Coast Guard suspends search for Massapequa boater James Jaronczyk missing in Great South Bay
Rescue boats search for the missing boater in the Great South Bay Sunday. Credit: Paul Mazza
The Coast Guard's search for a missing boater from Massapequa was called off Monday evening, a day after police said he fell from a speedboat into the Great South Bay in the waters outside Babylon Cove.
Suffolk County police identified the boater as 28-year-old James Jaronczyk and said he was alone on a 22-foot Progression speedboat when he went into the water just after 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Hunter Medley, a spokesman for Coast Guard's Long Island Sound sector in New Haven, said the search for Jaronczyk was called off indefinitely at 8 p.m. "pending further developments."
The Coast Guard searched for Jaronczyk for 34 hours and covered approximately 1,000 nautical miles, Medley said.
Suffolk County police said their search for Jaronczyk is still ongoing.
Friends and family gather outside the Gilbert C. Hanse town pool in Babylon as the search continued Monday for missing boater James Jaronczyk in the Great South Bay. Credit: Tom Lambui
There are no indications at this point in the investigation, police said, that the boat was involved in a collision with another vessel.
According to statistics from Stony Brook University, the water temperature Monday morning from Buoy No. 1 in the Great South Bay was between 59 and 60 degrees. A hypothermia table from the National Center for Cold Water Safety indicates that survival, at that temperature, would last between one and six hours.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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