A couple purchased a used 18-foot runabout and decided to venture out the very next day.

A beeper went off in the dark. Lt. Danielle Wiley, supervisor at the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment in Kodiak, Alaska, looked at the clock. The red 3:00 a.m. beamed. There had been yet another grounding.

The scene is all too familiar on the South Texas coast...