ATTENTION ORLANDO AREA TRIATHLETES! U.S. COAST NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Good evening all. I'm a fellow triathlete and an active U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Duty Officer stationed in Miami. We're currently working a case down in Key West, FL and I'm looking for some help from you all.

Earlier today we received a report from a concerned mariner reference a man doing an open water swim about 3 miles west of Key West, FL. The person in question swam up to reporting source's anchored vessel to say hello. He identified himself as Blake, a triathlete from Orlando. The geneleman took a photo of Blake, they had a short conversation, and Blake continued on with his open water swim towards Key West. The man became concerned and called the Coast Guard because this particular area has a high concentration of vessel traffic and Blake was swimming without a buoy or kayak/canoe support accompanying him which would help passing vessel's to see him in the water.

After receiving the report, we dispatched Coast Guard small boats and helicopters to search for Blake. At this juncture, we have not located him. As a triathlete, I'm not quite as alarmed as most are because I know doing a long distance OWS is not uncommon for experienced triathletes. However, until we can verify that Blake made it safely ashore, we'll be obligated to continue our search efforts for the near future.

Personally, I believe Blake likely made it ashore which would explain why we were unable to locate him during our initial search efforts, which have been robust. The weather in the area is favorable, and seas were around 1 feet with great visibility.

As I stated, we'll be continuing our search efforts throughout this evening, but I was asking for the help of the Orlando traithlete community to help identifiy this individual in the hopes that we could contact him to verify he made it safely ashore. The attached photo was taken this afternoon by our reporting source. If anyone recognizes the man in the photo, please contact us at Rescue Coordination Center Miami at (305)415-6800.

Thanks in advance.

Joe Medina
Rescue Coordination Center Miami
United States Coast Guard





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triathlete blake_1.jpg (90KB - 8 downloads)