Yes Tim, that was a bad storm indeed, made worse by the fact it was slow moving. This boat sank on the night of Wed. 11/11. The worst tides & wind here in NJ weren't until early Friday(the 13th ) morning.
The Coast Guard did go back on the 12th and search and called it off on Thursday evening.

Mr Rose's body was found only wearing a T-shirt and trousers. No shoes. No lifejacket. The water temp here in early Nov was about 52 deg. F. The boat sank at 7:30 pm. The helo was there in an hour. He may have been tethered to the raft, either alive or already drowned and beneath the surface.. Or he may have been swimming freely during the time the CG was on scene and tethered himself to the raft after they left. But te raft was found with 2 survival suits unopened in it. If he had reached the raft, he was unable to board it. He was 73 years old.

I think he tied himself to the raft, succumbed and drowned before the CG arrived. The body would have been submerged and not visible from the surface or the air. Then the current brought his body and the raft "home" to the Carolina coast together. Later, near the Outer Banks, somehow his body slipped free. I hope they examined the arm flesh for signs of rope chafing, if that was even possible.
The raft and the body beached 7 miles apart, after traveling down the coast some 200 miles. Very Curious.


Coast Guard suspends search for 3 fishermen lost off Cape May
Friday, November 13, 2009
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Joe Rose was sitting in the wheelhouse of his fishing boat at a dock in Cape May Wednesday night when he heard the familiar crackle of his VHF radio.

Like any alert fisherman, Rose's attention was piqued when he heard Coast Guard officials talking about an emergency distress signal they had just received from a boat in trouble.

When they said the name of the boat, his heart sank.

The Sea Tractor. His brother's boat.

"It was devastating. It really was," Rose, 62, said of the radio transmission.

Coast Guard officials said the Sea Tractor, a 44-foot fishing boat, sank Wednesday night in the Atlantic Ocean, 20 miles east of Cape May, in big seas and high winds. Coast Guard rescue crews spent the night and most of yesterday searching the rough, chilly waters for the three men aboard the Sea Tractor: Kenneth Rose Sr., 74; his son Kenneth Jr., 49; and crewman Larry Forrest, 55, all from North Carolina.

Late yesterday afternoon, the Coast Guard ended its search for the three men. There are no plans to resume searching this morning, when conditions are expected to be even worse, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said. Seas were topping 20 feet in the search area, with winds gusting to 55 mph yesterday.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Crystalynn Kneen said search teams covered 387 square miles in poor visibility before suspending the search shortly after 5 p.m.

The Coast Guard received a transmission from the Sea Tractor's emergency position-indicating radio beacon at 7:35 p.m. Wednesday, indicating it was in distress, Petty Officer Jonathan Lindberg said earlier yesterday. A rescue helicopter from Atlantic City arrived at the site an hour later and found an empty life raft with a strobe light attached.

Another fishing boat, the Capt. Jeff, went to the scene to help and found a debris field, including a cooler and the Sea Tractor's emergency radio beacon, Lindberg said....