Overview
- Coast Guard crews, which received an 8:12 p.m. Friday beacon for the 30-foot sailboat Jenny Lee, alerted the North Shore Regional 911 Center and set the response in motion.
- Essex police and fire worked with Coast Guard partners to launch a rescue boat, a 14-foot skiff, and a drone, then found the Jenny Lee listing off Coffins Beach near the river mouth.
- Rescuers located two brothers, ages 28 and 30, wading in chest-deep cold water and brought them aboard along with a small dog that had been floating in a plastic tote.
- One brother walked to help, while the other was carried about 250 yards through sand dunes to 2 Penny Lane, and both were taken by ambulance to a local hospital in stable condition for hypothermia.
- Police Chief and harbormaster Thomas Shamshak praised the teamwork, saying the case shows how emergency beacons and unified command help small boats get found fast in dangerous cold-water conditions.