The sun was starting to dip low on the horizon off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Oct. 19 when fishing buddies Nicholas Whitbeck and Joe Tormay spotted what they thought was a dead whale on the horizon.
Squinting closer, they noticed what appeared to be a man perched on top of the “whale” waving his hat.
The “whale” turned out to be capsized fishing boat that the man—who had lost his cell phone when his boat tipped over—had been using to stay above the water as he tried to attract attention from passing vessels.
If nobody responded, the man faced a long, chilly—and lonely—night on the water which was about 55-58 degrees, enough for hypothermia to set in quickly.
Whitbeck said they'd just relocated to an area with fewer fishing vessels to try their luck there when they spotted the object in the distance.
“Joe initially pointed it out, thinking that there was possibly a dead whale on the horizon a couple miles from us or less. Upon further inspection and a little bit of drifting we kind of kept an eye on it. It ended up looking a lot more like a boat that had capsized,” Whitbeck said.
“He mentioned almost immediately after recognizing that that there seemed to be a pair of hands waving,” he added. “We immediately kicked into action.”
The two stowed away their gear, pushed boat to full throttle and alerted the Coast Guard.
“We got close to him, spoke to him first, got him a life jacket with a boat hook so that if in the exchange of him getting onto our boat there was a mishap or anything and he was in the water, he had a flotation devise with him,” he added.
Maneuvering their boat into position to get him onboard was difficult in part because there was an anchor about the waterline that could have punctured their boat.
“In talking to him we found out a lot more details about how serious and dire the situation was,” Whitbeck said,
The man said he'd been sitting on the hull of the capsized boat for about an hour, drifting away from land and other boats as the clocked ticked near 4 p.m.
“At this time of the year We were losing daylight fast. Us arriving at that time really was a right time, right place scenario for that type of rescue,” he said.
The man told them that a larger wave had tipped over his boat. He said he‘d attempted to flag down three other boats but no one saw him. Whitbeck said it was just luck that they’d spotted him.
He said the man was a bit reserved at first given what had happened but was “very very grateful” when they connected later.
Tormay, who had Coast Guard training, said those on the water are quick to help each other out if they find themselves in trouble.
“Any fisherman would do the same as we did. We’re out there. There’s not many people. We rely on each other a lot especially on Nantucket where we’re an island and its very limited,” he said.
