action, Haddy said.
The survivors were spotted in their boat, which was adrift but still afloat and right-side up.
"I dropped into the water and we started picking them up in a rescue strap" which goes around the chest, Haddy said. "We picked them up and put them up into the helicopter."
The Navy P-3 that spotted the boat was piloted by Lt. Erin Osborne of Patrol Squadron 9 based at Kaneohe. She had Lt. Cmdr. Greg Harris, in charge of the Navy search, aboard.
Editor Lucy Young-Oda contributed to this story.