The sun was starting to dip low on the horizon off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Oct. 19 when fishing buddies Nicholas Whitbeck and Joe Tormay spotted what they thought was a dead whale on the horizon.
Squinting closer, they noticed what appeared to be a man perched on top of the “whale” waving his hat.
The “whale” turned out to be capsized fishing boat that the man—who had lost his cell phone when his boat tipped over—had been using to stay above the water as he tried to attract attention from passing vessels.
If nobody responded, the man faced a long, chilly—and lonely—night on the water which was about 55-58 degrees, enough for hypothermia to set in quickly….