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Nick Whitbeck and Joe Tormay, both from Nantucket, were fishing for striped bass when they found an elderly man floating on his capsized boat.
Nick Whitebeck
Two fishermen said the man sat on top of a capsized boat trying to revive passing ships for more than an hour near Nantucket before a passing boat stopped to rescue him.
Nick Whitbeck and Joe Tormay, both of Nantucket, were fishing for striped bass a few miles east of Monomoy Island around 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon when they thought they saw a dead whale floating, the couple told Boston.com.
“We stopped and saw some fish. We’re doing a few casts and then out of the corner of my eye I notice some sort of strange black object floating in the water half a mile from the boat,” Tormay said.
Instead, there was a man waving his arms frantically, trying to get their attention. Tormay, a former Coast Guard member, said they managed to radio the Coast Guard, provide the stranded man with a life jacket and get him onto the boat.
The elderly man said he tried to stop the boats for about an hour. According to Tormay and Whitbeck, three passing boats did not notice him.
“It was incredibly lucky that it was in our sight and we were because we were the only boat that came through there, and I think that’s for good reason,” Whitbeck said, saying there were high white water waves in the area.
Fishermen said the man had no life jacket or cell phone after the boat capsized.
“It’s a beautiful day, but the real killer was the cold and water,” Whitbeck said. “Without the life jacket, he probably would have slipped under it.”
Within 20 minutes, the man’s boat was towed and another nearby boater ferried him back to Cape Cod so he could return home. Tormay said he spoke to a family member who said the orphaned man was doing well.
“It was definitely a godsend, a little miracle on his part, because who knows, he would have been swimming there all night. We were a few hours away from sunset,” Tormay said.
See: An orphaned man puts on a life jacket
Video courtesy of Nick Whitbeck
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Molly Farrar is an assignment reporter at Boston.com focusing on education, politics, crime and more.