Mobile phone saves men
Published: October 21, 2004
A mobile phone that worked in the submerged cabin of a 46-foot catamaran may have saved the lives of three men after their sailboat flipped over on Little Traverse Bay.
The U.S. Coast Guard, the Emmet County sheriff’s dive team and members of the Harbor Springs fire department were able to reach the men quickly after receiving a 911 call from the double-hulled boat Tuesday morning.
A wind gust tossed the catamaran over about 4 miles north of Bay Harbor in up to 6-foot seas, said Nicholas Gould, executive officer of the Coast Guard station in Charlevoix.
The men, whose names were not released, stayed dry because the cabin was watertight, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. The water temperature was 54 degrees.
Water began filling the cabin quickly as one of the men was freed from an emergency side hatch, Gould said. The others were rescued from the submerged main hatch.
All three were treated at the scene for mild hypothermia.
Sheriff Peter Wallin said he had worried about the divers going underneath the boat, where the rigging was submerged.
“They could have gotten tangled and trapped easily,” he said.
A salvage company was retrieving the catamaran.
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