Fishing Charter Crew Makes Two Rescues in One Day

A 24-foot Mako with four passengers onboard capsized last week in the Ambrose Channel, the main shipping channel serving the ports of New York and New Jersey. Three of the boaters were tossed into the water after hitting the towline of a passing tugboat. The fourth was able to cling to the overturned vessel.

The crew of Capt. Dave, a charter boat fishing nearby, was alerted to the accident and high-tailed it to the scene, where they were able to pick up the man clinging the the capsized Mako. (Coast Guard boats and NYPD helicopters were able to rescue one of the men in the water and retrieved the bodies of the others, who had already drowned.)

After passing the stunned boater over to the Coast Guard, the crew (seen above, from left to right: Captain David Paris, Peter Paris, Paul Paris, and Ralph Giovacco) was on its way back to shore when they spotted a windsurfer off a jetty at Rockaway Point. The 46-year-old windsurfer was trying to travel nine miles from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to Staten Island, New York. He was blown off course after his sail broke off and had been clinging to his board for 6½ hours before the crew of Capt. Dave came along.