I am sure now, at this time and date, that everyone knows about the incident off the coast of Florida involving men who just weren't prepared. They only thing that one of them did right was to stay with the boat. When out on the ocean or the Great Lakes there are five rules of thumb that must be met before the engine is ever started. They are: Rule#1, Never, ever, give up on the ship until she has elected to give up on you (i.,e. If the boat is still floating, even overturned and still floating. Don't give up on her till she sinks!). Rule#2, nobody leaves the group! Rule#3, Flares are like blessings, you can never have too many! Rule#4, Buy better life vests with pockets that can store smokes/flares, water, knife, small first aid kit, EPIRB (personal) and sea dye marker. Rule#55, Have an excellent life raft.
Now I ask you, how inexpensive are the EPIRBS of today? $400-600, is about common. Even EPIRBS with a digital record of the owner is still not prohibited for the average working man and these are very accurate and can be USED AHYWHERE in this world with few exceptions.
What I am trying to state here is that everyone on board except for the guy stradiling the inboard, made the wrong decision and died.
Here's probably the discussion that went on the boat as they rode into danger: We are sinking, where's the EPIRB? I'm sorry, I didn't get around to purchasing one. What, why? Insert any excuse here_______________. Just my $.02 worth.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,505172,00.html
For an excellent book on survivng at sea, and actually the best IMHO is "Survivor" By Michael Greenwald. It is long out of print. But you can still find it once in awhile at Bookfinders.com, Amazon, etc., etc. Also, here is its ISBN 0-931297-02-8, paperback is: 0-931297-03-6.
I'll end this opinion with this quote: "I have known the sea too long to believe in its respect for decency." Joseph Conrad