The sun was starting to dip low on the horizon off Nantucket island when fishing buddies Nicholas Whitbeck and Joe Tormay spotted what they thought was a dead whale.

 

Squinting closer, they noticed what appeared to be a man perched on top of the “whale,” waving his hat.

 

The whale turned out to be a capsized fishing boat that the man — who had lost his cell phone when his boat tipped over — had been using to stay above the water as he tried to attract attention from passing vessels.

 

If nobody responded, the man faced a long and chilly Saturday night on water about 55 degrees F to 58 degrees F (12.8 degrees C to 14.4 degrees C) — cold enough for hypothermia to set in quickly.

 

Whitbeck said they’d just relocated to an area with fewer fishing vessels when they spotted the object in the distance.

 

“Joe initially pointed it out, thinking that there was possibly a dead whale on the horizon a couple miles from us or less,” Whitbeck said. “It ended up looking a lot more like a boat that had capsized.”

 

See more at wpri.com.