TEARS OF JOY
Whitehouse relieved as 3 fishermen missing since last Wednesday found before hurricane
Published:Wednesday | July 3, 2024 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Three men who set off from Whitehouse Fishing Village in Westmoreland last Wednesday and were out of contact for a week have been found alive after becoming stranded when their boat ran out of gas.
There was jubilant shouting as news of their impending return spread on Tuesday, with some relatives shedding tears of joy.
“A fisherman called and tell me that they found them and I spoke to my son and just broke down into tears,” said Maxine Venner, mother of Larry Gordon.
Venner, whose husband Greg held her as she became overcome by emotions, said the sound of her son’s voice for the first time in several days had put her heart at ease.
“He said they are coming home and I started to cry,” she said, while giving thanks to her God.
“This feeling that I now have is hard to explain. It is ‘unexplainable’, and I am just giving God all the praise and glory for answering my prayers and for keeping my son alive,” Venner told The Gleaner.
She said that despite news of the approaching Hurricane Beryl, she never lost hope that her 37-year-old son would return before the weather system made landfall.
Gordon, a resident of Gordon district in Whitehouse, his 29-year-old friend Fitzroy Foster, also of Gordon District, and a third fisherman, known only by his alias ‘Dutty Money’, left the Whitehouse Fishing Village, departed from Whitehouse Fishing Village last Wednesday, intending to embark on a routine fishing trip to the Pedro Cays. Concerns arose when they failed to return within the expected timeframe.
SEARCH MISSION
A search and rescue mission was initiated on Sunday, but unfortunately the team of fisherfolk returned empty-handed.
Despite not locating the three men, Captain Cephas Reynolds told The Gleaner that he believed they were alive because it was almost impossible for their boat to sink.
“My judgement is that they were still on the water floating, but they had probably run out of gas or their anchor probably could not reach the bottom of the ocean floor at the time, therefore the current would keep them moving into the Cayman Islands or Mexico region,” Reynolds said, hours before the missing fisherfolk made contact with their relatives.
He said that when they went in search of the men, the weather was bad and that the gasolene would not allow them to venture into those waters and return to Whitehouse without encountering difficulties, so the team aborted the search.
The men were rescued on Tuesday by a passing vessel and were on their way back to shore yesterday evening.
NOT A FISHERMAN
Tanisha Parchment said her cousin – Foster – is not a fisherman but decided to go on the fishing expedition with his friend, Gordon.
“This would be the third time that he was going out on the high seas,” she disclosed.
“I know they were not dead; they had drifted. My greatest fear not hearing from my cousin and his friends was the coming of Hurricane Beryl,” she told The Gleaner.
According to her, the men revealed that they ran out of gas along the journey, having taken a slightly different path from their lead boat, which reached the Pedro Cays without them in sight.
She said that the men said that they were forced to anchor their boat to a fish pot to survive and when their food and water ran out, they started to drink the sea water.
“I am feeling very happy that they are alive and are on their way home,” she said.