Annie Girl crew rescues four men 20 miles offshore

Annie Girl crew rescues four men 20 miles offshore

A 26-foot Cobia center console boat that left Cotton Bayou on May 2, and later capsized 20 miles offshore with four men aboard beached itself four days later west of Gulf Shores Public Beach.
The boat began taking on water in five ft. seas after its engine died. Lucky for those onboard, Captain Tony Bearden, who was five miles away on the 62-foot charter boat Annie Girl, answered the call.
Annie Girl arrived just as the boat capsized, and Cpt. Bearden and his crew were able to pull the uninjured men to safety.
“Right as we backed up to them and started to get to them, the boat capsized, and they all ended up in the water,” the captain told Theresa Grundman of WKRG TV. “We were 15 to 17 miles offshore when we heard a mayday call over the radio. You could definitely hear in these guys’ voices that they were really shook up at what was going on. Within 30 minutes of the distress call, these guys were in the water.
“I was really thankful that I got there when I did because trying to find those guys in the middle of the night, it’s a needle in a haystack,” he added.
“He called me, and I was worried,” said Mike Rowell, former owner of the Annie Girl. “It was rough, and it was dark, and I was afraid people were going to be in the water by the time he got to them, but thank God the boat was still afloat when he got there.’’
The boat washed ashore around 6:30 p.m. on May 6 and was removed by SeaTow a day later.