Lobsterman Rescued At Sea, Kept Himself Afloat Using Ingenuity. (Great Read)
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Apparently, Sosinski said, Aldridge had been pulling on the cooler by the handle when it broke off and sent him careening off the boat's open stern. When Sosinski first called the Coast Guard, the officers asked if he’d found any sign of a suicide note, but “I knew it wasn’t nothing but an accident,” he said.
The Coast Guard put Sosinski in charge of setting up a 12-boat search flotilla 12 miles long, each a half-mile apart, sweeping up and down the coast to search for the lost seaman. Boats from Massachussets, Connecticut and Rhode Island participated in the search, and even Jimmy Buffet headed out to help.
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Immediately after falling overboard, Aldridge told Sosinski during a phone call from the Cape Cod hospital this morning, Aldridge swam toward a nearby lobster trap and using his pocket knife managed to cut the buoy free and wrap it around one arm. He then swam another half mile to reach another buoy for the other arm. For further buoyancy, Aldridge kept his Dunlop fishing boots wedged under each armpit.
During his 12 and a half hours of floating, Aldridge ran into a wide variety of sea life. At one point, seeing himself circled by fins, Aldridge pulled out his knife to defend himself only to determine that his companions were curious sunfish, not sharks. Though passing seagulls began to peck at Aldridge’s face, apparently the biggest worry was the small shrimp and crustaceans living in the buoys’ lines, which began to crawl up Aldridge’s arms and reportedly tried to climb into his mouth and ears.
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Aldridge’s core temperature had fallen to 94 degrees and he was suffering from muscle deterioration from dehydration when he was rescued. “It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Sosinski said, “we couldn’t see him in the water. He was wearing a blue shirt against the blue water.”
“But the shirt was the Anna Mary shirt from the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony,” Sosinski said, “It’s enough to make you believe in the will of God.”
http://easthampton.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/miracle-in-montauk-anna-mary-captain-speaks-on-aldridges-rescue
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