2 fishermen rescue man from capsized boat off coast of Nantucket

NANTUCKET - It was a race to the rescue off the coast of Massachusetts, as two fishermen saved a man from a capsized boat.

Rescued from capsized boat

It was coming up on four o'clock on Saturday afternoon when anglers Joe Tormay and Nick Whitbeck were about to make their biggest catch of the day. The pair had been fishing northeast of Nantucket when they noticed something in the distance, about half a mile away, that caught their eye.

"Originally, I sort of thought it was a dead whale or something like that," said Tormay. "And then, obviously, then realized and asked Nick, I'm like, 'Hey, I think there's a guy waving on top of that.'"

The duo raced toward the capsized vessel and alerted the Coast Guard along the way. When they got close enough, they saw an older gentleman sitting on top of his capsized boat. They threw him a lifejacket and worked to get them on their boat.

55-degree water

"He was only a set of arms out there waving for help," said Whitbeck. "So, we were extremely lucky to have found him there at that time."

The anglers said the water temperature was roughly 55 degrees. The man told them a rogue wave capsized his boat before he had time to think. He stated he had been on top of his boat for over an hour and other vessels had passed by without noticing him.

"For us to pull up at that time of day is somewhat of a miracle in that instance," said Whitbeck.

The man was ultimately moved to a Coast Guard boat where he was given a change of clothes and a blanket to warm up. He reported having no other injuries.