Sportfishing Boat Skipper Honored After Rescue At Sea

Wonderful story from last week after a sportfishing boat’s captain and crew picked up a drifting boat. New-Lo Ann Sportfishing Capt. Markus Medak was on a charter trip when he acted quickly to assist a drifting boat of migrants off the San Diego coast.

Here’s more from San Diego’s 10 News:

“Had a stop where we caught a few nice fish,” he explained. “And right after we wrapped off that stop I knew there was one other boat in the area, and I looked around in the area to see where his lights were,” said Captain Medak. “And I could see a couple of dim lights away from us.”

Those lights came from the 25 passengers aboard a panga-style boat, which was stranded for three days. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, there were a total of 23 Mexican nationals and two people from Guatemala. All those on the boat were later transferred into the custody of US Customs and Border Protection.

Captain Medak shared that when he saw the stranded individuals, he could barely make them out due to rough conditions at sea.

“I feel really fortunate that we found them when we did. And I think one more night it would have had a tragic ending, and I feel that pretty strongly.”