Man overboard on Lake Michigan

At 0230 eastern time, the 1000' freighter Stewart J. Cort lost a man overboard approximately 2.5 miles east of Big Sable Point. Several other commercial vessels and coast guard assets are moving to intercept. The man was in jeans, with no PFD.

If anyone is in the area today, keep a lookout please. Contact USCG Sector Lake Michigan if you see anything.

Some properly hellish stuff. I can't imagine being in the water watching my boat steam away without me.

There is a cluster of boats in the area north of Ludington, searching now. Tracking on Marine Traffic. The water temp went from 72 to 48 in the last two weeks. Not good.

Wayfarer said:

At 0230 eastern time, the 1000' freighter Stewart J. Cort lost a man overboard approximately 2.5 miles east of Big Sable Point.

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Is that a typo? I would think it should be west.

Donsan said:

Is that a typo? I would think it should be west.

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Oops, yeah. 2.5- 4 miles west of big sable.

Very sad.
Prayers for a successful conclusion.


OD

Turns out I know the guy. I've worked with him many times. I'm not terribly surprised to hear that he may have jumped. Pretty selfish. He had kids.

Wayfarer said:

Turns out I know the guy. I've worked with him many times. I'm not terribly surprised to hear that he may have jumped. Pretty selfish. He had kids.

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Very sorry to hear that. On a lot of levels.
Any reason he may have jumped?

The latest information I have says he was extremely intoxicated. The captain clocked him at .36 on the breathalyzer. The captain called the coast guard, hoping to put the man off before he hurt himself or anyone else, as he was throwing quite a tantrum. He heard the captain's plan, took off, jumped over the rail before anyone could stop him, with both middle fingers in the air, and disappeared immediately. Six freighters, a coast guard 45 footer and a helicopter searched for about 12 hours, and have now stopped looking.

I heard the call go in, but my boat was too far away, and too slow to make a difference.

What a waste. So stupid.

Real shame.
Especially for those left behind.

Wayfarer said:

The latest information I have says he was extremely intoxicated. The captain clocked him at .36 on the breathalyzer.

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Alarmingly high concentration. At that level anything is possible, including death from the alcohol itself, and in a way that`s what happened. Only a regular heavy drinker would be up and about at that level.

Wayfarer said:

Turns out I know the guy. I've worked with him many times. I'm not terribly surprised to hear that he may have jumped. Pretty selfish. He had kids.

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Why were you really surprised that the crewman jumped how much did you know about him, if you weren't on his ship how do you know what he did in the last minutes of his life

major said:

Why were you really surprised that the crewman jumped how much did you know about him, if you weren't on his ship how do you know what he did in the last minutes of his life

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You're right, I don't know. I wasn't there, and all of my information is second hand. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on this situation. All I can say is that I worked with him for a couple of years, and when I heard it was him, my first thought was 'oh, well that makes sense.'