Two fishermen rescue man on overturned boat off the coast of Cape Cod

By CNN Newsource

Published October 22, 2024 11:16 AM

By Emily Maher

NANTUCKET COUNTY, Massachusetts (WCVB) — Fishermen Joe Tormay and Nick Whitbeck from Nantucket were stripe bass fishing off the coast of Monomoy Island on Saturday when something caught their eye.

“Originally, it almost looked like a whale, a dead whale or something,” Tormay said.

Whitbeck then grabbed his phone and used the camera to zoom in and get a look at what was going on.

It was then that they spotted a man floating on the hull of his capsized boat, waving frantically for help.

“I can’t imagine how scared you could be in a situation like that where you can’t call, you can just wave your hands,” Whitbeck said. “You’re in water that can essentially kill you in a few hours, and you have no way to tell anyone.”

The fishermen then quickly drove their boat over to the man and called the Coast Guard while working quickly to get him a life jacket and on board to safety.

Tormay, a former Coast Guard member himself, knew just what to do in that situation.

“When we realized it was just him, I talked to Nick, ‘Let’s get a life jacket on him; the water’s cold,'” Tormay said. “We had a lot of currents, tidal currents in there, so let’s get him a life jacket, and then we’ll try and get him on board our boat.”

The man told the fishermen his boat capsized before he could get a call out for help and said his phone fell into the water.

He said he had been trying to wave down other boaters for about an hour, all while drifting further out to sea.

“He was able to tell us it happened so fast he was not able to get a call out,” Whitbeck said. “His phone went down with the boat [and] he was thrown in the water without a life jacket.”

The fishermen are reminding anyone heading out on the water to always wear and have life jackets on board.

Now, they are grateful they could help the man and they hope to see him on the seas again sometime soon.

“He’s definitely getting the boat fixed, and hopefully we’ll see him out there fishing again at some point,” Tormay said. “On the right side of the boat this time.”

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