# Sad news - Sea Tow captain lost in Great Egg inlet



## ottos (Aug 12, 2008)

A 49' Sea Tow vessel and her captain went missing on Tuesday while taking the boat from Atlantic City (Absecon Inlet) to Somers Point, NJ (Great Egg Inlet). The latest news is that the ship has been located near the entrance of Great Egg. No sign of the captain.

News article

Older article


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## bobperry (Apr 29, 2011)

*Re: Sad news*

George Jones died yesterday. That's sad too.


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## carl762 (Jan 11, 2010)

*Re: Sad news*

Sad story and very sad website too.


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## mad_machine (Dec 16, 2012)

*Re: Sad news*

great egg inlet is a mess.. last time I went through it, the channel zigzagged through it with some areas having breakers on either side. Very nerve wracking.

Sadly, we have been following this story locally. I can only hope it was quick with these cold water temps


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## ottos (Aug 12, 2008)

UPDATES:

Sunken Cape Hatteras raised, shows no visible clues on why it sank

Boat found in Great Egg Harbor off Ocean City, captain still missing

The second article has some info on conditions at the time.

.


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## JonEisberg (Dec 3, 2010)

ottos said:


> UPDATES:
> 
> Sunken Cape Hatteras raised, shows no visible clues on why it sank
> 
> ...


"No visible clues as to why it sank...", huh?

Just a wild guess, but I'd venture that attempting to run Great Egg Inlet in 10' seas, during a gale out of the NNE, might just have had something to do with it...

Yet another one that appears difficult to fathom, what was he doing out there to begin with, especially with a boat that could have been run down to Somers Point from AC on the inside...


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## mad_machine (Dec 16, 2012)

aye.. the intercoastal would have been easier. guess he did not want to wait for a couple of bridges


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## ottos (Aug 12, 2008)

On it's surface, I'd agree, Jon. But, I think that those conditions were exaggerated by the trooper. I think I would have remembered wind that high that morning. 

What seems odd is the inordinate amount of time between departure and the EPIRB signal being received....3 hours. Absecon Island is 10 miles long or so,,,,even in rough weather he should have done it in much less.

As far as the 'visible clues' I think they meant obvious hull damage i.e. there wasn't a big gash in the hull.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

Little Egg can get nasty. One article speculated that he might have hit submerged dredging equipment. 

This guy was an experienced captain. He's probably run these inlets more than we will in a lifetime and he was in a 45 foot boat. Probably not good to second guess here...


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## JonEisberg (Dec 3, 2010)

ottos said:


> On it's surface, I'd agree, Jon. But, I think that those conditions were exaggerated by the trooper. I think I would have remembered wind that high that morning.


Yeah, I think those estimates of the breeze are likely high, but it was still blowing a steady 25 up and down the coast that day... Of course, the sea state would have been the most important factor, and all the offshore buoy reports confirm that seas were running around 10 feet, or more... Here's the report from the Delaware Buoy, for example:










Marine Buoy Forecast | Weather Underground

I'd have to be pretty desperate to attempt Barnegat, for example, with a 10' sea running out of the NE - and it's a far better inlet than Great Egg, IMHO... The only thing he would have had in his favor that morning, was the fact he was hitting it at high water...



ottos said:


> As far as the 'visible clues' I think they meant obvious hull damage i.e. there wasn't a big gash in the hull.


Of course... However, the fact that the boat was found inverted, with the wheelhouse 'crushed', would seem to be a fairly strong indication that the boat may have capsized...


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## ottos (Aug 12, 2008)

Jim, I'm no one to second guess..... but it was Great Egg Inlet, not Little Egg. I don't know how GE compares to Little Egg, but it is a worse mess since Sandy. Breakers are regularly visible across large parts of the inlet.

Jon, no doubt about the capsize, just the question "when?" 

Lots of theories, hopefully something to be learned from it in the end - other than the obvious.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

ottos said:


> Jim, I'm no one to second guess..... but it was Great Egg Inlet, not Little Egg. I don't know how GE compares to Little Egg, but it is a worse mess since Sandy. Breakers are regularly visible across large parts of the inlet.
> 
> Jon, no doubt about the capsize, just the question "when?"
> 
> Lots of theories, hopefully something to be learned from it in the end - other than the obvious.


Ottos, sorry I misread the name. But they sure sound similar...

Either way it's a sad time for his family.


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## mad_machine (Dec 16, 2012)

they do sound similar.. but even on a good day, the Great Egg is a hard inlet to navigate. I would not want to think about traversing it in 10 foot seas with a 25 knot gale blowing. Those breakers were probably running close to 20 feet in places


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## JonEisberg (Dec 3, 2010)

mad_machine said:


> they do sound similar.. but even on a good day, the Great Egg is a hard inlet to navigate. I would not want to think about traversing it in 10 foot seas with a 25 knot gale blowing. Those breakers were probably running close to 20 feet in places


20' seas that day would be stretching it a bit, as the water depth would generally not be sufficient to support waves of such height... However, I have little doubt running Great Egg that day would have been a real challenge, especially in such a boat...

It would be one thing to do it in a fast sportfisherman, with the power and speed to ride on the back of the same wave pretty much all the way in... But that Sea Tow boat is a slug in comparison, looks very similar to the sort of workboats in use by the Corps of Engineers... They can struggle to get up on a plane, are not primarily designed as an oceangoing boat, and that sort of semi-displacement hull could have been a real handfull in the conditions that day...



ottos said:


> Jim, I'm no one to second guess..... but it was Great Egg Inlet, not Little Egg. I don't know how GE compares to Little Egg, but it is a worse mess since Sandy. Breakers are regularly visible across large parts of the inlet.


Trust me, you don't want to mess with Little Egg Inlet in anything but the most benign conditions, and with some reliable and recent local knowledge... One of the worst of the navigable NJ inlets, IMHO - a very lengthy gauntlet, poorly marked with small buoys widely spaced, best run in a 25' center console on a flat calm day... The sportfishermen in Beach Haven and know Little Egg intimately might disagree, but I quit using LE more than 20 years ago, and wouldn't dream of attempting it in my own boat... On a day like last Tuesday, it would have been completely shut down, virtually impassable...

These guys got into trouble a few years ago in Little Egg, what they were doing anywhere near there on a day like this is hard to fathom...










Many locals consider the route via the unmarked channel described by the yellow line (what used to be considered 'Beach Haven Inlet') to be the preferred way in to LE Harbor/Great Bay, but the CG stopped marking that channel years ago... Again, local knowledge only applies...


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## ottos (Aug 12, 2008)

Body found on Ocean City beach identified as missing Sea Tow captain - pressofAtlanticCity.com: Breaking News

Rest in peace, Captain.

.


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## chef2sail (Nov 27, 2007)

The inlet in question is Great Egg Inlet not Little Egg Inlet.

Your description of Little Egg Inlet is very accurate though and I agree any sailboat thinking of traversing it is putting their boat and life in danger. Having kept a 28 ft. keel boat on Great Bay for a couple of years this was the closest inlet to us, but it was too treacherous to navigate with the shoals always moving.

On to Great Egg Inlet. I lived in Ocean City in the Gardens area for 18 years an overlooked this beautiful but equally treacherous inlet from by porch. I saw many rescues in this inlet. Over the years many boats ran aground on the long winding shifting shoals. The CG would go out weekly to sound the channel and moved the ball buoys remarking the edges. 

The major problem with these inlets is the shoals surrounding the passages in and out. The sudden rise in depth causes the small 2-3 ft ocean swell to become a 6 ft breaker with white water. In the cases of a wind parallel to the beach the breakers don't break directly toward the beach but may break across the channel push the underpowered boat onto the shoals. Add to this an opposing wind to current the waves are now running into a washing machine of turbulent water. 

All of these factors are impending danger for a sailboat which cannot dart between or go faster than the white water.

While some sailors do use these inlets, prudence when it gets rough overcomes their local knowledge and they stay put or don't venture in them.

NJ has 3 " safe inlets" ( Cape May, Absecon and Manasquan) which are straightforward and navigateable/ 

A fourth , Barnegat I use but only in ideal conditions as it is complicated by a shoal in the inlet, a crazy perpendicular cross across the back of the inlet, and shoals on the entrance's before the jetties.

Its sad to see yet another loose their life in Great Egg Inlet

RIP Captain. Fair winds following you in eternity.


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## souljour2000 (Jul 8, 2008)

I'm in sw Florida ... inlets here as everywhere can really suck with sailboats if your not careful...especially when there is wind...I suppose alot due to slow speed of sailboats...unable to stay with waves..and having tendency to hang your jibe-ass-end out to stern waves unless a maneuvering speed and tight helm is maintained....
Heading out ...would seem best doing so on the early to mid-low tide...

Coming in...doing so on the mid-to late high tide...seems reasonable....

Every inlet is a bit different...the problem ones exhibit their own particulary nasty qualities...only made worse depending on the moon and wind quarters and specific bathymetry and topography of the inlet in question.. it just takes one bad call out there sometimes...May the good mariner in question rest in peace...


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## mad_machine (Dec 16, 2012)

we will never know why he chose the route he did. For the amount of time it took him to go from Absecon inlet to Great Egg, and with the seas that were running, he could have run down the intercoastal for a drama free trip.

I think I went to school with his sister, but I do not know if she was or not. Sometimes the boating community in South Jersey is a VERY small one


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## TakeFive (Oct 22, 2009)

mad_machine said:


> we will never know why he chose the route he did. For the amount of time it took him to go from Absecon inlet to Great Egg, and with the seas that were running, he could have run down the intercoastal for a drama free trip.


I was wondering whether he went outside because he had a service call out there. This would be well documented from VHF monitors or phone logs. Has anyone heard about it?


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## ottos (Aug 12, 2008)

There was no call he was responding to. They haven't been specific why he had to take boat to a marina in Somers Point, but that was the destination. 

I looked up the his boat on MarineTraffic.com to see if there was any AIS history available, but the last info they had on the boat was months old. Coverage here is very spotty...the receiving station looks like it is in Harvey Cedars...quite some distance away.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

A real shame. With boats starting to splash at our marina there's been a lot of speculation about the condition of the inlets since Sandy. Hopefully there won't be more of these kinds of stories...


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