Coast Guard finds man clinging to ice chest miles off of Texas coast, officials say

A man was sailing with friends in the Texas Gulf when he fell off the boat and clung to an ice chest until rescuers arrived, officials said.

The Coast Guard received a call for help at 4:43 p.m. on June 10, after the man fell off a sailboat roughly 12 miles away from Corpus Christi, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

The man wasn’t wearing a life jacket, but held on to an ice chest to stay afloat, the release said. The two other adults on board soon lost sight of the man as he floated away.

Coast Guard crews launched a rescue boat and a helicopter and began searching, the release said. The boat crew spotted him at 6:15 p.m. and pulled him out of the water.

Despite his life-threatening experience, the man didn’t suffer any injuries, so the Coast Guard took him back to the sailboat he tumbled off of, the release said.

While an ice chest likely saved the man’s life, it’s not a reliable substitute for proper safety devices, the Coast Guard said.

“Wearing a life jacket while boating is the only way to guarantee you will be able to stay afloat if you fall overboard,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacob Bounds, operations specialist, Sector Corpus Christi, said. “If you’re on a small vessel, a portable marine radio can also serve as a critical link between you and the Coast Guard during an emergency.”

Corpus Christi is roughly 210 miles southwest of downtown Houston.

This story was originally published June 11, 2023 at 8:26 AM with the headline "Coast Guard finds man clinging to ice chest miles off of Texas coast, officials say."