PORT ARANSAS, Texas — Three Texas boaters missing for a week were reunited with their families early Sunday after they were found alive, sitting on top of their capsized catamaran 180 miles from land, the Coast Guard said.
The crew of the Affordable Fantasy spotted the men Saturday night off Port Aransas, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Renee Aiello.
Curtis Hall, 28, of Palacios; Tressel Hawkins, 43, of Markham; and James Phillips, 30, of Blessing, who owned the boat, were reported missing Aug. 22 after they left Matagorda, about 90 miles southwest of Houston, on a fishing trip.
Coast Guard officials said the men survived because they stuck with the boat, which capsized after it took on water and its pump failed. The men also rationed bubble gum and crackers and used a hose to suck fresh water out of the internal “washdown” tank.
“It’s not the cleanest, not the greatest, and it tasted like diesel,” Shane Phillips, wife of James Phillips, told reporters.
The men declined medical attention upon their return.
The Coast Guard had called off its search Friday after scouring 86,000 square miles of water without finding them. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack out in the Gulf of Mexico,” Aiello said late Saturday. “It’s obvious they had a will to survive, and they did it for seven days.”
