ABOVE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN — Scouring the vast ocean expanse off Florida for two missing teen boaters is a long, tedious mission for the eight-person crew of the C-130 Hercules Coast Guard plane based out of Clearwater.

On Tuesday morning, the flight crew — including a public affairs officer and an Associated Press reporter — left Florida’s Gulf coast at midmorning and flew eastward.

Once the plane cleared the state’s other coast and was over the Atlantic, it dropped to 500 feet above the murky ocean. The crew eased open the back cargo ramp and two men flopped on their bellies so they could search the sea below.

It wasn’t an easy task. Around noon, the water was the same gray-blue as the sky; the horizon invisible, hazy. Spotting something in the water involves a little luck and a lot of training and experience.

And passion.