Ferry saves 5 men from swamped boat

OCRACOKE ISLAND, N.C.

The ferry captain could barely see the lights of the upside-down boat in the water. He couldn't see the people clinging to it.

Donald Austin said he was initially puzzled by the dim glow directly in the Silver Lake's path in Big Foot Slough, the channel through Ocracoke Inlet.

"At first, I thought that it might be a reflection," he recounted about the Friday night rescue. "So I kept on moving. We got closer. That's when we hit them with the spotlight and that's when we seen them."

Not only were three men holding onto a flipped 16-foot Carolina skiff, but two others were floating about 200 feet away holding onto Styrofoam.

The 220-foot ferry had been heading back from the 2-1/4-hour Cedar Island-Ocracoke run about 7 p.m. It was clear, with a quarter moon and a southwest wind blowing 10 to 15 mph.

Two crew members launched the ferry's rescue vessel, and within 20 minutes the five men - who had been in the 60-degree water for as long as 90 minutes - were huddled, uninjured, under blankets in the heated lounge of the Silver Lake.

"They were shivering," Austin said. "They didn't need nothing. They were in good shape."

Such rescues are unusual in the state Ferry Division, said public information officer Lucy Wallace. Crews are trained for them, but she said there have been probably no more than five in the past five years.

Austin said the men were "highlanders" from Burlington, N.C., and on a fishing trip to Ocracoke. They said a swell "busted into the boat, filled her up and she turned over," he said.

Austin, 54, said he hasn't had much occasion to save people from the water during his 35 years with the Ferry Division. But the successful rescue was a satisfying exclamation point for his career; on Monday, Austin officially retired.

"That was good," he said. "It could've been worse. If we had no lights, we would've run over them."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com