Coast Guard rescuers along the Jersey shore can be busy in the summer. They get a few dozen distress calls every month. But it's the one they got Saturday night that left them amazed that no one was seriously hurt.
A dot in the water… But the 45 year old man being pulled up to a Coast Guard helicopter overnight beat the odds. He survived for four hours more than 40 miles off the coast of Cape May by treading water without a life preserver.
He was on his boat with a friend when he fell off.
His friend with no boating knowledge couldn't maneuver back.
The rain was heavy. The wind was gusting to 45 miles an hour when the coast guard got the man-overboard call from that friend.
The Coast Guard put out an all call for anyone in the area and a nearby foreign cargo boat raced to the scene.
The Maersk Wesport was in the area, among some other Mariners and responded.
Eventually getting there, the threw the man a life preserver and got him back onboard his own boat.
When coast guard rescuers arrived they decided it best to fly the man to the hospital. He's since been released and is ok.
Boaters says that's why anyone who comes aboard has to know the basics.
Because the coast guard knows from experience -- it's not often that everything falls in place like it did Saturday night.
The Coast Guard is still reviewing this case. There's no word on whether any citations will be given.