Coast Guard Rescues Man Clinging to Ice Chest Saturday

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — The Coast Guard rescued a man from the water near Corpus Christi Saturday. 

Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi watchstanders received a call on VHF-FM channel 16 at 4:43 p.m. that a man had fallen overboard from a 16-foot sailboat 12 miles off the Bob Hall Pier. The man was clinging to an ice chest and not wearing a life jacket; the two other adults aboard the sailboat had lost sight of him.  

Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and directed the launch of an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi and a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium from Coast Guard Station Port Aransas. 

The aircrew and boat crew searched for the boater until approximately 6:15 p.m., when the RB-M crew sighted him and pulled him from the water. The man was uninjured, so the boat crew returned him to the sailboat and his friends.

“Wearing a life jacket while boating is the only way to guarantee you will be able to stay afloat if you fall overboard,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacob Bounds, operations specialist, Sector Corpus Christi. “If you’re on a small vessel, a portable marine radio can also serve as a critical link between you and the Coast Guard during an emergency.”

No word from the Coast Guard on what was or wasn't in the ice chest.