A day out fishing proved short-lived for a Devonshire woman and her friend when the fishing vessel Sylvia 16 began taking in water and ended up almost totally submerged a mile from shore.Evar Ingham said she had no idea what went wrong with the unfamiliar boat, which started to go under as they were fishing in the ocean north of St George’s.“I was panicking,” she said. “Water was just coming in, slowly at first, and then the boat just started filling up.”Around 2pm on Monday, Ms Ingham and a male companion borrowed the boat from “friend of a friend” Orlando Crane in St George’s.Mr Crane said last night that his vessel had been retrieved with minor damage, and should be seaworthy again by the weekend.No one can explain how the Sylvia 16 flooded from the stern, but Bermuda Maritime Operations said the boat had no Marine VHF radio to pinpoint its location.“If they had been outside the reef, they could really have been in trouble,” a spokesman said.As Ms Ingham recalled: “As soon as we stopped, I threw my line in and caught a couple of fish, and next thing I knew, the water started coming in the back.“I didn’t know what to do, but my friend told me there was foam in the body of the boat, so it wouldn’t go right under. It filled up, but it didn’t sink. We were standing in water.”A mile offshore with no radio or flare, the couple used Ms Ingham’s cell phone to call 911.“They were trying to navigate where we were,” she said. “We had life jackets, so we put those on, and the police talked to us the whole time, asking what we could see, until the police boat got to us and took us on.”The Marine Police vessel Heron II was dispatched from Hamilton. The Marine and Ports buoy tender Dragon also happened to be at the East End fortuitously, with Mr Crane’s brother Sergio on board.A sailboat, the Catalyst, also responded, but Bermuda Maritime Operations said other private boats continued through the area without responding to calls for assistance.Meanwhile, a duty officer at Fort George scanned with binoculars, and eventually located the stricken 13ft boat in the North Channel.The Heron II took the pair to shore where Ms Ingham said they sat and calmed their nerves with a beer while the Dragon hauled the fishing boat aboard and took it to the Marine and Ports slip in Dockyard.Ms Ingham said the incident hasn’t put her off boating.“I love the water, I love fishing, and I go out whenever I can,” she said. “It was just a mishap, and I’m glad it wasn’t serious.”She even managed to bring home her fish, she added.Bermuda Maritime Operations said that the time of day, combined with the fine weather, “helped contribute to a fortunate outcome”, and reminded mariners to keep tuned to VHF Channel 16 when underway in Bermuda waters.