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  • He Should Have Died: How One Man Survived 6 Days in 52°F Water

    He Should Have Died: How One Man Survived 6 Days in 52°F Water
    2026/07/26
    He Should Have Died: How One Man Survived 6 Days in 52°F Water

    Cold water kills fast: one to three hours is the expected window for incapacitation at 52°F, yet Richard Stroud spent 144 hours afloat in the North Pacific without a wetsuit, radio, or beacon. What kept him alive, and why were rescuers searching the wrong ocean?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the moment debris was sighted on June 4, 2011 to the call that reopened the case on June 8, 2011, following the clues that led to Richard’s unexpected survival and the search errors that let him slip past prediction. How did currents, a scratched message, and one man's preparation change everything?

    Person: Richard Stroud
    Date: June 4-10, 2011
    Location: North Pacific off Tillamook Bay / Garibaldi, Oregon
    Water temperature: 52°F
    Boat: Patience (15-foot daysailer)

    - Richard Stroud was in the water for 144 hours (six days) with no wetsuit, emergency radio, or rescue beacon.
    - The initial debris report from the fishing vessel Carla B came at approximately 6:15 PM on June 4, 2011, eleven miles northwest of Cape Meares.
    - Standard drift models predicted a northeast drift, but a strong upwelling in June 2011 produced a south-southeast counter-current that the model did not account for.
    - The Coast Guard search ran box searches starting before midnight on June 4 and again through June 5, then was suspended over twelve hours before Barbara Ells called on June 8.
    - On day four, Richard scratched a clue into fiberglass with a belt buckle that later turned up 1.5 miles inland in a yard of a man who never read it.

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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 分
  • The Card in the Cistern: How a Boat Vanished for Eleven Days

    The Card in the Cistern: How a Boat Vanished for Eleven Days
    2026/07/25
    The Card in the Cistern: How a Boat Vanished for Eleven Days

    A laminated contact card from the missing Marguerite turned up inside a sealed cistern in May 1998 - eleven days after the boat disappeared and nine days after it was last seen at Pelham Cove. How did a waterproof emergency card, sealed away since November, arrive from a vessel that had not docked there since October, and what does that card reveal about the eleven days that erased Troy Mason from the record?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from Pelham Cove Yacht Basin to sixty-one miles offshore and piece together the sequence of events aboard the Marguerite, asking how equipment, decisions, and a sudden storm combined to leave one man alone on a life raft and one crew member missing.

    Person: Troy Mason
    Person: Bobby Teague
    Date: May 9-May 19, 1998
    Location: Pelham Cove Yacht Basin and 61 miles southwest in the Gulf
    Vessel: Marguerite (42-foot sportfisher)

    - The cistern at Pelham Cove had been sealed since November when Ryan Wells opened it on the morning of May 23, 1998.
    - The laminated contact card for the Marguerite floated face-up in that cistern nine days after the boat had gone missing.
    - Troy Mason was 54 years old and had been based at Pelham Cove for eleven years by spring 1998.
    - The Marguerite dragged approximately 61 miles west-southwest after its anchor failed during a storm on May 11-12, 1998.
    - The EPIRB transmitted the registered position (the original anchorage) for about six hours, which was already 61 miles from the boat’s actual location.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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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    20 分
  • Alone at Sea: How a Bowl of Soup Nearly Buried Her

    Alone at Sea: How a Bowl of Soup Nearly Buried Her
    2026/07/24
    Alone at Sea: How a Bowl of Soup Nearly Buried Her

    Heat trapped by a rubber jar-gripper kept a ceramic bowl of chicken soup above 100°F thirteen hours after it was eaten, and that single reading sent searchers in the wrong direction - while Jennifer Riley drifted alone in the Gulf for 11 hours and 40 minutes. How did a commonplace kitchen item become the pivot between a near-fatal misassumption and a woman's raw survival?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the Celia Jo drifting off Peloro Spit to the discovery of the still-warm soup and the decisions that followed, describing what happened on the boat and what Jennifer carried that helped her survive - and asking how one ordinary object reshaped an urgent rescue.

    Person: Jennifer Riley
    Date: April 9, 2019
    Location: Offshore from Peloro Spit; 41 nautical miles southwest the other way
    Boat: Celia Jo, 22-foot center-console, 2012 model, slip fourteen at Maravell Marina
    Duration adrift: 11 hours and 40 minutes

    - The photographer Raymond Gray took 47 pictures of the drifting Celia Jo at 6:15 a.m.
    - A marine patrol agent stepped aboard at 6:49 a.m. and found the ceramic soup bowl above 100°F.
    - Jennifer Riley was 23 years old at the time of the incident.
    - Jennifer had kept a waterproof bag clipped to her shorts containing a handheld VHF, a signal mirror, two chemical flares, and a Mylar emergency blanket.
    - Jennifer left the marina alone at about 5:40 p.m. after her friend canceled and did not file a float plan.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • visual máximo. APERTURA. No revelar origen aún

    visual máximo. APERTURA. No revelar origen aún
    2026/07/23
    visual máximo. APERTURA. No revelar origen aún

    Thirty-one nautical miles offshore a Coast Guard swimmer pulled a man from the Atlantic while a laminated card with six days of coordinates washed up at a Georgia boat ramp - the seventh row blank. The card was dry on one face and dripping on the other; who wrote those coordinates and how did it travel from the open sea to Pelican Reach? What secret on that card could explain three days adrift?

    In this episode, we tell a single search-and-rescue story from the Georgia coast that unfolds from March 9-14, 2019, following three men, two dinghies, and a chain of assumptions that nearly stopped a rescue before it began. We trace the voyage, the storm, the separation, and the strange laminated card that connects shore to sea - and ask whether experience alone was enough to survive.

    Date: March 9-14, 2019
    Location: Georgia coast, Atlantic Ocean
    Person: Marvin Mueller
    Person: Kevin Pruitt
    Event: Rescue; laminated card with six days of coordinates

    - At 6:48 AM on March 14, 2019, a fifteen-year-old newspaper carrier found a laminated card at the Pelican Reach boat ramp near Brunswick, Georgia.
    - The card bore six rows of coordinates written in permanent marker, one for each of the first six days, and the seventh row was blank.
    - On March 9, 2019 at 7:40 AM the two inflatable dinghies crossed the Savannah River sea buoy into open Atlantic water bound for Fernandina Beach, a roughly seventy nautical mile trip.
    - At 1:50 PM on March 9 the wind rose from 12 knots to 34 knots in under twenty minutes and visibility dropped to less than a quarter mile.
    - Marvin Mueller spent three days and nine hours on a partially inflated balsa raft after going overboard in 53°F water, carrying a handheld GPS and the laminated card.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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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    17 分
  • The Mirror Found 40 Miles Inland: How Megan Survived the Sea

    The Mirror Found 40 Miles Inland: How Megan Survived the Sea
    2026/07/22
    The Mirror Found 40 Miles Inland: How Megan Survived the Sea

    Saltwater on a small military-surplus mirror was found forty miles inland with a nylon cord worn flat from dozens of grips, yet the woman who used it was already alive in a Pensacola hospital-how did she get rescued with no EPIRB, a broken mast, and only a handheld GPS? The mirror, aerial flares, and a weekly 5:10 AM phone call hint at a desperate, resourceful survival; what single action turned those odds into rescue?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from departure to rescue and trace the exact gear, decisions, and weather that shaped one woman's survival at sea, ultimately asking which moment or tool made the difference.

    Person: Megan Sheridan
    Date: cast off February 6, 2009; cold front and storm February 9-10, 2009
    Location: departed Gulf Shores, Alabama; drifted northeast south of the Florida panhandle
    Vessel: 38-foot fiberglass cutter named Halcyon Run, built 1981
    Equipment: 40 gallons water, handheld GPS, VHF radio (antenna lost), 2 aerial flares, 1 parachute rocket (damaged), military-surplus signal mirror

    - Megan was 62 years old and had sailed since age 19 with thousands of offshore miles and a four-year rebuild of her boat.
    - She had provisioned for ten days with forty gallons of drinking water across two tanks and enough food for the same period.
    - The forestay let go around 2:00 AM on February 10, causing the mast to come down and punch through the cabin roof; the motor flooded six hours later.
    - Winds reached 35 knots and seas built to 12 feet during the storm that arrived three days earlier than forecast.
    - A small mirror with a drilled center hole and a nylon cord worn flat from repeated use was found by Tammy Weaver on February 23, 2009, forty miles inland at Kellner Air Station.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • When the Sea Decided: The Logbook That Returned Alone

    When the Sea Decided: The Logbook That Returned Alone
    2026/07/21
    When the Sea Decided: The Logbook That Returned Alone

    Cold ocean proofing, sargassum fused to a spine, and a waterproof logbook washed ashore after a January Atlantic passage - it had traveled roughly ninety miles and contained two writers, one of whom stopped mid-sentence. Who survived the sea that changed from passage to predator, and what did the logbook reveal about the moments before everything went wrong?

    In this episode, we follow the entries and the facts preserved in a recovered logbook to tell the events of a January voyage, the storm that broke the passage, and the single day that decided who would return. How did a routine offshore passage turn into an encounter that only one person could record?

    Person: Dennis Holt
    Person: Crystal Vaughn
    Date: January 5-8
    Location: Beaufort to Nassau passage / Atlantic Ocean
    Event: anomalous wall of water on January 8

    - The logbook traveled roughly 90 miles of open Atlantic before being found in hurricane fencing on Hatteras Island.
    - Dennis Holt was 53 years old and had owned the 42-foot sloop Carillon for eleven years.
    - Crystal Vaughn was 26, worked at a plant nursery in Millhaven, and had crewed two offshore passages with Dennis the previous year.
    - The Carillon departed Beaufort at 6:45 on January 5 and experienced ordinary conditions for the first three days.
    - On January 8 a single anomalous wall of water struck, shearing off the bimini frame, helm seat, compass binnacle, chart table, GPS, EPIRB, and VHF antenna cable; Dennis did not survive and Crystal recorded the morning’s log entry later with the single word "gone."

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • The Logbook That Rose from the Seawall: Where Was Brenda?

    The Logbook That Rose from the Seawall: Where Was Brenda?
    2026/07/21
    The Logbook That Rose from the Seawall: Where Was Brenda?

    A battered orange notebook stood upright between granite blocks on Port Sullen’s south breakwater, dry and legible after two named storms and winds over fifty knots - its last dated entry was December 10 and nine pages were blank. How did a waterproof logbook drift into a harbor where models said wreckage should have been forty to ninety miles north, and what does that upright notebook reveal about Brenda Graham’s fate?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of Brenda’s final passage, the search decisions made after her last log entry, and the puzzling physical clues that contradicted drift models; what the notebook’s position and condition suggest about where Brenda actually was becomes the central question.

    Person: Brenda Graham
    Age: 48
    Vessel: Maren B., 31 feet fiberglass
    Last log entry: December 10, 11:50 PM - Position 31°14′N, 80°52′W
    Finder: Grant Watson, December 19, south breakwater at Port Sullen

    - The notebook’s last dated entry was December 10 and the final line read “Considering heave-to.”
    - Brenda left Port Sullen on December 7 with Derek Soto and completed the delivery on December 9; Soto left by bus.
    - The Maren B. was 41 nautical miles from Port Sullen at the last recorded position on December 10.
    - Grant Watson found the orange notebook upright and readable in the riprap on December 19 at 6:15 AM.
    - Search operations were suspended the morning the notebook was found after four days of active searching and multiple aircraft and cutter sweeps.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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 分
  • The Notebook That Drifted 340 Miles: Secrets from the Lifeboat

    The Notebook That Drifted 340 Miles: Secrets from the Lifeboat
    2026/07/21
    The Notebook That Drifted 340 Miles: Secrets from the Lifeboat

    A notebook survived six days adrift in the Gulf of Mexico and then continued alone for 340 miles before washing ashore-its blue ink still legible and its pages holding a meticulous survival inventory that haunts investigators: how much of survival is preparation, and how much is choosing silence about the things you cannot fix?

    In this episode, we follow the timeline from the collision at 2:11 a.m. on November 9 to the lifeboat adrift and the notebook found six weeks later on Cassidy Flats, Port Sullen, asking what Susan Webb’s handwritten records reveal about decision-making under extreme pressure.

    Person: Susan Webb
    Ship: Ardmore Strait
    Collision partner: Ferreira Dos
    Lifeboat capacity: 20
    Distance notebook drifted: 340 miles

    - Impact occurred at 2:11 a.m. on November 9 and the Ardmore Strait sank forty-one minutes later.
    - Seven people boarded a fiberglass enclosed lifeboat launched at 2:26 a.m.; the lifeboat’s motor started but propeller was fouled and it drifted.
    - Susan Webb, 33, had been second officer on the Ardmore Strait for three months and kept a hard-cover spiral notebook in blue ballpoint ink.
    - Initial notebook entries listed seven names and noted that four of them could not swim, marking them with the word "no."
    - The notebook recorded supplies including thirty liters of water in sealed bags and eight flares, and it was fastened inside Webb’s immersion suit with a carabiner.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 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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    20 分