I think the sheer vastness is hard to comprehend for most people.
The square miles that have to be covered is unimaginable.
It is literally a needle in a haystack type of thing.
The searchers try to estimate where to look using estimated drift maps and current but it is still just a best guess and means a very large area is involved. Many square miles and trying to find a small object bobbing along with the white caps is very difficult.
If you have ever flown over portions of the Atlantic you get a sense of how difficult the task is.
I never quite understood the word "vast" until one particular hunting trip I went on years ago. We had hiked for miles in the deep woods and it was a really neat trip. When we were at our campsite someone brought out a map and showed us where we were and how far we had walked. It was at that moment was the first time I finally understood what vast meant.
On the map, we had only walked just a tiny tiny section about 1/2 inch long and the woods on the map covered the entire page.
It wouldn't be super easy to swim there after being out in the ocean without food for a week...why not cling to the buoy if that's someone there? More likely debris IMO, sadly..
It's definitely something. This is not just breaking waves, there is some color and odd shapes. Something is floating there, but of course it might just be completely unrelated debris. Oceans are full of debris.
From my brother the fisherman:
The boys were in a 19ft Sea Craft which has a notably low transom.
He said the type of boat wouldn't matter though at 19ft against 8 foot waves crashing 2-3 minutes apart.
A nightmare, really...
Did your brother say anything to you about how much of a risk sharks are to humans out in open water? Maybe you know? (I noticed your location.)
The location of the buoy-![]()
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I'll get you the links for the original 2 sets of pics from 2:10p and 3:10p.
2:10p
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/buoycam/Z13A_2015_07_30_1810.jpg
3:10p
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/buoycam/Z13A_2015_07_30_1910.jpg
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I saw the original post when it was made, I pointed this out to the group, which got ignored in favor of altering the color in other pictures to look like something we didn't originally see.
This is the original picture I saw and pointed out.![]()
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