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Showing posts with the label rescue at sea

OVERBOARD: Deep survival in winter waters off New England coast

 A life-or-death ordeal for a New England lobsterman in the frigid North Atlantic waters The lobsterman's thoughts were not focused on possibly dying - but rather on finding a way to survive in the December waters off the New England coast. When I asked the fisherman how he kept alive, he answered simply, "It's a mental thing". It was early afternoon in December  and this was supposed to be a routine run of checking lobster traps.  That all changed when he slipped on the deck of his boat and fell into the frigid water.  The boat was on auto pilot, and the only other deck hand did not immediately notice that his partner was no longer on the boat. Now afloat in the frigid water, the lobsterman watched as his boat kept pulling away from his location. Adding more to the dilemma, the seasoned fisherman was being carried away from the boat in the opposite direction by the tides. The water temperature for the New England water in December normally registers in the low-to-m...