Gusts Take One Life, Endanger Five Others

One life was lost and five persons were rescued in three separate incidents on Gardiner's Bay and Block Island Sound on Friday afternoon when unseasonably strong northwest winds turned the morning calm into a threatening maelstrom.

"Boat capsized, man in water," was the call that came to John Tilly, an East Hampton harbormaster, from the Montauk Coast Guard at 12:40 p.m. He was under way in a 25-foot patrol boat minutes later, with Frank Kennedy, a former harbormaster.

Although the boat was slowed by 8 to 10-foot seas that had come up in less than an hour, it reached the capsized dragger, the Little Robert E, within 10 minutes. By that time, Norman C. Edwards Sr. of Amagansett, a man of the sea and experienced captain, was lost. He had gone out at dawn and was fishing alone, as was his custom. His body was found nearby.

Looking For Blackfish

It was 76-year-old Captain Edwards's second outing since returning from an annual winter stay in Florida. The boat had been rigged out the morning before with the help of Stuart Vorpahl, a longtime friend. Mr. Vorpahl said Captain Edwards had made one tow the previous evening in search of blackfish.

An eyewitness to the accident, whose name was withheld by the Coast Guard at her request and whose house in on Hog Creek Point, told the Montauk Coast Guard she had not seen the boat turn over, but saw Captain Edwards first standing on the overturned hull, then sitting, then slipping off into the water.

Its temperature was reported to be 50 degrees. Authorities are investigating the possibility that the fisherman took a blow to the head which caused him to lose consciousness.

Over 40 Knots

At virtually the same time, the Montauk Coast Guard was responding to two other distress calls that came as a result of the sudden blow.

Michael Wyllie of the National Weather Service in Brookhaven said the winds, which gusted to over 50 knots, were caused by a large high- pressure trough of the kind normally seen here in the winter. The front dipped much farther south than is normal for this time of year and blasted the area beginning mid-morning. A small-craft advisory was issued.

David Whelan of North Haven, a dock-builder, was working UpIsland near the old Brooklyn Navy Yard when the first gusts passed there. He said later that he felt sick because his daughter, Christa, a freshman at Boston College who is an experienced sailor and a member of the varsity sailing team, was scheduled to leave Block Island in a 27-foot sailboat with two friends. They were headed for Sag Harbor.

Friend's Effort

Mr. Whelan notified the Coast Guard and called a friend, Henry Uihlein, the owner of Uihlein's Marina in Montauk.

"'It's blowing 40 knots here, and it's headed your way,'" Mr. Uihlein reported a worried Dave Whelan as saying. " 'If the kids are headed for Montauk, they'll never make it.'" The Coast Guard was constrained from initiating a search at that point, however, because there had been no Mayday from a sailboat or any report of an overdue boat.

Mr. Uihlein agreed to look for the sailors, taking out a 23-foot Sea Craft power boat. He was accompanied by Robert Bushman, who had gone along for what would soon become the ride of his life.

After heading for a craft off Rocky Point that turned out not to be Christa Whelan's sloop, Mr. Uihlein motored to Shagwong Point and beyond, to the waters east of Montauk Point.

"Barely Made It"

"The wind was at our back and we couldn't feel it. The front was behind us. The My Mate [a charter boat] was heading back and hadn't seen them. We looked and looked, then we saw a boat to the northeast. We went five more miles, looked back, and saw a wall of water. I thought, if they're out here, they're in trouble," Mr. Uihlein said. He turned his boat back to Montauk.

"We barely made it over the first wave. It was living hell. The boat seemed like it was going up waves at a 90-degree angle, teetering in the air, and coming down stern first."

At other times the boat was airborne, he said, free-falling eight feet and hitting hard. The engine eventually stalled, and the experienced boater radioed a Mayday signal - the first ever in his 40 years on the water - to the Coast Guard. "I thought we were going down."

Another Search

At the same time, conditions on the sloop, called Angel under the Moon, were frightening, too.

"The waves were 15 feet. I thought it was because we were in shallow water. We were still heading north under a reefed mainsail. It was fine, but then we tacked to go to Montauk - my father said to put in there if we had trouble," Ms. Whelan said.

By this time, the Coast Guard had called the young woman's mother, Mary Whelan, to say they were going in search because of the quickly deteriorating weather.

Petty Officer John Siesta said the Montauk Coast Guard's 41-foot patrol boat was dispatched to find the sailboat. The 44-foot boat went to aid Mr. Uihlein and Mr. Bushman. In each case, the waves were too big for the Coast Guard vessels to get close for fear of colliding.

All Grateful

The Angel under the Moon's jib had torn. Its small outboard was started and Ms. Whelan headed the sloop back to Block Island with its Coast Guard escort. The waves were too large for the 41-footer to return to Montauk until the next morning.

Mr. Uihlein said the two-and-a-half-hour passage back to Montauk was harrowing. "I've always had respect for the Coast Guard. That's never changed. They risk their lives. It was so good seeing them, knowing they were there," a grateful Mr. Uihlein said on Tuesday.

Christa Whelan was grateful too - to the Coast Guard and to Mr. Uihlein for his effort. Her sailing companions, Abby Browner of Vermont and Jackie Bassett of California, school friends who had no experience on the water, were perhaps more grateful still.

"I baked them [the Coast Guard] cookies and delivered them yesterday," Ms. Whelan said Tuesday. "I never felt completely out of control, but it was scary. It's incredible. You think Gardiner's Bay, that it's too sheltered."

Back in the bay, Captain Ed wards's small dragger remained overturned yesterday, its bright new blue bottom paint matching the sky.

Friends said the boat, the Little Robert E, probably had begun taking on water, and that her captain probably had attempted to run her onto a shoal about 500 yards offshore to avoid going down before she capsized.