'Call of nature' responsible for MOB death

by Nicole Harnishfeger, Inquirer/Sail-World on 24 Mar 2010 An overnight boating adventurel, a step in the dark onto the deck to answer the call of nature, no tether, a life lost, children orphaned and a wife widowed.

Going on deck at night without a tether has caused countless previous tragedies, and has now claimed another life.

Jo Hemingway, 36, father of two, disappeared from his 23ft Maritime powerboat while the family were on an overnight passagel in Massachusetts in the USA.

After Mr Hemingway fell overboard, the boat traveled for nine miles before running aground. Hemingway's wife, Katie, told officials she last saw him about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when they went below deck to sleep. When she awoke early Thursday morning, the boat had run aground on Nantucket and Hemingway was missing.

Katie Hemingway said her husband was an 'impeccable mariner,' who probably fell overboard while 'going to the bathroom'. 'Since he was wearing boots, Carharts and heavy clothes he probably sank quickly,' she said. 'It is a miracle that we are all alive. I believe the spirit of my husband guided us to shore.'

Jon Hemingway had picked up his wife in Hyannis earlier that night and brought their two daughters, Elizabeth, 3, and Madeline, 1, with him because he could not find a babysitter. His wife said he would have turned back if she asked him to and she 'trusted his judgment completely.'

She said the family left Hyannis at about 9 p.m. and she went down below with the girls about 30 minutes later.
She said she was woken up at about 1:15 a.m. when the boat ran aground. She said that she thought Jon Hemingway was trying to free the boat. She called her husband on his cell phone, and while she could hear it ring, she said she assumed he could not hear the phone over the sound of the engine.

Katie Hemingway said she then thought her husband had gone into town to get their truck, so she went back to sleep. She woke a little before 5 a.m., with the children panicked and scared.

'(The children) became my focus. I had to keep everybody calm and I chose to get the children back into the cabin. That took about 20 minutes and finally everybody went to sleep. We woke about 7:45 a.m.,' she said. She called a family friend to get them, and still had not heard from her husband. A missing person's report was delayed to the Coast Guard because the friend told Katie Hemingway that Jon called him, and he 'sounded fine.'

Katie Hemingway later learned that the friend was unsure of the call, and was so shaken up that he could not remember if he received the call. Jon Hemingway was reported missing to the Nantucket police at about noon, and the police filed the missing person report with the Coast Guard about an hour and a half later.

The Coast Guard later called off the search at 11:30 a.m. Friday. Nantucket police said that an analysis of the boat's GPS showed that he fell overboard about nine miles north of Nantucket.