'Lucky To Be Found' Johnston Woman Rescued After Water Search

PORTSMOUTH, RI — A sailing trip almost ended in tragedy for a Johnston woman who fell overboard sometime Friday and was found in Potters Cove around 4 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. Petty Ofc. Sam Van Lent said Warwick police called Station Castle Hill around 2 a.m. Saturday to report a missing woman who was possibly in the water.

They didn't give him much information, he said. The woman's husband had moored the boat in East Greenwich and noticed his wife wasn't on board. He told police the last time he remembered seeing her was sometime Friday afternoon. He said the sailboat struck the Newport Pell Bridge on Friday afternoon and ran aground, and he did not remember much after that.

Van Lent called Johnston police who went to her home to check on her. Once it was verified she was not home, Van Lent called out the Narragansett Bay Marine Task Force to look for her.

"I called out 10 units, plus us," he said. "They were kind of searching all over the place." The search area was between Rose Island in Newport Harbor and Conimicut Point in Warwick. He directed the task force units from the north to go south and the ones in the south to head north. They were out looking for two hours when a good Samaritan called 911 to report hearing calls for help from Potter's Cove.

The missing woman swam to a boat anchored off Prudence Island and was calling for help. The Coast Guard took her to Bristol, where she was treated for hypothermia. Van Lent doesn't know if she was wearing a life jacket, which improves chances for surviving.

"It's still an ongoing investigation," he said. No one yet knows how she went overboard, where she fell off or why, he said.

"She was lucky to be found," he said.

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