'It's a miracle': Two boaters thrown overboard, saved by fisherman near Marshfield
MARSHFIELD – Two people were rescued from waters off the coast of Marshfield on Tuesday after they were thrown overboard and their pleasure boat spiraled into the "circle of death."
Marshfield Harbormaster Mike DiMeo said the pair left Green Harbor on a 24-foot boat with a center console at about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday. Not long after, a local fisherman called in a report of two people overboard and an out-of-control boat less than a mile from Brant Rock Beach.
The boat had started spinning quickly for unknown reasons, DiMeo said, throwing the two boaters overboard.
"We call it 'the circle of death,'" he said. "(The boat) just kind of spins and spins around in a circle."
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The lobsterman who reported the incident was able to pull the two boaters aboard and bring them safely to shore. Boats out of the harbormaster's office were sent to the boat, which was spinning with no one on board.
"There was a lot of concern as to the location because it was just about three-quarter miles from Brant Rock Beach. If the circle of death stopped, if the wheel straightened out, it could have headed straight for the beach," DiMeo said.
First responders used a specialized tow rope to disable the engine, which slowed the boat enough that the harbormaster was able to come up alongside and turn off the engine.
"The boat still had about 40 gallons of gas, so it would have been a long time before it stopped on its own," DiMeo said.
Responders from the harbormaster's office were able to "establish a security zone" surrounding the boat about a mile wide to keep other boaters out of the way.
DiMeo said that because the vessel was relatively far from other boats and people – and because the boat was moving so quickly – they decided to err on the side of caution when it came to risking the lives of responders.
"The boat was turning near full throttle. It was quick and violent turns," he said. "It was pretty tight circles and relatively fast, so we just stayed with it, tracked it, notified the beach. We were pretty confident we could stop it if it went straight."
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DiMeo said they will likely never know exactly what happened to cause the boat to spin out of control. The boaters told him that because it happened so quickly, they think they may have hit something or were tangled in a lobster pot line.
"I know there are reports out there that they hit a rock, but that is completely false," DiMeo said. "There were no rocks even in the patch of the course they took, so that is completely false. We likely will never know why the boat did this, and it's a miracle that they weren't seriously hurt."
The odds of someone being hurt were particularly high because the two boaters were not wearing life jackets, nor were they tethered to the boat's kill switch, as required by the Coast Guard.
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"I cannot reinforce enough the importance of those two things," he said. "You are 80% more likely to be found if you are wearing a life jacket and more than 60% more likely to survive if wearing one."
A driver tethered to a kill switch is required to automatically turn off a propeller if the driver falls overboard.
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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Fisherman rescues two from runaway boat off the coast of Marshfield
