Screams for help off Outer Banks lead boat to man who drifted for 5 hours, NC team says
The discovery of an empty sailboat along North Carolina’s Outer Banks eventually led to a screaming man who had been adrift for about five hours, the U.S. Coast Guard reports.
It happened late Monday, May 6, on the Roanoke Sound side of Bodie Island, about a 200-mile drive east of Raleigh.
The boater was hospitalized, and will recover, officials said. His identity has not been released.
Nags Head Fire Rescue reports the mysterious empty boat was found around 6:45 p.m.
“A man had launched a small sailboat from the Harvey public sound access .... but the boat had washed ashore north of the access at Jockey’s Ridge State Park. With strong west/southwest winds, two to three feet of swell, and cold water, the situation was very serious,” the department said in a news release.
“Our rescue boat was deployed and we worked to understand the wind and drift pattern. After initiating a search grid, we heard someone yelling from the water.”
A man was pulled aboard around 8 p.m. and treated for undisclosed medical issues. Once ashore, he was taken to the Outer Banks Hospital, officials said.
Details of how the man ended up in the water have not been released. He was traveling in an inflatable catamaran sailboat, officials said.
“Our crews recovered what remained of the vessel,” the Coast Guard said. “The person was in the water approximately five hours but is now fully recovered.”
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