Fishermen stranded off Gulf Coast say locator beacon made in Fort Lauderdale led to their rescue

July 27, 2024

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – A group of fishermen said their rescue off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi was possible in large part thanks to some high-tech help made in South Florida, and they had the chance to see where the life-saving device was created.

Easton Barrett, one of the boaters who was stranded on Memorial Day weekend, made a kinda goodbye video to loved ones (and later added music from the film “Titanic”) after the boat he and his friends were on sank off the Mississippi coast while participating in a fishing tournament.

“Well, the boat sank. No bueno, love you all.,” he is heard saying in the video.

He and several of the other boaters spoke with 7News on Friday about their hours-long ordeal.

“As soon as we turned around, we realized that the boat was definitely taking on a significant amount of water,” said Connor Smith, another of the rescued boaters.

The boaters were in the water for five hours, far off the coast, before the Coast Guard rescued them.

On Friday, they visited the facility where the gadget that helped save their lives was created: ACR Electronics in Fort Lauderdale.

“These are the best things you can have on a boat,” said Smith.

It’s called a personal locator beacon, or PLB, and on Friday, the rescued men toured the facility where it was made.

“A lot of tears being shed, but happy tears,” said Mikele D’Arcangelo with ACR Electronics..

“I was afraid that we weren’t gonna make it,” said Barrett.

“Probably the first hour and a half, two hours, we was cramping,” said Dusty Sledge, another of the rescued boaters.

All of the men said they never thought about getting this kind of device.

“You don’t think about this kinda stuff, you think about beer on the boat, you think about the radios, you’re thinking about everything else,” said Barrett. “You’re not thinking about an or a PLB on a boat at the time.”

“This is more important than all that. You need life vests, for sure, and you need flares. Overall, if you’ve got anything to float on on a boat, a cooler or something, and you’ve got one of these, you’re going to get found,” said Stephen Maulding, another of the rescued boaters.

But there’s another hero here: Sarah Lowery, the girlfriend who gave the locator to her boyfriend at the last minute.

“I had to convince him to take it. I didn’t have to convince hard, but I was just like, ‘Here, stick it in your bag, it’s a great – you know, it’ll be fine,’ and he was like, ‘OK,’” she said.

“The Coast Guard tried to take it off my hands when we got in the boat. I said, ‘It ain’t coming off!’” said Maulding.

The men had a word of advice for other boaters.

“Get one. Don’t be stupid, get one,” said Barrett.

The locator beacon works by itself, and no subscription is needed to use it.