A 16-year-old Darien boy was boating on Long Island Sound near Long Neck Point on Wednesday when the 21-foot Mako power boat he was in broke down, and he had to drop anchor.
About two hours later, after his father went looking for him from the shore and his brother called police, the boat with the boy in it was found and the teenager was taken to shore. If the boy had been out on the sound for much longer, according to a police news release, he likely would have suffered hypothermia.
Police gave this additional account of what happened:
At about 6 p.m., the boy’s brother called police, saying he hadn’t been able to call his brother’s cell phone. The police marine division and the Noroton Fire Boat were dispatched, and the U.S. Coast Guard was notified.
Darien Police Marine Unit boat
Police also went to the Long Neck Point area, where they met the boy’s father, who was there to see if he could spot the vessel from shore. The father said the boat is a 21-foot Mako with a center console.
The new Darien police patrol boat (“Darien 127”), which was first put into service last October, has a “FLIR” (short for Forward Looking Infrared) camera — part of the equipment and package donated to the town by the Darien Foundation.
As soon as police left the harbor and turned on the FLIR, it showed a small boat matching the description of the Mako. Police used high-powered LED flood lights (also donated by the foundation) to light the area and confirmed the position of the Mako.
The sailor told police that the boat had broken down about two hours earlier, and his phone battery had died. The VHF radio for the boat hadn’t been hooked up, either. The boy had fired three flares, then decided to lie down in the boat to try to keep warm.
Although the outside temperature was only 35 degrees and dropping, the boy didn’t need any medical attention. He was brought onto the police vessel, which towed the Mako to the Darien Boat Club. The Coast Guard and Noroton Fire Department were told their help wasn’t needed.
“It was later determined that the boater was properly licensed and although he was not in violation of any boating regulations, he was advised to better prepare prior to going out in dangerous conditions,” police said in the news release.