Nothing to give you a break over. The story just sounded suspicious. But after reading what Moondogg posted about paradoxical undressing, it makes sense.
I want you to imagine just just holding onto your desk for 24 hours in normal conditions. If you let go once you die. Think of how hard that would be do, not physically at first, but mind numbing. Eventually you get sleepy, but still, you have to hold on or die. Now imagine that exercise in water, being cold, waves slamming into you, the thought of sharks eating you (whether real or not you know you'd worry) plus natural sea issues that people have (fear of not seeing land, see sickness, etc.) plus dehydration, plus salt water in your mouth...the physical exhaustion ALONE would be enough to cause most people to let go. Add in all the other factors, and I think it's very impressive that one of them managed to hold on the whole time.
I'm not going to rule out anything, but why is it suspicious? If you just think logically, there is very little reason to suspect foul play. What type of superman would he have to be to flip a boat in those rough waters, kill three other adult men and cling for life for as long as he did? And then what type of crazy person would he have to be to take the chance that he wasn't just going to die in the water? There was an airplane crash recently in which people survived (pilots didn't.) I wonder if a passenger intentionally made the plan crash because he wanted to kill the pilots and he knew he'd make it... SUSPICIOUS.
This makes me so mad! If they just could have held on to the boat for a bit longer! Damn man. Again, this really blows...
Thinking logically, why did they take off their life jackets? I'm just basing it off that story. That made it sound suspicious to me.But that was before I heard or knew about paradoxical undressing, it makes more sense now. Anyways RIP.
Because the first two gave up hope. According to the survivor the last one took his life jacket off to get help because he thought he saw someone that could help them. I could easily see someone giving up, I know I probably would. At that time you are probably thinking the worst things.
Maybe, doctors say it is a miracle the one man survived. I was watching "I Shouldn't be alive" on Discovery a couple of years ago. There was a very similiar situation on there. A boat sank, and about 6 people were in a relatively safe inflatable raft. 2 people just walked off the raft into shark-filled waters because they just couldn't deal with the uncertainty of the situation. They had lost all hope. So the idea of them taking off their jackets and allowing themselves to die isn't so bizarre. I do want to see a picture of a similiar boat that they were on. I am having a hard time picturing the size of it.
Professional athletes are ALL muscle ...which means they don't float. On top of that, these are big dudes. Holding onto a boat for an extended period of time is more difficult for these guys than your average person.
Is this an example of survival of the fittest and natural selection? Was the guy who survived mentally stronger than the others? Did he have something in his genetics that allowed him to survive and not give up? This is going to be an interesting story for years to come and this guy will probably get a book/movie deal to tell this story.
He probably will, but the story has been done. There was the film about that couple in Australia (true story) that survived at sea and dealt with sharks. Open Water was another one. If it weren't NFL players involved, there would be no need for another movie.
I believe I saw that episode and I think you misrepresented it. The episode is titled "Shark Survivor" and the 2 people that walked off the raft didn't do so because of any uncertainty of the situation. They did so because they were dehydrated, chose to drink sea water, and were experiencing psychosis/hallucinations. They didn't walk off the raft into shark-filled waters because hope was lost. The two that did survive did not drink sea water and held on in the raft until they were rescued.
So, they basically took off their life vests and probably sank to their drowning death probably really soon thereafter. They were probably hypothermic and exhausted at that point. So, the search of all those square miles was pretty much in vain and a waste of time after they found the one guy.
A little longer? If I'm understanding correctly, they let go after a few hours, and the survivor held on for like 40 hours after that before he was rescued.
