2 Former Bucs, 2 Ex-USF Players Missing In Gulf

Two former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and two former USF football players are presumed missing in the Gulf of Mexico after failing to return home from a Saturday fishing trip. Based on data from the NOAA Buoy 42036 106nm WNW of Tampa, it looks like conditions during Saturday were moderate (10-15kts with seas around 3ft) but started to build late Saturday afternoon from the SSW and shifted northwesterly Saturday evening with a frontal passage reaching over 25kts during the early morning hours of Sunday and up to 34kts with gusts to 40kts and seas 10-15ft by midday Sunday.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/01/coast-guard-searching-4-missing-boaters/news-metro/

It’s starting to look like only one made it…soo far…:frowning:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9280632/Report:-NFL-player’s-boat-found;-at-least-1-survivor?MSNHPHCP&GT1=39002
Those were big guys and big waves for a 21 foot boat.

T

According to the news reports the boat capsized around 5pm on Saturday. The data from NOAA Buoy 42036 indicates that the wind prior to 5pm was SW’ly at 5-10kts but around 5 pm it increased and backed SSW-S at 16-18kts. At the time the waves were 3-4 ft and did not increase much until later that night.