Man Rescued From Capsized Boat Off Nantucket By Island Anglers

A dramatic water rescue unfolded Saturday afternoon off Nantucket, where a pair of anglers from the island encountered a capsized boat with a man perched on its hull waving them down.

Joe Tormay and Nick Whitbeck had been bass fishing northeast of the island when something caught their eye in the distance.

“I started casting, and I said, ‘Nick, do you see that? It looks like a dead whale’,” Tormay said. “I looked closer and said, ‘No, that’s a flipped boat, and there’s a guy waving to us on top’!”

At this point, it was around 4 p.m. They were a few miles east of Monomoy Island and about a quarter mile away from the capsized boat. Tormay said they headed toward the vessel and called the Coast Guard to report what they had seen. As they approached the capsized boat, Tormay, a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard himself, saw a man in his 70s still waving to them.

“It was worst case scenario,” Tormay said. “He was by himself with no life jacket on. He was lucky he got on the top of the boat.”

It was just hours until sunset, and the water temperature was around 55 degrees. Whitbeck was able to get the man a life jacket while Tormay maneuvered his 23-foot center console to get him on board.

“Once we got close, it was a shock to realize what we thought was true,” Whitbeck said. “So scary to be that far offshore and no one immediately nearby this time of the year. We pulled up close to him and were able to communicate with him and get confirmation he was ok and not in immediate danger.”

The man in distress was named Art. He had launched from Bass River on Cape Cod earlier in the day and was fishing alone.

“In a split second, a large wave breached his stern and was strong enough to flip the boat,” Whitbeck recalled the man telling him. “He said it was extremely fast with little to no reaction time, which is why he had no life jacket or phone. He was in the water quickly and was able to swim onto the capsized boat. For nearly an hour, he was on top of the boat hull yelling and waving to nearby vessels but had no luck getting anyone’s attention.”

Tow Boat US was called to the scene to tow the capsized vessel, and soon, another private vessel showed up, and the captain offered to take the man back to Bass River on the Cape.

“He could have been in real trouble if we didn’t get to him when we did,” Whitbeck said. “I’m not sure where he would have drifted and if he would have been seen before sundown.”

With the man accounted for and his vessel being towed, Tormay and Whitbeck got back to what they set out to do originally.

“After that, we still managed to catch some stripers,” Tormay said with a laugh. “We got some fishing in.”