Two rescued from sailboat off Cape Lookout,NC

[Cormorant]

Glad they made it off okay. I wonder what happened. . . .

Sailboat rescued off Cape Lookout - Local - The Daily News, Jacksonville

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Two men were rescued by the Coast Guard Wednesday after their sailboat became disabled off of Cape Lookout.


Jim Southward and Pat Schoenberger were aboard the Andante II approximately 25 miles east of Cape Lookout at about 5:34 p.m. when they contacted the Coast Guard that they had lost engine power, steering and were taking on water, according to a Coast Guard news release.


When an aircrew aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City arrived the two men jumped into the water and swam away from the sailboat, allowing the aircrew to hoist the men while avoiding the hazard of the sailboat’s 41-foot mast, the release said.


The men were hoisted into the helicopter and taken to the air station. There were no reports of injuries.

[Cormorant]

Really cool Coast Guard video of the rescue here:

Coast Guard rescues 2 men from sailboat in heavy seas 25 miles east of Cape Lookout, N.C. - YouTube

Nice work!

[PapaBruce]

Having been in trouble near there I can only say God Bless the Coast Guard!!

[Kettlewell]

Probably pretty nasty weather out there with that big low and front passing offshore. I wonder what they were doing out there? This has been predicted for a long time. I believe Wednesday night winds would have been 30-40 near Cape Lookout.

[thomm225]

“Officials closed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Wednesday evening due to wind gusts reaching 100 mph.”

March 6, 2013

And part of the same system was hitting down around Cape Lookout..........

[Kettlewell]

Maybe it's just my luck, but I have found the wind to be particularly gusty near Cape Lookout, even when the average wind speed is not too bad. The news report indicates they were 25 miles east of Cape Lookout, which would put them out near the edge of the Gulf Stream.

[MarkJ]

Hope it's not the boat from this forum a few weeks ago that we advised about clearing Cape Lookout.

I'll have to check what advice I gave them... And hurriedly edit it if I have caused them to sink.

I'm sure I said something like "Don't be a Nancy Boy! Rip through the Cape Lookout shoals and you will be safe!"

Or "Sure, go the landward side of the Diamond Shoals marker"....


Glad they are safe. Anyone salvaged the boat yet?

[Cormorant]

The report said they were taking on water, but in the CG video it looks to be floating more or less to its lines. . . .

[Kettlewell]

I have no idea in this particular case, but a lot of times the "taking on water" part is just from the rough seas finding their way in through every crack, every cockpit locker, etc. And then with the boat rolling all over the place it sloshes up on the interior in places that have never been wet before, giving you the impression there is a lot more water onboard than there is. I have read of boats calling MayDay thinking they were sinking only to discover the water was coming in through the cockpit lockers as they were continuously swept by breaking seas.

[DennisM]

Those Coast Guard folks are fricken heroes! Well done!

[estarzinger]

From what I have heard ..... Island packet, with paid captain and paid crew on board (owner not on board).

Weather well forecast, boat perfectly suited to the ICW, not sure what they were doing outside.

[mbianka]

[QUOTE=estarzinger;1180204]From what I have heard ..... Island packet, with paid captain and paid crew on board (owner not on board).

Weather well forecast, boat perfectly suited to the ICW, not sure what they were doing outside.[/QUOTE


Well the boat was still floating and twenty five miles off shore is not that far. Seems like it might be a fast salvage job if the conditions have calmed down and someone is enterprising enough.

Hats off to the Coast Guard crew. Well done!

[Kettlewell]

Any better reports on this? Was the boat being delivered north, and they had been riding the Gulf Stream and were caught as they were trying to get back inside, but just mistimed the arrival of bad weather?

[Greggegner]

Originally Posted by DennisM

Those Coast Guard folks are fricken heroes! Well done!

X2....they are professionals

[Cormorant]

This article in the Baltimore Sun (which deals mostly with the loss of two fishermen, Stephen and Walter Tate, from the vessel Seafarer* off of Assateague just before the Andante rescue) has a bit more detail:

Coast Guard suspends search for two lost fishermen off Assateague - baltimoresun.com

" . . . two Marylanders who were ferrying a sailboat from Severn, Va., to Pensacola, Fla., called rescuers after running out of gas and tiring from battling the stormy conditions.

A Coast Guard helicopter rescued Jim Southward, 40, and Pat Schoenberger, 38, about 25 miles east of Cape Lookout, N.C., at 5:34 p.m. Wednesday.

Reached by phone in Elizabeth City, N.C., Southward and Schoenberger, professional sea captains who live in Annapolis, said that as their vessel, the 41-foot power sailboat Andante, foundered in 25-foot waves, a Coast Guard rescue diver came aboard.

The diver helped each into a harness and watched as they were hauled 100 yards toward a spot where the helicopter could scoop them from the water. The chopper could get no closer for fear of the boat's thrashing mast.

The two were fortunate because the Gulf Stream warms the water off Cape Lookout, unlike the waters off the Eastern Shore where the Tates were lost.

Coast Guard rescuers told him the air temperature was in the 30s at the time, but in the water it was more than 60 degrees, Schoenberger said.

"It's crazy. You can't actually believe it's happening," he said, adding that the rescuers' calm confidence helped him and Southward, a close friend, through the ordeal.

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* The Seafarer story is horrifying:
"The broken-down fishing vessel was battling 20-foot waves and 50 mph wind gusts in the Atlantic Ocean when a wave knocked North Carolina fisherman Patrick Small off the deck. From the water, Small saw another wave strike the boat, shearing off the pilot house with two other men inside."