Coast Guard Searching For Missing Boater Off Salisbury Beach
SALISBURY (CBS) – One man was rescued and another is missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Salisbury Tuesday evening.
Two men were spotted clinging to the capsized skiff about 150 yards off Salisbury Beach at about 5:40 p.m. A witness called police and the harbormaster who arrived to discover that one boater had made it to the jetty on his own. Neither man was wearing a life-jacket at the time.
The man was taken to the hospital as a precaution. By then, a Coast Guard helicopter and 47-foot rescue boat had arrived to comb the rough waters off the beach and the mouth of the Merrimack River.
The crew of the rescue boat spotted the second man, but were struck by a large wave. "While attempting to rescue him from the churn, the boat and crew were struck by an 8 to 10 foot breaking wave," the Coast Guard said. "When they recovered from the impact, the man was nowhere in sight."
The Coast Guard plans to continue the search Wednesday morning.