Two Nantucket fishermen made a life-saving catch this weekend, saving a frantic fellow fisherman clinging to what was left of his capsized boat.
"I sort of saw out of the corner of my eye, something a little unusual," said Joe Thormay. "At first, I thought it was maybe, like, a dead whale."
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Thormay and Nick Whitbeck were out Saturday afternoon testing some lures for their company, Island X Lures, when they saw something on the horizon.
"We were sort of both looking, and then that is when we realized there is somebody waving sort of frantically on top of what happened to be an overturned vessel," Whitbeck said.
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The two packed up as fast as they could and raced to the fisherman in distress.
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"It was scary at first, that we got there, and he later told us that he had been out there for an hour, and he had also had three boats go by, when he couldn't get any of their attention," Whitbeck added. "That's when it kind of hit how lucky this situation was, that we were able to get to him."
Working together, the two were able to get close to the fisherman's boat and throw him a lifejacket. Thormay, who used to be in the Coast Guard, also called for more help.
"The way he explained it on the boat, he was fishing down a rip line, and we did have waves, there was no wind, it was calm, we had rollers that were four-to-six-plus feet that would occasionally come through, and I think in almost a perfect scenario, he got caught in the rip and it rolled over his stern and immediately flipped the boat," Whitbeck explained.
The two say they are so thankful they were in the right place at the right time. They connected with the wife of the fisherman on Sunday and learned he is doing great. They added that his boat is in the shop, and they hope to see him back on the water very soon.
"We were a couple of hours away from sunset, so, nightfall, so who knows. One of those things were there are strong rip currents, tides get moving over there, and once night hits, that is a whole other game," Thormay said. "We are very thankful that he's able to be on dry land and everything worked out well."
