On the early morning of 25 February 2016 my crew and I were awakened by the Search and Rescue alarm. We were told there was a vessel taking on water by Atlantic beach. My crew and I put on our survival gear and headed out the door. We tried to go through our closest inlet but with the fogginess, low tide and really rough seas we couldn’t make it out so we decided to go through our western most inlet which was east rockaway inlet. We switched from a larger vessel to a smaller vessel and headed west.

When we got to the inlet, the conditions were the same if not worse. We decided to turn and around and keep a safe distance from danger while waiting for air support and further tasking. As soon as we turned around a wave took us surprise and capsized our vessel with no forgiveness. Everyone was able to get out of the vessel. After tackling waves outside of the vessel we were able to huddle up. As soon as we huddled I immediately told everyone to activate their PLBs. Everyone was cold and in shock so I took charge and activated my shipmates PLB. I couldn’t find mine for some reason and as soon as we made it to shore after swimming 200 yds I saw it wrapped around my leg I activated it then so that we could get some help. After walking for sometime we saw NY fire dept. I ran as fast as I could to get their attention. They assisted us and made sure the proper people were notified about our situation.