ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — The Coast Guard said in a Tuesday release that their team pulled off an early morning rescue today when a 68-year-old man's boat became disabled near Camden.
They said when they reached the man, he only had half an hour of battery life left on his cell phone, and no other communication devices on the boat.
A response boat from Elizabeth City towed the man and his disabled boat safe and sound to the Coinjock Boat Ramp, where his wife picked him up.
Magen Bloch, command duty officer at Coast Guard Sector North Carolina command center, said the lack of a radio on his boat could have made this a very dangerous situation.
"It’s always best to have two, three, even four different means of communication onboard your vessel when you’re out on the water," Bloch wrote in the release. “Cell phones can be unreliable with reception and battery issues, so we always recommend having a VHF marine radio onboard, since the Coast Guard continuously monitors channel 16 for distress calls.”