JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Their fishing boat left the dock on Oct. 14, so for nearly 2 weeks the 3 men aboard the Carol Ann have been stranded out at sea.
For the last week the Coast Guard has been searching more than 20,000 square miles of open ocean for the boat, but Thursday afternoon the search was officially called off.
Despite the search being called off by the Coast Guard, the families of the boaters are still hopeful that their loved ones will be found. While the Carol Ann went missing off the coast of Georgia, Chris Barlow, the father of missing boater Tyler Barlow, believes his son and the other 2 boaters, Caleb Wilkinson and Dalton Conway, are closer to Virginia due to ocean currents.
"If you're caught in that gulf stream and the boat doesn't have power or if they're in the life raft they would have no way to get out, you can't paddle out of the gulf stream, the currents are way too strong," said Barlow.
The Coast Guard expanded its search north but the final search plane landed at 1:05 p.m. in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Within an hour of the plane landing all 3 boaters were officially reported as missing, which Tyler Barlow's uncle Steve McKinney said will generate messages to law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
"Every law enforcement agency on the eastern coast that has a maritime search and rescue like Camden County does will be out there looking for debris or any signs of Carol Ann," said McKinney.
Chris Barlow has faith the boaters will be found and found safe.
"Tyler will not stop fighting, I don't think Caleb or Dalton will either," said Barlow, "their chances of survivability are extremely great, we just have to find them."
It's a sentiment Tyler's mother has felt from the community.
"I'm telling you, the support and love from people we don't know for all of us is unbelievable," said Kim Jones, the mother of Tyler Barlow.
According to Chris Barlow, the Carol Ann did have an EPIRB, which is an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, however their EPIRB was a manual device, which would have had to be activated during distress in order to send its signal rather than setting its signal automatically during distress.
Stevie Conway, the sister of Dalton Conway, and girlfriend of Caleb Wilkinson said Georgia Lawmakers are helping the families reach out to multiple agencies for help.
Conway also said the family has reached out to the Navy, something her brother Dalton used to joke about.
We have this joke of call the Navy when something happens, call the Navy and now here we are. We're calling the Navy, bud," Stevie Conway said.
Conway said the families have organized a Go Fund Me to raise funds to pay for additional resources to help with the search.