Another Radio Drama

Oriental, NC
N 35 01.404 W 076 41.981

In past blogs, we wrote about real life and death dramas that we heard on our VHF radio. Today we heard another one.

A fishing vessel called to report that one of their men was missing and presumed overboard. Their call came at 0945 local time. They told the Coast Guard that they had last seen the man at 0700 as they left Beaufort Inlet. He was first missed nearly 3 hours and 35 nautical miles later., SSW of the inlet. The 35 year old missing man did not have a life jacket and it was unknown how good he could swim.

The Coast Guard responded with a search helicopter and a C130. Also a nearby war ship volunteered to help and joined in the search. Now, as I write this, it is nearly 10 hours since the man was last seen and he has not been found yet. How sad.

Anyhow, we sailed from Ocracoke to Oriental today. Tomorrow, we'll fetch mail waiting for us General Delivery, Oriental. This is the first time we've received snail mail since, Boothbay Harbor Maine. That sure seems like a long time ago. Jenny collects our mail and forwards it to us when we know where we'll be. I suspect that the next mail stop will be Fernandina Beach, Florida sometime in November.

We requested an absentee ballot from Vermont. They haven't even come to Jenny's house yet and I have no idea where to tell her to forward them to if they came today. We may be disenfranchised because snail mail is so slow for cruising sailors.