THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702150349
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COROLLA LENGTH: 60 lines
Searchers hunted the ocean waters off this northern Outer Banks resort area Friday for signs of a 49-year-old Maryland man believed to have fallen overboard before his 28-foot sailboat went aground on the beach.
The sailor had left Norfolk on Wednesday, headed for the Virgin Islands, officials said Friday. His name has been withheld by the U.S. Coast Guard until his family is notified.
Kevin Morris, a Kill Devil Hills pool-builder working at a nearby house, said he spotted the green and white sailboat heeling on its right side about 20 feet from the shore. Debris from the vessel was scattered more than a quarter-mile along the sand: logbooks, charts , clothes, groceries, a spear gun, flares, bagged cigarettes, a 12-pack of Budweiser and a cookie tin with the words ``cookies to take on trip'' printed on yellow-notebook paper and taped to the top.
Morris called 911 and then hurried back to the beach. Slogging through the surf, he said he boarded the boat to check for occupants. Three propane tanks were still leaking fuel. A small dinghy remained tied to the stern.
By the time rescuers arrived at about 11 a.m., the boat had beached, its masts ripped from its decks, a tangled mass of lines and stays, the white letters ``Daisy'' revealed on the tipped stern.
``It looked ransacked - you could tell it was beat up in the surf,'' Morris said of the boat. ``I think he was pretty close to the shore - I think he was sailing at night with his sails up.''
Emergency personnel from the Currituck County Sheriff's office, local fire stations and the Coast Guard were on the scene all afternoon, searching the beaches near the beached vessel and the waters fives miles offshore along 12 miles of shoreline. A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft was launched at about 3:45 p.m. from the Elizabeth City air station, flying through misty skies over 50 miles of the coast and in the area 50 miles offshore. The boat was beached 12 miles south of the Virginia-North Carolina border near Corolla.
Petty Officer Stephen Baker said from Coast Guard headquarters in Portsmouth, Va., that a person could survive for about four hours in the 43-degree seas. Conditions Friday morning were calm with light fog, but were reportedly rough the day before.
Morris said he theorizes that since the missing man was obviously a well-prepared sailor, he may have had the foresight to put on survival gear when the seas were rough. If that was the case, he said, the man could withstand the frigid waters for a far longer time.
``Personally, I think there's a real good chance he'll get out of the water alive, considering the way this guy was prepared,'' Morris said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
DREW C. WILSON Photos
The Virginian-Pilot
Corolla Volunteer Fire Department firefighter Doug Brindley, above,
sorts through debris found on the beach from the sloop Daisy.
At right, Coast Guard investigators Kirk Schaner and Carl Mann
examine the boat's bottom. The pilot of the 28-foot vessel has not
been located, despite air, sea and ground searches.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT BOAT MISSING PERSONS MAN OVERBOARD