Bizarre, Criminal law, Society, Uncategorized

Wife Falls Off Sailboat In Rhode Island . . . Husband Does Not Realize She Is Gone Until Four Hours Later

dec89235b3ca9446564e103c33881a1dIt is not clear what is worse: having your wife fall off your sailboat or not noticing for four hours that she is gone.  That is the situation of a couple in Newport, Rhode Island where a woman fell of her husband’s 39-foot sailboat while sailing from Newport to East Greenwich.

The wife was eventually found on Prudence Island at around 4 a.m. on Saturday after a boater heard screams from the shore.

It gets even stranger. The stranger was found two hours earlier in Warwick when he ran the boat aground.  He told police that he only remembered striking the Claiborne Pell Bridge around 1 p.m. and that his next memory was waking up when his sailboat ran aground around 11 p.m.  When the police questioned him he said that his wife was sleeping below deck according to WPRI-TV.

Some reports indicate that the husband had been drinking alcohol, which could lead to charges or fines.

40 thoughts on “Wife Falls Off Sailboat In Rhode Island . . . Husband Does Not Realize She Is Gone Until Four Hours Later”

  1. Alcohol and boating don’t mix.

    I am confused about a few points. The boater said that he struck a bridge around 1 PM and the next thing he remembered was waking up when he ran the boat aground at 11 PM. Where was he sleeping? He passed out on deck with sail aloft and no one at the tiller? He never trimmed the sail in all that time and didn’t hit a wave broadside or broach? Must have been a calm day or maybe he had taken the sail in.

    I suppose this is a plausible story if he was passed out for those 4 hours. Otherwise, one would think that he would have at some point had to use the head or in some other way noticed she was not on board. In fact, he would have had to fail to notice that she came up on deck, fell off, and then shrieked in the water while the apparently unmanned ship blundered off.

        1. Paul C……LOL……I swear, if the art history/law/frequent shopper Professorship of yours ever goes south,
          you should consider moonlighting at The Improv. I’m serious!

  3. He probably fell and hit his head when he hit the bridge and passed out. His wife probably fell overboard and couldn’t catch up to the boat.

  4. Who is the “stranger”? Another party or does that refer to the husband? If drinking alcohol is so bad then quit selling it. Maybe he has a doctor and is on some prescription drug. 72 thousand Americans died of overdose last year. Only 58,000 plus died in Vietnam in all the years of the war. Jeso!

  6. “Some reports indicate that the husband had been drinking alcohol”, this guy sounds like he was sailing in alcohol.

  7. Ya know, when the cops found me in the bar to tell me the wife was missing, I told them, do you think I would be in this bar drinking, if I KNEW she was missing……On the advice of my attorney, that’s my story, and I’am sticking to it.

  8. Husband: “Damn it Honey, I said I wanted to ‘get some’ not jetsam”

    1. Darren Smith, I call to your attention the latest reformating of this site. It has reverted to ever narrower gutters for replys to replys to replys… These have become so narrow that not even single characters render on my mobile device. Please bring this significant step backwards to the attention of ?

      1. David Benson owes me nine citations (one from the OED) and the source of a quotation, after thirteen weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – could I suggest working on a tablet or pc? I do not think JT is responsible for your poor selection of device. Upon rumination, this does explain your ultra brief responses.

        1. C’mon, Darren, give it up. You’re sounding like someone who holds a grudge forever. Benson’s complaint is valid. I use a laptop and the replies get so narrow that that they are unreadable. There must be better choices.

            1. bettykath – it is a well-founded complaint about Benson Making Sh*t Up.

          2. bettykath – I would suggest emailing JT with your complaint. I use my PC and do not have that problem.

    1. There were sleeping quarters on Wagner’s boat occupied by Wagner himself and Christopher Walken. The boat was skippered by Dennis Davern, whose position required he not sleep through the night. Davern 30 years after the fact changed his story to claim that he’d wanted to mount a search for NW but Wagner forbade it (Even though, he claims, it was Wagner who told him she’d gone missing, go figure). We’re also told by news reports that a woman on a nearby boat ‘heard screams’. Screams not heard by Wagner, Walken, Davern in his 1981 account, or Davern in his 2011 account.

      There was and is no ‘Robert Wagner defense’. There was a napping Dennis Davern in 1981 and a Dennis Davern with bills to pay in 2011.

      1. Poor Natalie Wood. Wonder if we will ever find out what really happened that night.

  11. I have no problem with this explanation. Makes perfect sense to me. I lose my wife in the grocery store all the time. 😉

      1. Tom Nash – I usually plant myself by an endcap at the front of the store and eventually she turns up. When I lose her at Sam’s Club there is usually a nice place to rest myself. 😉

        1. Cindy B.,
          I think Paul inadvertently gave husbands a cheaper alternative to divorce.😉

          2. Tom Nash – I think at some point you would be required to report it to the police or at least the store. 😉 Plus, she has the keys to the car.

        1. PAUL C LOL Good one. Now that I have been stricken with spinal stenosis or at least that’s my excuse wink wink. (just kidding..) hubby does all the shopping because I move too slowly…He says he can drive to store, park, shop, and be home by the time I get ready.. So he is happier doing all of that..Works for me!

          1. Cindy Bragg – my wife used to complain about doing all the grocery shopping so I told her to give me the list and I would do it. It took me 20 minutes to her 90 minutes. She has stopped asking me because she can no longer go Barbie shopping. 😉

            2. P.S. Paul C…………David’s favorite joke is “My wife says I never listen to her, or something like that”……….😀

              1. Cindy Bragg – ah, selective listening. Men learn that week one of the relationship. We just try to smile or frown and nod in the right places when you are talking. 😉

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