Wave capsized boat that sent fishermen into Bay, police say

VIRGINIA BEACH

Police said a 3- to 4-foot wave struck the side of an 18-foot boat, stalling its engine before it overturned in the Chesapeake Bay on Wednesday morning.

Two Arizona fishermen -- Allen Dedrick, 69, and Ned Rokey, 89 -- died when they were dumped into 45-degree water. Four others were rescued. Virginia Beach police declined to release their names.

Beach police spokesman Adam Bernstein said the survivors told investigators they tried to restart the boat and tried to put on life vests when they were thrown overboard. Police are still investigating the accident.

The men had come to Virginia Beach to fish for stripers near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Mike Hanna, manager of the Maryland Pilots Association Cape Henry station, and other rescuers saved the four men.

On Wednesday, Coast Guard watchstanders heard the first beckon for help at 9 a.m.: "Mayday, mayday."

The boaters from Arizona either didn't know how to pinpoint their location or didn't have time. But the Coast Guard cross-checked the signal from several rescue towers and dispatched a crew from Little Creek.

Petty Officer Robert Polson soon saw the capsized boat, then a man, half in and half out of the water, clinging to the engine.

Two Maryland Pilots launch captains saw a swimmer in the water and a Coast Guard rescue helicopter hovering, hoisting people into a basket. Matthew Bailey and Reed Sutherland could see three people clinging to the side of the overturned fishing boat. They found one man floating about 100 yards from the overturned boat and pulled him onboard with them.

Hanna, in another Pilots launch boat, saw two other men in camouflage gear, but without life jackets, floating face down.

Rescuers knew they didn't have much time: In 45-degree seas, hypothermia would set in and a person would be unconscious in 30 minutes to an hour.

About a half-hour after the mayday call, Virginia Beach Fire Capt. Billy Burket was driving over the Lesner Bridge and saw a hovering helicopter and a Virginia Pilot boat. Burket, a member of the department's marine team, was headed to Ocean City, Md., to conduct a seminar on cold-water survival.

His cell phone rang. It was the pilot tower:

"Bill, we have six people in the water here."

Burket turned around, hopped on a Pilot boat and headed for the scene, where they pulled alongside another Virginia Pilot boat.

"We got two patients on here!" they called over.

Burket jumped to the other boat. One man was in cardiac arrest, and the second had hypothermia. Burket thought the man 's heart could fail at any minute. He asked the man his name but got no answer.

"Let's get this boat in," he told the Pilot boat captain, and they headed for awaiting medical help.

As rescuers worked, their boats bobbed in 3- to 5-foot waves and 20- to 25-knot winds whipping near-freezing air. Burket said the fingers of rescuers performing CPR went numb within 10 minutes.

By then, the Coast Guard's rescue swimmer, Petty Officer Drew Dazzo, had hoisted two people into the helicopter and made sure the four others were on rescue boats.

Coast Guard Lt. Kevin Saunders said none of the men was wearing life jackets or immersion suits, which are recommended if there's a chance of being exposed to cold water. Dedrick was the boat's owner, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper.

The men apparently made a habit of hauling the boat all the way from Arizona to fish for striped bass at this time of year. Recently, the director's office at the Virginia Beach Department of Parks and Recreation had received a letter from Ric Rokey of Mesa, Ariz.

Rokey wanted "to send along an Atta-Boy" to the men who run the Lynnhaven boat ramp.

"For the past five years we have been making the long drive... to your city," Rokey wrote. "We arrive in early December to chase stripers for a week... then store the boat and truck... and fly home for Christmas. We then fly back to Virginia Beach for another week of fishing... "

Rokey said one man at the marina takes photos of them boarding their boat in the morning, then leaves the pictures on their car windshield.

"That is just one example," he wrote, "of how ALL of those guys act when we 'Zonies' arrive at the ramp."

The men were father and son, respectively, according to the Arizona newspaper. Ned Rokey had been a veterinarian, the paper reported.

In 2006, Ned Rokey was named the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Outdoor Father of the Year after being nominated by his son.

In his nomination letter, Ric Rokey described his father as an avid outdoorsman who passed his love of hunting and fishing to his sons. The fish and game department posted his words about his father on its Web site:

“Pop started our (my brother and myself) fishing education just after we moved to Mesa in 1957," Ric Rokey wrote.

"A trip that long always had to include camping for a couple of nights, so he not only taught us how to fish but also to become proficient campers as well. I recall once when we forgot to put in a frying pan, pop showed us how to cook bacon and eggs on a shovel head placed on the coals of a fire. We were taught to clean up our campsite, extinguish the fire, and even to leave kindling for the next person."

“When summer heat hit, it was time for trout fishing in the cool pine scented air of the high country. It was on these trips that Pop broke us in on the use of a fly rod and also tactfully introduced us to the fact that catching-and-releasing a fish was not only okay, but the thing to do."

“What a wonderful thing that our dad passed to both of his sons: a love of hunting, fishing, and a respect for the outdoors that has endured in us and we have passed on to our own families now for some 50 years."

Pilot staff writers Duane Bourne, Cindy Clayton, Aaron Applegate, Deirdre Fernandes and Debbie Messina contributed to this report.