Episodes

  • She Sent "OK" and Vanished: How a Single Ping Misled a Rescue for Days

    She Sent "OK" and Vanished: How a Single Ping Misled a Rescue for Days
    28 Oct 2026
    She Sent "OK" and Vanished: How a Single Ping Misled a Rescue for Days

    A single-word satellite ping - “OK” - sent at 23:17 after a 41-knot squall redirected search teams 60 miles offshore while its sender drifted stranded near shore; how could one button press hide a four-day survival story? What did that silent message conceal about Laura Harrison’s choices and the equipment that failed her?

    In this episode, you’ll hear the sequence of events from the moment a 32-foot sloop arrived at Portaverde Municipal Marina unattended to the hours after a night knockdown left sails in the water and a crucial radio flooded. We trace Laura Harrison’s routine, the last satellite ping, and the decisions that sent rescuers looking the wrong way - and ask whether protocols and small habits can cost lives.

    Person: Laura Harrison
    Date: April 6-9, 2019
    Location: Gulf of Mexico / Portaverde Municipal Marina
    Event: Satellite messenger “OK” ping at 23:17 after knockdown
    Investigator: Denise Wagner

    - 06:54 on April 9, 2019: Dean Carter found the 32-foot sloop Mara Jean in a slip with engine running, two fried eggs still warm in a pan, and a steaming coffee mug on the chart table.
    - April 6, ~22:40: A squall line produced sustained winds of 41 knots and caused a knockdown on the Mara Jean; the boom fitting (gooseneck) sheared off.
    - 23:17 on April 6: The satellite messenger sent a single “OK” status ping - the device logs coordinates and transmits “OK” without asking for details.
    - Harrison had 17 years of solo passages and had crossed the Gulf four times by 2019, carrying flares, a life raft, two handheld radios, a satellite messenger, and a Type One life jacket.
    - The misplaced search effort spent two days looking approximately 60 miles offshore while Harrison spent four days on a dredged sand spit near shore.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min
  • The Laminate That Saved Two Lives: Drifted, Dried, and Discovered

    The Laminate That Saved Two Lives: Drifted, Dried, and Discovered
    27 Oct 2026
    The Laminate That Saved Two Lives: Drifted, Dried, and Discovered

    A dry, laminated veterinary vaccination card washed ashore after drifting through six inches of moving saltwater and led to the rescue of two people adrift 2.5 miles offshore; how did a small card survive a failed dry bag and a storm that pushed a dinghy thirty-eight miles from shore? What chain of events started when Ruth Griffin found a bone-dry card at the 2.25-mile mark south of Pelican Flats?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the March 2019 survey that went wrong, describe the people, gear failures, and weather that turned a routine seagrass survey into a search and rescue, and trace how a laminated card reconnected those adrift with shore - can one small object change a rescue's outcome?

    Person: Kathleen Watson
    Person: Marcus Beal
    Location: Pelican Flats
    Date: March 3-4, 2019
    Event: Outboard engine failure during squall

    - The laminated veterinary vaccination card drifted through six inches of moving saltwater and was bone dry on both sides when found.
    - Ruth Griffin found the card at her two-point-two-five-mile mark where the shoreline curves south of Pelican Flats.
    - Kathleen Watson had been missing for eight days when the card was found.
    - The storm produced sustained winds of thirty-four knots with gusts to forty-one, and waves rose from two feet to eight in under forty minutes.
    - By nightfall after the outboard failed, Kathleen and Marcus were approximately thirty-eight miles from Pelican Flats with no propulsion and a failing dry bag.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 min
  • The Salt-Crusted Mirror: How One Woman Survived Eleven Days Adrift

    The Salt-Crusted Mirror: How One Woman Survived Eleven Days Adrift
    26 Oct 2026
    The Salt-Crusted Mirror: How One Woman Survived Eleven Days Adrift

    Salt crust on a mirror found in a dry-seal bag hinted at a mystery: everything else in the bag was bone dry while the mirror carried salt from the sea. How did Peggy Mason survive eleven days alone on a life raft with less than two liters of water and a wet mirror that should have been impossible?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Peggy Mason’s departure to the moment rescuers pieced together how she lasted eleven days, and we ask what single decisions and failures made survival possible. What combination of gear, training, and circumstance sustained her through nearly two weeks adrift?

    Person: Peggy Mason
    Date: February 9-20 (missing at sea for eleven days)
    Location: Gulf of Mexico, departed Ferris Marina toward the Dry Tortugas
    Vessel: 34-foot fiberglass sloop Clara Jean, built 1989, re-rigged 2011
    Equipment: IP67 dry-seal bag with delaminating seam; EPIRB activated but GPS had no satellite fix

    - Peggy cast off from Ferris Marina at 06:40 on February 9 and was alone by 07:00.
    - Last logbook entry on February 11 at 02:00 noted wind NNW 22 knots and seas 6-8; final words "ETA TBD."
    - Around 02:00 on February 12, a port-side chainplate failed under gusts up to 47 knots, bringing the mast down across the deck.
    - The fixed VHF antenna was destroyed by the fallen mast and the handheld VHF in the starboard locker had been compromised by a leaking bilge hose fitting.
    - The dry-seal bag containing flares and a mirror was IP67 rated but had a heat-welded seam that had been delaminating since purchase, explaining why the mirror was salt-crusted while other items remained dry.

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    © 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    16 min
  • Nine Days Adrift: How Her Logbook Reached Land First

    Nine Days Adrift: How Her Logbook Reached Land First
    25 Oct 2026
    Nine Days Adrift: How Her Logbook Reached Land First

    A soaked logbook washed ashore four days before the boat and a woman was found alive eighty miles away - a mismatch that defies expectation and points to habits that kept her breathing. What detail in a pencil-stained journal mapped a path through nine days at sea and why did the pages arrive on land long before the ketch?

    In this episode, we follow the chronology recorded in the logbook and the records from search-and-rescue and hospital interviews to trace Lisa Coleman's nine days alone at sea, and we ask how redundancy and small routines became the instruments of survival.

    Person: Lisa Coleman
    Age: 44
    Vessel: 42-foot ketch Aldgate
    Crewman: Phil Navarro, 26
    Float plan contact: Debra Shull

    - The logbook was found half-submerged in Terrebonne marsh on January 19.
    - The logbook arrived on land four days before the boat did.
    - The Aldgate departed Morgan City on January 3 and was struck by a wave on January 6 at approximately 14:15.
    - Lisa had owned the Aldgate for six years and had been sailing since age 30.
    - Rations recorded included crackers, peanut butter, and two cases of bottled water.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min
  • Lost Ink, Nine Days Adrift: The Notebook That Mapped Survival

    Lost Ink, Nine Days Adrift: The Notebook That Mapped Survival
    24 Oct 2026
    Lost Ink, Nine Days Adrift: The Notebook That Mapped Survival

    A composition notebook sat in six inches of brackish water, its marbled cover swollen with salt and pages filled with navigational bearings, drift estimates and water temperatures written in dark brown ink - and not a single pencil mark. Whoever had been writing ran out of ink and kept going; who were they, how far had the water carried them, and could that notebook be the map to finding them?

    In this episode, we tell what happened when Darlene West left shore on a borrowed twenty-three-foot center-console without a filed float plan and with an EPIRB whose battery had been dead for about eighteen months, and how a notebook, a lost pencil and a misdirected search shaped the first nine days. How did one detour and one missing pencil change everything?

    Person: Darlene West
    Date: December 10-12 (search opened December 12)
    Location: Nine miles offshore, southeast of Hunting Island; initial search focused on St. Helena Sound
    Vessel: Patrice, a borrowed 23-foot center-console
    Item recovered: Composition notebook with navigational data written in dark brown ink

    - The Patrice sank in approximately eleven seconds after a through-hull bronze fitting failed that had not been replaced in eleven years.
    - Darlene had roughly four minutes from stern riding heavy to hull slipping under to deploy the life raft and board it.
    - The EPIRB on the Patrice had been dead for about eighteen months.
    - Darlene had four one-liter water bottles, a half-eaten granola bar, a signal mirror the size of a playing card, a pen but not the pencil she lost overboard.
    - The search was opened December 12 by Colleton County Sheriff’s Department and initially concentrated on St. Helena Sound based on routine assumptions.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • Found Adrift: The List That Survived Eleven Days at Sea

    Found Adrift: The List That Survived Eleven Days at Sea
    23 Oct 2026
    Found Adrift: The List That Survived Eleven Days at Sea

    Fear tightens when ordinary routines are ripped away: a folded list with seven names kept its ink after eleven days on the Gulf of Mexico, five names marked "can swim" and two left unmarked - including a woman who could not swim. How did that paper outlast the ship, the wreckage, and most of the people it named, and what does the list reveal about the choices made in those first hours?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from departure through collision, the lifeboat's drift, and the recovery of survivors and the soaked list, laying out the facts that led investigators to search in the wrong direction and to the discovery that changed everything: what did the list mean for those aboard?

    Date: November 9, 2011
    Event: Collision between MV Peralta and MV Calloway Star
    Person: Wayne Davis
    Location: Gulf of Mexico, eighty miles from the Louisiana coast
    Case: Lifeboat found eleven days after collision

    - The Calloway Star left Port Arthur, Texas on November 6, 2011 with a crew of fourteen and a partial load of industrial solvents.
    - At 23:37 on November 8, the MV Peralta struck the Calloway Star on the port side; the Peralta's AIS transponder was not transmitting.
    - In twenty-two minutes after the collision, two crew members were dead, five went into the water and were lost, and seven reached the only functioning lifeboat.
    - Second Officer Thomas Hewitt wrote a list on the morning of November 9 with seven names and the notation "can" beside five names to indicate swimmers; two names had no notation.
    - Fisherman Ralph Cook found the lifeboat eleven miles southwest of where search crews had been working for ten days on the morning of November 19; the folded paper survived under a dented water tin.

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    © 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • Twelve Miles Off: The Notebook That Drifted from a Lost Sloop

    Twelve Miles Off: The Notebook That Drifted from a Lost Sloop
    22 Oct 2026
    Twelve Miles Off: The Notebook That Drifted from a Lost Sloop

    The chill of calculated error: a notebook found forty feet above the tide, its red ink unfaded after thirteen days at sea and three days on rock, recorded a voyage that placed a university sloop exactly twelve nautical miles outside every search grid. What broke first - equipment, rigging, or the chain of choices that left four people adrift with shrinking water and failing radios - and how did one short deviation become fatal silence?

    In this episode, we follow the entries and the timeline found in that notebook to trace what happened aboard the Ardent Passage from departure to rescue, and we ask whether routine decisions can become the difference between being found and being lost at sea.

    Person: Patricia Wright
    Vessel: Ardent Passage
    Date: October 3, 2019
    Location: 210 nautical miles offshore (planned); 12 nautical miles north of planned track (actual deviation)
    Event: Desalinator fracture on October 4; mast failure on October 5; VHF distress calls on October 5

    - The Ardent Passage departed Grover Point, Oregon on October 3, 2019 at just after 0700.
    - The boat diverted twelve nautical miles north of its filed route by 0615 the next morning without notifying anyone ashore.
    - The desalinator suffered an irreparable fracture on the afternoon of October 4, leaving four people with 22 liters of bottled water (0.5 L per person per day).
    - The mast failed on October 5 during 40-knot winds, fell overboard after a six-hour effort to cut it free, and destroyed the single-sideband radio mounted below near the impact.
    - Patricia logged repeated VHF Mayday calls on channel 16 for four hours from a position of roughly 203 nautical miles offshore before recording the silence.

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    © 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    17 min
  • Chart Case: The Waterproof Log Found in a Septic Tank

    Chart Case: The Waterproof Log Found in a Septic Tank
    21 Oct 2026
    Chart Case: The Waterproof Log Found in a Septic Tank

    A sealed, dry chart case stamped MERIDIAN CROSS surfaced three-quarters of a mile from navigable water inside a septic tank - the same case that should have been on a ship that burned and sank 210 nautical miles offshore nine days earlier. The passage log inside ends with a handwritten abandon-ship entry at 00:22 on September 14th; how did that waterproof case travel from a burning catamaran in the Atlantic to a Beaufort septic tank, and what does the final log reveal about who made it home?

    In this episode, we follow the published entries in the recovered passage log and the documented timeline of the Meridian Cross voyage to reconstruct the key moments from departure to disaster and the immediate aftermath. What sequence of mechanical failures and emergency decisions is shown in the log, and what unanswered detail keeps this recovery baffling?

    Date: September 9 (departure) and September 14 (last log entry)
    Location: Beaufort County, South Carolina (septic tank recovery); 210 nautical miles offshore (sinking)
    Vessel: Meridian Cross, 42-foot Leopard catamaran
    People: Jennifer Bennett, Patrick Voss, Marcus Webb
    Last log time: 00:22 on September 14

    - The chart case was found sealed, dry, and stamped with the vessel name three-quarters of a mile from navigable water.
    - The Meridian Cross had burned and sunk nine days before the chart case was recovered, 210 nautical miles out in the Atlantic.
    - Jennifer Bennett made an abandon-ship entry at 00:22 on September 14 and noted barometer 30.1 inches and falling.
    - The starboard 40-gallon aluminum fuel bladder detonated after a fire originating from a chafing fuel line against a bilge pump bracket.
    - Jennifer, Patrick Voss, and Marcus Webb were all in the water within seconds; Jennifer found and climbed the anchor chain and Voss reached it within two minutes.

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    © 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min