Rick Garland had just finished a day of dragging for periwinkles outside Portland Harbor on Tuesday and turned his fishing boat, the Christina & Caelyn, back toward Hobson’s wharf when his crewman saw what he thought was a harbor seal.
“I looked over and said ‘That’s not a seal,'” Garland recalled Wednesday. It was a man floating in the middle of the channel at the mouth of the harbor. At first, Garland thought it was someone swimming in a dry suit. As he got closer, he realized it was a man waving weakly for help, his winter coat floating on the water around his shoulders. Garland’s depth gauge told him the water temperature at the surface was 33.5 degrees.
The man wasn’t yelling and had almost no strength left.
“It was all he could do to wave. He didn’t reach up for the boat or nothing. He couldn’t move,” Garland said. “It was scary because I know how cold it is. My hands have been in the water all day long.”
Garland and his crewman John Coolbroth got the man’s arms over the boat’s gunwale and grabbed him by the belt, hoisting him onto the deck, where he lay face down, stiff and unmoving on the debris strewn on the deck. Garland issued a mayday call on the marine emergency channel and motored his small, double-ender from the waters off Bug Light toward Bell Buoy Park, where rescue workers from the Portland fire boat planned to meet them.
The man was making sounds but Garland couldn’t make out the words – possibly because he was so cold and partly because the boat’s engine was loud. The Coast Guard determined later that the man had gone overboard from a Casco Bay Line ferry and had been in the frigid waters for about 20 minutes.
When the Christina & Caelyn arrived at the Fire Boat dock, rescue workers put warming pads inside the man’s clothing, wrapped him in a blanket and hoisted him out of the boat and onto a gurney, Garland said. He was treated and later released from Maine Medical Center.
The Coast Guard identified the man as John Richio, 55, of Portland. A person answering the door at Richio’s house Wednesday said he did not want to speak with a reporter.
Richio had apparently gotten aboard the Aucocisco III before its 2:15 p.m. departure for Peaks Island. A couple deck hands noticed him but did not recognize him as a regular passenger. He was walking with a cane but otherwise did not draw attention, said operations manager Nick Mavodones. Most of the 36 passengers spent the trip inside the cabin because the sea was calm but chilly, Mavodones said.
The boat’s captain was just leaving Peaks Island to return to the mainland when he heard the urgent marine broadcast that a man had been rescued from the water.
“Nobody reported it. The four-person crew didn’t see anything,” Mavodones said.
Richio told the Coast Guard that he fell off the Aucocisco III.
Mavodones said it is rare for someone to go overboard a ferry. On the few occasions when it has happened, it has usually been intentional.
“The last person that went in the water dove off the upper deck of the Machigonne. I think it was June of last year,” Mavodones said. He said that is against federal law. It is unsafe and the boat’s crew must stop and retrieve the person if they are aware of someone going overboard.
“More often than not, historically, it’s been somebody who had something to drink or been dared by somebody,” Mavadones said. The crew did not see Richio go overboard Tuesday and Mavadones said he did not know what the circumstances were that caused him to go overboard. The Coast Guard requires ferry railings to be 42 inches high and that all gates be secured while underway, he said.
“Somebody would have to be sitting on a railing or going out a window,” Mavodones said. “It’s a rare occurrence. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.”
The Coast Guard is investigating the incident as a marine casualty.
“We have to find out how and why he fell from the ferry,” in part to prevent that from happening in the future, said Lt. Karen Kutkiewicz. The investigation will be based on interviews with Richio, the ferry operator and the fishing boat captain.
The Coast Guard praised Garland for his response, and for being at the right place at the right time.
“He was thinking he was recovering a body,” said Kutkiewicz. The man was conscious and suffering hypothermia, but could still use his extremities, she said.
Staff Writer Tux Turkel contributed to this report.
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