This from another board going through the same critique of the incident and written by one of the actual Coasties on the mission. I hope he will not mind me cross posting here and I will also extend my thanks for him and the USCG who will always go in harms way for any of us.
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Hello, I cannot speak of anything official but it appears you all have valid concerns about what happened. Understand we all take our job very seriously. Never hesitate to call the Coast Guard, if we can we will come. And we will always do all we can as we did here. Thank you for your praise and I wish we could have been more sucessful we will NEVER leave anyone behind if there are options left. I'm glad they had an
EPIRB, but please always have
survival suits on board along with every other piece of safety gear you can think of. I've never witnessed seas that angry and it reminds me why I have no desire to spend much time out to sea. I am amazed that you have the courage to, amazing how diverse our interests as humans are. Thanks for reading.