Miracle at sea
Published: August 27, 2005
Seven-year-old Tianna stood outside Cape Cod Hospital Wednesday afternoon with an important message for her father.
“I want to say I love you … and I don’t want him to (fish) anymore.”
The youngster’s father, Andrew Joseph, 29, of Eastham, was one of two men pulled from a life raft earlier that day after their boat, the Northern Wind, capsized and sank Monday about 35 miles southeast of Nantucket.
The other survivor is Shawn Balestraci, 32, of Gloucester. The captain, Edward Smith, of Deer Isle, Maine, drowned when the 50-foot scallop dragger went down.
Tianna’s mother, Laureen Field, who has two children with Joseph, said the fisherman “seems OK. He was just really glad to see the kids. He’s very sunburned and dehydrated.”
Field said she pulled Tianna out of summer camp and rushed her to the hospital when they got the news Wednesday that the two men had been located and flown by the Coast Guard to the hospital. Both men were still hospitalized in stable condition yesterday, being treated for dehydration, David Reilly, a hospital spokesman, said.
“Both are shaken up and exhausted. They’ve been though a tremendous ordeal,” he said. “My understanding is the biggest issue is exhaustion.” Neither man has yet talked publicly about their harrowing experience, Reilly added.
The boat left late Sunday night from its homeport in Hyannis and was due back Monday night. The boat’s owner, Seth Wahlstrom, also of Eastham, reported it overdue that evening.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Newlin said the Northern Wind had a full array of safety equipment, including two life rafts, but the boat’s emergency radio beacon failed to activate when it sank. Coast Guard planes and boats searched the waters off Nantucket Tuesday and Wednesday.
Joseph and Balestraci were found by the fishing vessel Atlantic Queen and then picked up by a Coast Guard helicopter. They told the Coast Guard that Smith didn’t make it onto the life raft.
“He went into the water and wasn’t wearing his life jacket,” Newlin said. “They saw him go under the water.” Nonetheless, the Coast Guard had begun plans Wednesday night for a search, Newlin said.
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