FREEPORT – A South Freeport man returned home safely in the early morning hours of Aug. 8 after his small boat got stuck during low tide off Sow and Pigs islands in Casco Bay.

A Coast Guard helicopter from Cape Cod, Mass., found Albert Kelsey, 79, after about a 40-minute search, said Lt. Nick Barrow, the command center supervisor for the Coast Guard station in South Portland.

A Coast Guard rescue boat from South Portland and a boat from the Maine Marine Patrol were also involved in the search that began around midnight when Kelsey’s wife reported that her husband, who was alone on the boat, was overdue from his trip to the islands. Barrow said Kelsey, who was an experienced boater who had made many trips to the islands in the past, left at about 5:30 p.m. for what was expected to be a short trip.

Barrow said that Kelsey’s boat became stuck on the rocks at low tide and he was waiting for the tide to come back in so he could refloat his boat. Kelsey had no cell phone or marine radio on the boat with him, Barrow said, adding that a radio was recommended but not required for a boat the size of the one Kelsey was on.

Once the helicopter located the boat, a rescue swimmer went into the water to determine Kelsey’s condition, finding him cold, but otherwise unharmed, Barrow said. Kelsey elected to stay with his boat until the tide came in and the Maine Marine Patrol waited with him until he was able to get off the rocks and escorted him back to Freeport.