Three days later, the Coast Guard received an emergency beacon alert from the boat and sent aircraft and a cutter to search the area. Nearby ships were also asked to assist.

So he was fine the whole time.

EPIRBs are mandatory on any vessel (useful on land too). They’re extremely tough, last year’s (though need to be replaced every decade), and are registered to the owner and vessel on databases shared globally. Activating one is as simple as flicking a covered switch, then holding in a button for 10s.

Fun fact: Don’t keep one in your 4×4 when locally camping with drinking buddies. A “What’s this?” followed by panic and people throwing it around and playing with it almost cost me a €20,000 fine. Friends did not believe me it’s a serious criminal offence until I started recording them as possible evidence to save my arse if they fired it.

It’s registered to my 4×4 which often goes into very remote and rugged regions that can have bad weather, but gets switched to marine vessel when used for those trips.

“Rescued”. I’d be so mad.

Happy they’re safe. Good work, rescuers!

the formatting and repetition suck …

Not only repetition but the paragraphs are pasted out of order. This article is incoherent.