We were out offshore fishing about 60 miles out of Freeport Texas, on the way back we had engine failure.  We tried to use the VHF to hail the coast guard and/or any other boats in the area.  The VHF was silent for about 4 hours, sent a distress call adrift over the VHF, it has an automatic resend of the distress call every 3 min.  After that time we decided to shoot flairs and hang the distress flag.  There were no other boats in sight.  We then proceeded to activate the epirb, because no cell signal, no response on VHF and no one around.  The coast guard helo showed up some time later and that was first communication in about 6 hours.

Some time later the coast guard small boat showed up and had a mechanic jump on board, we could not get engines running.  Coast guard could not get VHF signal out either, was told we were in a dead zone.  The only way they were able to find us was the EPIRB.  So thankful that the guys at the Miami Boat Show talked me in to getting one.  It could have been a really bad situation without the Epirb.  I also want to say thank you to the US coast guard, they were so professional and did an outstanding job.