High winds drove searchers off Lake Winnipesaukee on Sunday as they tried to find the body of a man who fell off the MS Mt. Washington cruise ship during a party.
The man fell over the rail on the popular cruise ship around 10 p.m., Saturday, during a Halloween Party, Fish and Game Lt. Jim Goss said. Searchers who battled pitch darkness, high winds and driving rain, found nothing. Conditions weren’t much better on Sunday, Goss said, and the search was suspended as winds hit more than 50 mph, whipping up waves and endangering search crews.
“It is blowing so hard, it almost looks at though it is snowing on the lake,” Goss said Sunday. “It’s blowing the water straight out. We have two 20-plus-foot boats, and we didn’t feel it would be safe to be out there,” he said.
Goss said 290 people were onboard, but only a few saw the man fall. His name hadn’t been released by midday Sunday because relatives hadn’t been told.
He said he didn’t believe any hijinks were involved.
“It just appears he fell over the rail,” he said.
With the lake water temperature in the 50s, searchers said anyone in the water would be overcome by hypothermia in a matter of minutes.
The cruise ship stopped when the captain was told of the incident, but there was no way of knowing how far it had gone.
“It travels about one mile every six minutes,” Goss said. “Someone ran to the wheel house and they got the message to stop the boat, but quite a bit of distance could have gone by.”
He said the Mt. Washington crew threw out a life ring, turned on powerful flood lights and searched the area as the Marine Patrol; Fish and Game; and fire and police from Gilford, Laconia and Alton responded.
They searched until about 2 a.m., Sunday, but found nothing, then went back on the water after daylight until the search was suspended before noon.
Goss said the search area was about a mile long, between Welch Island and Rattlesnake Island in Gilford.
Searchers were planning to meet at 8 a.m., Monday to see whether the winds have calmed down enough to resume the search and put divers in the water.
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