Stormy sea snatches a life, returns another

Nature's indiscriminate fury arrived this week on 50-mile-an-hour winds and ferocious seas. Two men, hundreds of miles apart, challenged the northeaster.

Vincent Gillings, 74, lived.

Tony Gigliotti, 23, died.

As Coast Guard officials announced the two fates yesterday -- one a fortunate rescue, the other a fruitless search -- it became clear that even as the storm did little damage on on land, it was rampaging at sea, sparing an old sailor but snatching away a young Plymouth man, whose body had not been found last night.

''People don't realize that the ocean is very unforgiving when it's all riled up like that," said Plymouth Deputy Fire Chief Martin Enos. ''The Coast Guard wouldn't even launch a boat that night. When they say no, you know it's extreme."

On Tuesday night, Gigliotti was with friends at a Plymouth house when he decided to visit White Horse Beach around 7:30 p.m., authorities said. The northeaster, driven by energy from Hurricane Wilma, had mostly run its course in New England and was headed out to sea. Rain and winds in the area had died down. The ocean, however, was another story.

About 40 minutes earlier, a National Weather Service buoy 20 miles east of Boston harbor recorded a 25-foot high wave, the largest of the day. Winds still blew at 35 to 45 miles per hour. High tide had passed, creating a deadly effect: The ocean was pulling out as wind-whipped waves crashed in, creating a powerful undertow, meteorologists said.

Gigliotti ''had enough to drink to impair his judgment and certainly reduce his sense of danger," Enos said in a telephone interview. ''Mr. Gigliotti decided he was going to take a dip in the ocean, and his friends could not dissuade him."

Within minutes of entering the pounding surf, dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts, a wave knocked Gigliotti over. He was gone.

Mark Scarbeau, 49, was examining storm damage to his beach house nearby when he heard commotion.

''I heard people yelling: 'Tony! Tony!' They were obviously looking for someone," he said by phone.

When the group of young adults approached him, Scarbeau gave his flashlight, and they ran off searching, he said.

Somewhere many, many miles north, Gillings had also disappeared. The veteran sailor had set out alone last Friday in his 33-foot sailboat, the Sara Gamp, from Liverpool in Nova Scotia, bound for Gloucester, authorities said. At the time, the Coast Guard and meteorologists were warning that Hurricane Wilma and another storm would soon whip up the seas off New England.

''Why he would choose to sail when the word was out that the seas were going to be rough and the winds high . . . I don't know about that," said Kim Buttrick, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Taunton.

By Monday, there was no word from Gillings, and his girlfriend called authorities.

US and Canadian rescue crews quickly set out by boat and plane, sweeping a 230-square-mile swath of ocean along Nova Scotia and New England. But Tuesday the northeaster hit, and the seas were so rough -- a Gulf of Maine weather buoy recorded 24-foot waves and 55 mile-per-hour gusts at about 7 p.m. -- that the Coast Guard suspended the boat search.

Yesterday morning, at about 8 a.m., a Coast Guard jet spotted the Sara Gamp bobbing 22 miles northeast of Provincetown. A helicopter-borne rescue swimmer plucked Gillings from the boat and transported him to Massachusetts General Hospital. He was suffering from hypothermia-like symptoms, Coast Guard officials said.

He was treated and released yesterday. It was not clear yesterday where Gillings lives, though his boat's home port is in Virginia, Coast Guard officials said. Nor was it clear why he decided to set sail or why he lost contact, Coast Guard officials said. Gillings could not be reached for comment.

Just as Gillings's good fortune became clear late yesterday morning, grim news came from Plymouth: After more than 12 hours, rescue crews decided to call off the search for Gigliotti. Authorities said the water temperature was about 50 degrees.

''Obviously, survivability is going to be limited," said Coast Guard Captain James McDonald.

Gigliotti's family, who gathered yesterday at their Plymouth house, declined to comment.

Authorities said the day's lesson was simple.

''Anytime, when there is a storm of this magnitude, we tell anyone and everyone to stay off the water," said Coast Guard spokeswoman Kelly Newlin.

Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.