Late-night reveler is rescued after 5 hours floating in ocean
Published: July 25, 2005
After a night spent partying on a houseboat in Woods Hole harbor, an allegedly drunk man tumbled into the water yesterday and spent more than five hours floating at sea, prompting a massive search by local authorities before he was rescued by a passing boat, officials said.
”He obviously was a pretty strong swimmer,” Falmouth’s harbormaster, Gregg P. Fraser, said. ”He’s very fortunate that the water temperature is where it is now.”
At about 3 a.m., Richard Sanger, of Falmouth, went off the side of a friend’s houseboat, one of several in Woods Hole’s Great Harbor that were hosting parties late into Saturday night, officials said. The festivities were so raucous that numerous complaints were lodged with the harbormaster for loud music and noise, Fraser said.
A cellphone call from a friend of Sanger’s alerted authorities that he had fallen overboard. A search by the Coast Guard and other agencies followed, starting at about 3:45 a.m.
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Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel)At 8:45 a.m., Sanger, 38, was pulled aboard the private boat Fin-atic near Woods Hole Pass, and the Coast Guard was notified.
Sanger was taken to Falmouth Hospital, where he was treated for slight hypothermia, officials said.
During the search, one of five divers from the Falmouth Fire Department looking for Sanger, had a scare when his regulator, which adjusts air pressure from the tank to the mouth, malfunctioned at more than 50 feet underwater, Falmouth Fire Deputy Glen Rogers said. ”We’re very happy that [Sanger] was found and that he was found to be in good shape,” Rogers said.
But, he said, ”We’re not really laughing at this incident; we almost lost a fellow doing this.”
The diver, whose name was not released, was treated for decompression injuries at Falmouth Hospital.
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