By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer
—
A recreational fisherman from Belmont who had climbed out onto the boulders beyond Brace Cove on the Back Shore was swept into the sea and apparently drowned just before Tuesday's afternoon high tide.
Another fishermen, this one casting from rocks in the vicinity of Rafe's Chasm on the Magnolia shore, tumbled into the ocean minutes later, but was rescued by the Coast Guard's 25-foot boat and was said to be fully responsive.
The tragedy and near tragedy during the afternoon high tide traced to unusually powerful currents that produced riptides and undertows at the Cape's big beaches, where at least a dozen were helped from the water by lifeguards, according to an urgent beach advisory issued late Tuesday afternoon by Mayor Carolyn Kirk.
"Stay away from the shoreline and know conditions are dangerous at the big beaches," said the mayor.
More of the same conditions, and worse, are expected from the ocean Wednesday.
With Hurricane Earl organized as a Category 4 storm in the Caribbean with a fair shot of touching New England late in the week, a protracted study of respect for the forces of wind and sea is in order, said Kirk, as Gloucester prepares to host its annual Schooner Festival, with races on Saturday and Sunday.
Good Harbor and Wingaersheek were jammed early on Tuesday with beachgoers seeking relief from the 90 degree-plus temperatures; some reacted with frustration at times when told by lifeguards to limit bathing to a central sector and waist high surf.
The problems were compounded at Wingaersheek in the morning by a frenzied search by land, sea and air in the unusually high surf for two young teenagers who apparently weren't in the water at all. A false sighting led to the mother's fright when the apparently reappearing boys proved not to be her own.
The incident ended happily. The missing boys, Alex and Bobby Burns, according to police, had found some privacy behind an outcrop roughly between Wingaersheek and Coffin's Beach and had been talking with some girls.
Their mother, Colleen Burns, declined to discuss the incident that brought the Police and Fire departments to the water's edge, and drew the police Zodiac from Good Harbor Beach where it had been patrolling in the morning low tide surf.
The story was far more grim on Eastern Point.
There, police identified the dead recreational fisherman as Nicholas V. Roussos, 67, of Belmont.
According to a source at the Gonzaga Retreat, an isolated facility of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese that takes up the southern shoreline of Niles Pond and overlooks the Atlantic at the southerly side of Brace Cove, two fishermen unconnected to the retreat had climbed out on the rocks to fish and one was swept into the surf, which was powering in from the east.
The Coast Guard's 25-foot rescue boat arrived quickly, the witness said. The Coast Guard rescue boat was met by paramedics at Station Gloucester. Roussos was taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital, but he was later declared dead.
The Coast Guard did not identify the fisherman that it pulled safety from the Magnolia rocks above the Outer Harbor. Both incidents within about half hour of Tuesday's 4:20 p.m. high tide.
The mayor, meanwhile, announced a "safety plan is being put into effect for (today) which includes shoreside medical personnel from the Fire Department, police officers for enforcement and lifeguards in the water to ensure water safety."
"If there is no lifeguard on duty in the after hours," the mayor said, "residents and visitors are urged to stay out of the water. Conditions are dangerous."
As to the weather, a stationary low off the Azores was generating surf and got mixed in with the swells from Hurricane Danielle, which passed far off shore last week.
Hurricane Earl, now a Category 4 behemoth, with winds of 135 mph, was expected to remain over the open ocean before turning north and running parallel to the U.S. coast, potentially reaching the North Carolina coastal region by late Thursday or early Friday. It was projected then to curve back out to sea, perhaps swiping parts of New England or far-eastern Canada, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
"We can't totally rule out a very close approach to either of the Cape Hatteras areas or Cape Cod and southern New England as the storm progresses further," said Bill Read, the center's director.
Earl delivered a glancing blow to several small Caribbean islands on Monday, tearing roofs off of homes and cutting electricity to people in Anguilla, Antigua and St. Maarten.
Some material from the Associated Press is included in this story.
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464.
