A lifelong friend of two brothers killed after their wooden boat crashed into reefs described the pair as the best examples of the Bermudian spirit.Speaking yesterday following the deaths of Mikel Williams and Mustafa Abdul-Hadee, family friend Floyd Pitcher said: “If they could help you out, they would. When a storm came around, they weren’t afraid to come around and help everyone out.“They were both the perfect examples of St David’s islanders, perfect examples of Bermudians.“They were known probably from one end of the Island to the other, and I don’t think you could find a single person who could talk bad about them.”Mr Pitcher said that the brothers were both close to their family, but their passion was wooden boats, such as the Tern which they had spent years repairing.“They were respected carpenters and respected mariners,” Mr Pitcher said. They were really first class tradesmen. They didn’t have to look for work, people came looking for them.“I just couldn’t believe it. I’m still having a real difficult time accepting it.”While it is still unclear as to exactly what happened, at around midnight on Monday night the brothers contacted Harbour Radio saying they had struck a reef near St David’s Head and their boat was taking on water.An hour later the pilot boat St David attended the scene and discovered the ship had sunk. The bodies of the two carpenters were found floating in the water.While some said they believe the Williams brothers were attempting to negotiate a narrow break in the reefs but struck the breakers in the darkness, Mr Pitcher said he felt the men were too experienced to make such a mistake.“They must have fallen asleep. It’s the only thing that seems to make sense to me,” he said.He also expressed concern about early reports that when the men were found they were not wearing life jackets.“That would have saved both of them. It just doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.“It’s basically just being complacent. We never figure that something like that could happen to us. When we’re ill-prepared these things can happen.“It’s a shame that it happened the way it did. I only wish they didn’t make the decisions that they made.”