missing in Geargetown SC

[champlain72]

http://www.southstrandnews.com/article/20140116/GTT06/140119862/1126

Im not sure if this is the proper forum or if it has already been posted. He is a sailfar.net member. His SN iis Cruise. He has a 1962 Allied Seawind Ketch named Saga. He iis missing from his sailboat in Geargetown SC.I met him at the docks in Georgetown on the Sampit River.  He turned me onto this site years ago. He is a very nice guy. Please put the word out. He also has a blog  the rogue wave.

Thank You Bryan.

[Tim]

Thank you for the heads up Bryan, Keith has not been on this forum since Nov. I believe, here is hoping he turns up somewhere soon.

Here is his blog;

http://carolinakeith.com/

[Jim_ME]

A very troubling report.

The article doesn't explicitly say where the water-filled dinghy was, but I assume that it was at the shore/dinghy dock, where it could easily be seen, and not tied to the [moored or anchored out] sailboat (which might suggest other possibilities).

Also hope for the best.

Thanks, Tim, for posting the link to his blog. After watching some of his videos, I thought that his writing on the entry "hunger" (including "mystery food") was very good--and poignant.

http://carolinakeith.com/2012/03/14/hunger/

Also underscores what people can sometimes be going through, unknown to those around them, and how much some help from their community can mean.

[SalientAngle]

I hope this turns out well... I always admired his dinghy color scheme, seen here in 2011 on the cover of town dock...

[SalientAngle]

sigh, "articles of clothing found"... will keep hope alive...
http://www.counton2.com/story/24473097/search-for-missing-boater-in-georgetown

[SalientAngle]

unable to see Keith's distinctive dinghy in this photo...

[SalientAngle]

If you are in this portion of the ICW, please post this:

[skylark]

A very troubling report.
...
http://carolinakeith.com/2012/03/14/hunger/

I find this very sad and disturbing. 

[SalientAngle]

I find this very sad and disturbing. 

As we all do, Paul, please keep Keith and his family in your thoughts/and/or/prayers

[Frank]

Keep us updated with any news. I hope they are still searching. With luck he's off somewhere with a lady friend.

[SalientAngle]

Keep us updated with any news. I hope they are still searching. With luck he's off somewhere with a lady friend.

Yes, Frank, I believe that is the purpose of this thread... S/V Saga at anchorage:

[Captain Smollett]

This is very troubling.  I met Keith while he was anchored at Oriental right after hurricane Irene blew through.  Cool guy.

He'll be in our thoughts and prayers.

[CapnK]

Sadly, no news on this lately. Several days of searching via boats, plane, and helicopter have never turned anything more up. Based on how it had been worded in the newspaper report, I'd thought his clothing was found down-river, but I was told today that the clothing was basically directly inshore of his boat on Goat Island. Because of this, the thinking is that he somehow flipped the dinghy or otherwise fell in the water and was unable to regain his boat. He then made it to shore at the island, likely discarding the found clothing as cumbersome and cold prior to a last-ditch attempt to get back aboard, but just never made it.

The waters here are deceptively calm, in that they can easily be deadly. Thinking back on it, in the 8 years since I have been in Georgetown, offhand I can count 7 boaters that I have known of who've died - 5 at my marina, and 2 over "in town", where Keith was anchored. Of the 5 at my marina, 2 perished in the water during winter; a young fellow of about 25 whose body was never found, and an older one who was found a couple miles down-Bay in the grass at waters edge, perhaps 12 hours after he'd fallen off the dock (he'd actually been riding his bike down the dock to his boat, and turned about 2 feet early of the finger pier his boat was on, based on scuff marks on the dock, and where we pulled his bike out of the water later that day). Besides Keith, over in-town there was a guy who lived at anchor whose body was found one morning near the public dinghy dock; that was also during the colder months. Both the older guy at my marina, and the other guy in-town were known to have been experienced and regular drinkers, and were seen out at bars the evening of their deaths. The young guy at my marina had been experiencing some type of grand mal seizures in the few short weeks or days before his disappearance.

One other boater I know of had a close call a couple autumns ago. Anchored out in-town, he'd dinghied to his boat from the bars and fallen in when trying to clamber back aboard his boat. He managed to hang onto something from the boat, and luckily his calls for help were heard faintly by some people on land a short while later. It was due to them that he was plucked from the water exhausted but alive within an hour or two of falling in.

I am not sure just what the meaning of all this is, if there is any, but it does make me think that there are some lessons here. First and foremost, and most obvious, would be to be especially careful to stay out of the water in winter, no good can come from it. Secondly would be to keep in mind the correlation between these incidents and drinking in 4 of the 5 occurrences I list; correlation is not causation, but the small group of statistics we have here would seem to bear out that that may well be the case. Third, and perhaps most important to my "thinking out loud" on this topic here, is that it would be prudent for boat dwellers to *plan* for a cold weather dunking, in the hopes that if it were to happen, a small amount of preparedness may well save a life or more.

What could you do to help yourself? Have a "splash pack" in the dinghy, fastened to it but easily removable by numbed, clumsy fingers, which would have some things to aid survival (bailer, handheld VHF, space blankets, heat packs, handheld flares, compressed air horn, small absorbent towel, dry socks undies, gloves, hat, small inflatable raft)? Make sure that there was easily-grabbed ladder for deck access from the waterline? Have a "buddy system" where there would be someone who you'd notify when leaving/returning to the boat, and they would do the same with you?

It bears consideration, especially when reading of sad news like this about Keith.

[CapnK]

Just got word a couple minutes ago that they've found Keiths body, less than 1/2 mile from where he was anchored, if my source is accurate.

:(

[Kettlewell]

Very sad. As to lessons learned, the one that comes to my mind is that the most dangerous places on a boat are near to shore when your guard is down and all is familiar. That's where most boating accidents occur. It is not the offshore storms, the pirates, or the hurricanes that get us, but falling off the dock, a boat fire, or hitting something in coastal waters. Probably one of the safest things some of us do is head well offshore where we are away from these dangers and where we have our guard up at all times, so we are less likely to overlook the small, silly thing that could kill us. May he rest in peace.

[CharlieJ]

Very, very sad.

Doesn't that make three members we've lost?

[Jim_ME]

Appreciate your updates, Kurt, and thoughts--and others' as well.

I just checked and found this article confirming what you reported...
http://www.southstrandnews.com/article/20140208/GTT06/140209883

Since the initial report of Keith being missing, I have been reading his blog, where he wrote with wit and joy about his experiences cruising and living aboard. It is tragic that his life was cut short--and also his collection of writings. Yet it is enough to give a sense--that even while sometimes cruising on a shoestring, and in the face of adversity (such as in his story Hunger that I had mentioned previously), he maintained a positive outlook and sense of humor. I hope that it will be some solace to his family and those who knew him that he was able to enjoy a life of cruising for those 20 years.

[s/v Faith]

Condolences to all in Keith's circle. 

  While I somehow never met him (sailed through Georgetown many times) I always appreciated his contributions to the site. 

[Jim_ME]

As I was reading and thinking about Carolina Keith's adventures, a song crept into those thoughts...

Carolina on my Mind by James Taylor...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78O6--THTF0

Also discovered this haunting version by Allison Krauss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjGcIhxGP3c

[Captain Smollett]

Jim, good song links.  Thanks for posting those.

Charlie, yeah, I think this is the third active member whose passing we know about.  Sometimes I wonder about all those that don't post anymore.

I found out this morning via a text message, then came here to see what updates might be posted.

I took the liberty to start a thread.  Like this sort of thing all-to-often does, this is kicking me in the teeth.  I was holding on to that spark of hope that no news might be good news.