NRP Officer and Ridge Firefighters Rescue Wind-Beaten Boaters from Sandbar

     Point Lookout, Md. -- Maryland Natural Resources Police and Ridge Volunteer Fire Department personnel rescued two people from a sailboat at the mouth of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay after being battered around by strong winds and high seas.

     On Tuesday at approximately 10:30 pm, Robert G. Weber, 59, and Adam J. Marshall, 33, both from Boston, Virginia were sailing south in the Chesapeake Bay in a 1962 28-foot Pierson sailboat. The vessel went a ground on a sandbar after they mistook a lighted hazard buoy for a channel marker.

     The strong wind conditions and incoming tide produced 2 to 4 seas in the area of the shoal which prevented them from freeing themselves. At 1:20 am, fearing for their own safety, the occupants called 911 and rescue units from the Natural Resources Police, Maryland State Police Aviation, Coast Guard, and Ridge Volunteer Fire Department responded to the area.

     High winds prevented both Coast Guard and MSP helicopter units from reaching the boaters after multiple attempts. A 41-foot Coast Guard cutter from Station St. Indigoes was unable to reach the vessel due to sea conditions and shallow water depths. After three attempts, a NRP officer and two Ridge Fire Department personnel aboard an 18-foot NRP patrol boat were able to reach the vessel and retrieve the stranded mariners.

     NRP stood by the vessel until 7 am, when the sea and weather conditions had subsided enough to allow NRP to safely retrieve the vessel and tow it to Point Lookout State Park.