Even the next morning, with Ron and his brother and friend still gone, no one called for help.

Finally, at about 1 p.m. the next day, one of Ron's friends, after stopping at the grocery store, drove down to the local Coast Guard station to make inquiries. And just as he walked onto the pier, he saw a Coast Guard boat towing in the sail boat.

Someone else had seen the capsized boat drifting along and called it in.

The Coast Guard brought in a helicopter from the closest air force base, and then set about looking for survivors. At 4:00 PM on Saturday afternoon they found Ron, face down, wearing a PFD.

And after a long week of searching the others were never found.

Now, most of you may recognize in this short account of that incident a series of "what-not-to-dos" or what if's. The reality is that we don't really know what happened out there that night.

But we do know three things that sealed their fate.

First: Rick and Greg weren't wearing PFDs.

I cannot say it enough. You know that I am a songwriter. And if boating is a song, then "PFDs" are the chorus. You can't say it enough.

So, that's the first lesson: Wherever you stand on the issue of mandatory PFDs, wear PFDs, preach PFDs and love PFDs.

Ron was wearing one, but succumbed to hypothermia after a long night in the water …but at least I had him to bury.

That, of course, is not the most important reason to wear one. You wear one to survive the cold shock/gasp reflex and to stay alive until someone comes to help.

And then there's the second thing that sealed their fate: Denial.

No one called for help… It amazes me still that people just waited in that cottage knowing that they were out there. And I wonder what they could have been thinking… The Coast Guard told me later that, because Ron actually was wearing a PFD, he might have survived for some time in the water.

And that if someone had set about looking for him early enough that night, they might have found him alive.