>From the Associated press release: "Mr. Clarke, the captain of the vessel, yelled back to his mate to take care of the five on the boat and that he would stay with Mr. Robinson who was having trouble swimming back to the vessel," Cameron said. At some point in the night, Robinson told officials, Clarke had "some sort of cardiac event," Cameron said. Robinson tried to administer CPR and held onto Clarke as long as he could, but as hypothermia set in, Robinson was unable to maintain his hold and saw Clarke go under water, Cameron said." The water temperature was 70 to 71 degrees in this area according to NOAA buoys. Unfortunately, it is a well documented fact that cardiac arrhythmias accompany hypothermia, more so in the elderly (and even though I am getting closer--75 is elderly). Survival time in 70 to 80 degree water can range from 3 hours to indefinite; exhaustion to unconscious from 3 hours to 12 hours. These people apparently were in the water 17 hours. There is a lot of cold water immersion physiology beyond the scope of a short post. Other factors are: the struggle to stay afloat is likely more exertion than he would put out at any other time and the stress of the capsize and loss of the boat, will both cause coronary artery spasm and lead to an myocardial infarction or heart attack. Just because one is "fit, of normal weight an a non smoker" does not guarantee that you will not have a cardiac event--even if you just had a "normal" treadmill stress test.....let alone under these extremely stressful circumstances. The issue is that the boat appears to have been overloaded for the conditions, the shifting of the load is certainly a major factor. (Yes, this is in retrospect and the Glacier Bays are frequently used as charter boats). The boat had been reported as going 60 miles offshore, no EPIRB or liferaft were deployed. Apparently not all aboard wore life jackets of any type. I don't know if the skipper was a CG licensed person. Regards, Bob Austin M D