Portsmouth, Va. — The Coast Guard began searching Tuesday for a man aboard a 22-foot Bayliner taking on water near the Lookout Bight Jetty in Cape Lookout, N.C.
A man contacted Coast Guard Sector North Carolina Command Center watchstanders via VHF-FM channel 16 at approximately 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, reporting his vessel was disabled and taking on water, and he was going to abandon the vessel.
Sector North Carolina watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and dispatched crews aboard a 25-foot Response Boat – Small from Coast Guard Station Fort Macon, N.C., and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C.
A crew from TowBoat U.S. responded to the UMIB and met the RB-S crew on scene at approximately 11:15 p.m., where the crews began searching for the man in distress.
At approximately 3:15 a.m. Wednesday, a crew aboard a 47-foot Motor Life Boat from Station Fort Macon launched to relieve the RB-S crew.
At approximately 6:15 a.m., the MLB crew returned to the station, and a crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island, a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in Atlantic Beach, N.C., got underway to search. A second crew aboard a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Elizabeth City launched at sunrise to search.
The National Park Service began searching shoreside and with a boatcrew at approximately 7:30 a.m., and a CH-43 helicopter from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point Emergency Rescue Squadron “PEDRO” also joined the search.
The man is reported to be wearing blue jeans and a white shirt. Anyone with information about the identity of the caller is requested to contact the Coast Guard at 910-343-3880.
