Rescue of Atrevida II: Two New Jersey men adrift at sea, then found - USA TODAY

His dependable was breached up by a atrocious connection. But connected Dec. 3, Joe DiTomasso near a connection with his daughter: The sailboat travel to the Florida Keys was going well. 

Then the 76-year-old, a former auto mechanic from New Jersey, stopped responding. 

For the adjacent 10 frantic days, fears grew arsenic the soundlessness continued. The Coast Guard launched a monolithic search of 21,000 quadrate miles of water for DiTomasso and his friend, Kevin Hyde, 65. 

The 2 men and a canine named Minnie had near New Jersey connected Thanksgiving play connected a 30-foot sailboat bound for Marathon, Florida, but hadn't been heard from since reaching the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

“We were mentally preparing for the worst,” Nina DiTomasso, 37, told USA TODAY.

That was until Tuesday, when a tanker vessel spotted a sailboat, seemingly adrift, much than 200 miles disconnected the seashore of Delaware. On deck, men waved their arms, and a flag. The tanker came alongside and plucked them to safety.

“We each conscionable started screaming erstwhile we heard the news, crying and cheering, due to the fact that it was conscionable truthful unbelievable,” Nina DiTomasso said.

By Wednesday evening, they were backmost adjacent the New Jersey enactment again, motoring into New York Harbor, this clip aboard a 600-foot ship. 

When the tanker picked them up, Nina DiTomasso said, the men were 'just ace drained." Exhausted, hardly capable to talk, the men had near much unknown astir their travel and the destiny of their boat. Only 1 happening was for sure: They were home. 

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Destined for warmer weather

DiTomasso’s household said the brace were boating friends and were seeking warmer upwind for the winter.

DiTomasso was an experienced boater, his girl said, who had agelong worked arsenic an car mechanic but would often bargain distant to spell saltwater fishing. His experiences were chiefly connected powerfulness boats, she said.

“He was astatine the enactment each 2nd helium got,” she said. “He conscionable loved fishing.”

More recently, helium lived connected a boat successful a Cape May marina for portion of the year, wherever immoderate nicknamed him “Joey Tomatoes,” said David Reistad, 38, DiTomasso’s son-in-law. 

As the household gathered for Thanksgiving, DiTomasso was excited to articulation a person helium knew from the marina for a caller journey.

They would instrumentality the friend's sailboat from Cape May and caput southbound to Marathon, successful the Florida Keys.  

DiTomasso had done the travel before, though not successful a sailboat. 

“My Dad really did this erstwhile before, but with a antithetic acceptable of friends connected their boat. And helium had a large experience,” Nina DiTomasso said. “He was highly excited.”

Hyde's household could not beryllium instantly reached.

While DiTomasso's girl was assured successful her father's boating ability, she knew little astir his route. The two were readying to spell “go from larboard to port,” DiTomasso's girl said, but she didn’t cognize if each limb would way extracurricular the seashore successful unfastened water, oregon along the Intracoastal Waterway, which runs inland down the Atlantic seaboard. 

They near connected Nov. 27. Nina DiTomasso knew helium would person compartment service, and would telephone to support his household updated. 

The vas was a Catalina 30 sailboat, a popular coastal-cruising plan from 1 of the largest sailboat manufacturers. A emblematic exemplary would athletics a azygous mast with a two-sail sloop rig, and a tiny diesel engine. Without large modifications, it would person tanks for capable caller h2o to past 2 radical a fewer days. 

But dissimilar a emblematic achromatic fiberglass boat, this hull was a superb navy blue. The sanction "Atrevida II" graced its transom. The word, in Spanish, has respective meanings. One of them is "daring."

Into the unfastened sea

Her begetter began by calling household oregon friends with regular updates. 

Nina DiTomasso was astatine location extracurricular Philadelphia portion her dada was connected his trip. She said the unit was last heard from after leaving Oregon Inlet, connected the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

That meant the unit had already near down New Jersey and crossed the rima of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Ahead of them laic the coastal South and the bluish waters of Florida. But earlier that was the Outer Banks, the agelong of obstruction islands wherever waves and water currents roil up implicit shallow waters. Its shifting shoals agelong agone earned it the nickname "Graveyard of the Atlantic."

A person of the men said he'd been talking to DiTomasso when his phone died. At first, nary 1 panicked. He often forgot to complaint his phone. 

Another person asked astir the marina and recovered that Kevin’s telephone was seemingly dead, too. 

“So my Mom looked astatine my Dad's recognition paper statement, and helium didn't marque immoderate caller purchases” since Dec. 3, she said. “That's erstwhile we truly grew concerned.”

Days passed with nary word, past much days. On Dec. 11, the Coast Guard was notified that the 2 sailors were overdue and subsequently launched a hunt that would agelong from Florida to New Jersey, the bureau said. 

Coast Guard cutters and craft participated successful the hunt on with ships from the U.S. Navy and commercialized and recreational vessels. 

“They conscionable worked tirelessly, time and night. They sent retired planes to search, a chopper and they enactment it connected societal media,” Nina DiTomasso said. 

She said Coast Guard officials said that the vessel had antecedently reported problems with a generator and had tally aground but had past acceptable sail erstwhile again. 

But with nary compartment service, DiTomasso's household had nary thought wherever to find Atrevida II. They had nary thought however overmuch nutrient oregon h2o the men had connected board. 

Nina DiTomasso told 1 tv quality station, "My friends and everyone was saying, 'If anyone is going to past this, it's ‘Joey Tomatoes.'"

Reistad said helium disquieted from speechmaking online that if the boat had go disabled, it could person been pushed by currents on the Outer Banks and yet pulled on by the Gulf Stream.

That water stream is simply a almighty existent of h2o that flows northbound on the Atlantic Coast. Somewhere offshore – perhaps a fewer miles off, possibly arsenic acold arsenic 75 miles – a vessel would scope the borderline of the stream.

“They astir apt ended up drifting into the Gulf Stream” and “couldn't bash thing astir it but conscionable beryllium pulled up north,” Reistad said. “The temperatures the different time up present successful the northbound were 20-something degrees."

Once entering the Gulf Stream, a disabled boat would beryllium sucked inexorably northward, and farther and farther offshore, bound for the icy waters of the northbound Atlantic.  

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Spotted from a ship

On Tuesday, much than 2 weeks aft the men's travel began, cipher had heard from Atrevida II. 

Then idiosyncratic aboard the tanker Silver Muna, itself successful the midst of an Atlantic crossing carrying substance from Amsterdam, noticed a show successful the unfastened ocean. 

Aboard a tiny sailboat, 2 men waved their arms, and a flag. The hull of their vessel was a superb navy blue. 

Photos posted online by the Coast Guard uncover a spot astir the authorities of Atrevida II. In them the vessel has nary mast, meaning its sailing rig had been toppled. Some of the cablegram lifelines that ringing the borderline of the platform for safety, and different platform hardware, each look to beryllium smashed. 

Relatives said they aboriginal learned that the vessel had nary substance and nary power. Its radios and navigation instrumentality were inoperable aft a tempest adjacent Hatteras blew them disconnected course. 

After drifting, the men spent 2 days without water, cutting lines to propulsion retired the past drops, they said later. 

"They’re successful the mediate of the water with nary power, nary anything," Reistad said. "It's conscionable unbelievable.”

The men and a canine were brought aboard the tanker soon aft 4 p.m. An valuation by the ship’s aesculapian unit revealed nary contiguous concerns, the Coast Guard said.

“This is an fantabulous illustration of the maritime community’s combined efforts to guarantee information of beingness astatine sea,” Daniel Schrader, a Coast Guard spokesperson said successful a statement.

Schrader besides stressed the value of sailors traveling with what’s commonly known arsenic an “EPIRB” oregon Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. It allows radical connected a vessel to present their presumption to first responders successful an emergency.

By Wednesday evening, the vessel had arrived successful New York to beryllium reunited with family. Nina DiTamasso drove from her location successful Pennsylvania to conscionable him. 

DiTomasso said they experienced precocious winds and mountainous waves. He said the boat mislaid power, rigging and steering.

“I ne'er saw upwind truthful beardown — roaring,” helium told Coast Guard officials during a video showing the men being taken from the tanker to shore. 

Hyde praised the unit of the Silver Muna for spotting them given "the size of his vessel and the size of the ocean, compared to this toothpick I'm floating astir in," according to ABC7.

During their ordeal, DiTomasso said that helium wasn't definite he'd spot his household again, explaining what helped him propulsion through: "My granddaughter. And the transverse of Jesus. Every greeting I'd aftermath up and buss it and accidental the Our Father," helium said.

Coast Guard photos posted connected Facebook showed the men being welcomed successful New York connected Wednesday night, the canine successful tow. 

Nina DiTomasso said she planned to “just hug him” and past enactment successful New York with their father. The travel that started connected Thanksgiving play had not gone arsenic planned. Instead, she said, it ended with a "Christmas miracle." 

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Contributing: The Associated Press

Chris Kenning is simply a nationalist reporter. Reach him on Twitter @chris_kenning.