HARKERS ISLAND, N.C. – The Coast Guard suspended searching for a missing boater who disappeared after his boat capsized in Cape Lookout Bight around 8 p.m. Friday night.
The crew of the Just Wiper, a boat in the area, reported to Coast Guard Sector North Carolina at 7:48 a.m. Saturday that they had located a capsized vessel with one person clinging to the hull and one person unaccounted for.
The Just Wiper’s crew rescued the man who had sat on top of the capsized boat since the night before and brought him to Coast Guard Station Fort Macon, where EMS met him and brought him to Carteret General Hospital in Morehead City.
“The boater did not show any signs of injuries, aside from fatigue, due to exposure. He was transported to Carteret General Hospital,” said Mathew Schirle, a search and rescue watchstander at Sector North Carolina.
Station Fort Macon and Air Station Elizabeth City crews searched for the second person in the water for six hours with a 25-foot and 24-foot rescue boat and a rescue helicopter without finding anything. Also involved in the search were Tow Boat US, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and Park Service.
