Five of my friends and I had decided to go about 60 miles offshore of Savannah to fish the Navy Towers. However, when we were about five miles short of the tower we heard the right engine begin to knock. The boat’s owner decided to raise the motor to check it out, but a spare prop sheared off the hydraulic steering fitting. This left us with no steering on all three motors. We tried to hand steer and use other methods for about three hours.

However, a strong storm began to close in on us and the waves began to pick up. After the call was made to set off the beacon, within four minutes a container ship was diverted towards our boat. Then, the storm began. After about thirty minutes the storm let up, and ten minutes later we saw a Coast Guard helicopter flying towards us. It stayed on site with us talking VHF radio for about forty minutes before sending a Coast Guard Small Boat to tow us back. About two hours later, the boat arrived to begin the five hour tow back. The rescue made it on local Savannah nightly news and the newspaper as well.