Family of shrimp boat captain found in Vermilion Bay starts GoFundMe to get him back on the water
Now that George Romero is safe and sound after his shrimp boat sank ion Vermilion Bay, his family has set up a GoFundMe.
DELCAMBRE, La. (KLFY) -- Delcambre shrimper George Romero needed help to save his life after his boat sank in Vermilion Bay. Now, he needs help to save his livelihood.
Romero was found floating in Vermilion Bay three days after his shrimp boat sank. Now that he is safe and sound, his family has set up a GoFundMe to buy him a shrimp boat and get him back on the water, and doing what he has always done.
Niles Romero hopes to raise $100,000 to get his father's life back.
"I'm raising money to buy my Dad a boat," the fundraiser said. "It doesn't need to be a new boat, but I think it's really important to get Captain George back out on the water."
According to Niles, his ordeal on the water after the sinking was a harrowing one. He said George was on the water for about 55 hours.
"He had his life vest on, one of the good inflatable ones, and he tread water for a little while," Niles said. "Then he grabbed part of one of his deck boxes and floated on that. He grabbed some other parts of the boat he found and made a jury rigged raft. Once the sun came up, he made a little lean to to keep himself out of the worst of the sun. He noticed that his lean to was catching the wind and dragging him towards land so he angled it so it would push him back towards Southwest Pass. He basically floated around the entire day and night Thursday 8/10. He ran into a barrier island sometime just before sunrise on Friday 8/11. He decided to swim/walk towards the Game Warden camp. He had basically floated about 10 miles west at that point. He did this all day Friday and into Friday night. Saturday morning sometime he was spotted by a charter captain out of Cypremort Point and rescued."
As of late Thursday morning, the fundraiser had seven donations totaling $285.
"My dad George has been a commercial fisherman pretty close to my whole life," Niles said. "He loves the water, he loves the outdoors. It's his livelihood, hobby and lifestyle all in one."