The Coast Guard rescued a 25-year-old man after his 12-foot jon boat was swept out to sea off St. Augustine, Florida, and he was missing for a day and a night.
The boat was half-filled with water and bobbing up and down 12-miles offshore when a Coast Guard search-and-rescue plane spotted Charles Gregory, 25, who had thrown his outboard motor overboard earlier in an effort to stay afloat.
.Gregory, an experienced fisherman, left the Lighthouse Park boat ramp at 4 a.m. on Friday. But the tide rose faster than he expected, a wave hit the boat (a flat-bottomed aluminum craft) and it knocked Gregory overboard.
He climbed back on the boat and took off his bathing suit to wave at passing boats, hoping they would see him. They didn’t.
When Gregory didn’t return home Friday evening, his family notified the Coast Guard. They sent a plane, a helicopter and two fast response boats to search for him. The St. Augustine Police Department and other local agencies also launched search-and-rescue vessels.
Saturday morning, the crew on a Coast Guard HC-130 spotted Gregory, and a small boat picked him up. He was sunburned from the blazing Florida sun and he had a lot of jellyfish bites. He said he saw sharks circling the boat at times, and at night he was freezing with no protection from the cold.
The Coast Guard took him back to a dock in St. Augustine where he was reunited with his family.
Cmdr. Nick Barrow, the area’s search and rescue coordinator, thanked everyone involved in the search for Gregory. He also urged boaters to “prepare for the worst.” Barrow said, “If you plan to head out on the water, remember to have a life jacket, VHF marine-grade radio, signaling devices, and an emergency personal locator beacon to contact the first responders in case you are in need of assistance.”
Read more at https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/06/us/charles-gregory-missing-st-augustine/index.html and see the video below:
