Two people died and four were rescued in a boating accident on the Chesapeake Bay Saturday when their 25-foot boat capsized two miles south of Point Lookout State Park in St. Mary's County, according to Department of Natural Resources Police.After last night's thunderstorm, which went on for quite a while and dumped an inch and a half of rain on us, as often happens, the wind shifted to north, and increased to 25 knots or so:
Sgt. Brian Albert, a spokesman for the DNR police, said authorities were still on the scene and were trying to recover the boat. The victims were identified as two Lexington Park, Md., men — David Chase, 55, and David Fletcher, 43. "We think that the accident was due to rough seas, but we're not positive," Albert said.
The Coast Guard overheard a broadcast from a local charter boat captain asking for assistance, the agency said. The captain received a phone call from a relative of someone on board who had called them saying the 25-foot boat was taking on water, according to the Coast Guard. Waves of three to five feet had been reported at the time.
When we visited the beach this morning, it was still blowing hard, and was much cooler than yesterday. There wasn't any question in my mind about going out here, and the Point Lookout area is even worse in windy weather, as the Bay is wider, and has an even longer fetch for a north wind. A lot of tragedies (and even more near tragedies, I'm sure) have occurred around Point Lookout.
"The wind's pretty good so it’s kind of rough out there," Albert added. “It's going to impede our recovery of the boat.”They're fun to catch, and OK to eat, but they aren't worth dying for.
Saturday is the first day of the striped bass fishing season, and Albert said many people were out on the water.
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