One Morning at Kill Devil Hills
And Some Thoughts on EPIRBS Rentals
By Bob Adriance
Ryan Kingsbury, a surfer, was checking out the waves one morning at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina when he spotted a sailboat that seemed to be having trouble just beyond the surf line. Ryan watched as the situation quickly went from iffy to desperate; a breaking wave picked up the boat and catapulted it toward the beach.
The sailboat had been en route from Annapolis, Maryland to Florida. The man seen in the photo, who remained steadfastly at the helm, escaped without injury. Ryan said the man’s wife had been down below and was also unharmed but was badly shaken.
The boat’s anchor line was fouled in the prop and there may have been a problem with the sail. Ryan asked the man why he hadn’t opted to bring the boat down the Intracoastal Waterway, which is protected and much safer than the notorious currents that swirl around the Outer Banks. The man, according to Ryan, didn’t seem to know what the Intracoastal Waterway was.
That’s not as crazy as it sounds. There have been many accounts of boats that got into trouble offshore because their skippers hadn’t done their homework. Three summers ago, a 20’ sailboat that had been en route from Key West, Florida to Newport, Rhode Island was dismasted in a squall off the coast of South Carolina. The only man aboard activated a “mini EPIRB”, an older 121 MHz model, which was no longer being monitored by the Coast Guard. For the next two weeks, the boat drifted slowly northward in the Gulf Stream until a passing cruise ship spotted it off Cape Henry, Virginia. By the time the man was rescued, he had lost 85 pounds and was badly dehydrated. The boat was abandoned (Claim #0702828).
