Rick Kappelmann, Bryan Humphrey, Michael Brown and Sydney Musick gathered on the dock behind the Carolina Yacht Club Sept. 9, watching boats churning through the choppy waters of Banks Channel. It was the first time the group assembled since the evening of Aug. 20.
That night the air was still and the sky was black. Around 9:30 p.m. Humphrey, Musick, and Kappelmann had just finished dinner at the Carolina Yacht Club. They decided to stop by the club’s Banks Channel dock to hoist their sailboat out of the water. That’s when they realized something wasn’t right.
“There was this boat, and it was just coasting along and then it stopped towards the second to last dock over there,” Humphrey said. “This woman just started yelling, ‘Oh my God, Wylene!’”
With no one else in sight, Humphrey, Musick, Kappelmann and two other friends, Asa Worthley and Andrew Slocum, ran to the end of the dock. The group initially thought the women were searching for a lost dog. They saw movement behind the boat, a ripple disturbing the glassy surface of the water.
Musick had a split second of relief, believing the dog was swimming back to its owners. Then they heard a shout from the boat.
“She yelled, ‘Wylene is my best friend!’” Musick said.
“Everybody sort of snapped to when they said they were looking for a person,” Kappelmann added.
That person was Wylene Booth McDonald, a 57-year-old Wrightsville Beach resident who was with two other women aboard the vessel from which she fell.
Kappelmann dropped his phone and jumped into the water. He swam in the direction of the floating object behind the boat. Slocum threw a life jacket as far as he could toward Kappelmann.
Musick said she glanced at the life jacket as it splashed into the water, taking her eyes off of the floating object for a split second. When she looked back, the object was gone.
“At that point it was like, we’re not going to find her,” Musick said. She pulled out her phone and dialed 911. It was 9:44 p.m. Three minutes had elapsed since they first heard the women’s cries for help.
Meanwhile, Michael Brown was watching television with his wife, Jane, in their home adjacent to the yacht club. They were pet-sitting their sister’s dog, and they noticed the animal had become agitated. Jane Brown walked outside and headed toward the group of people gathered on the docks. Musick ran to her, telling her to call the Coast Guard right away.
“My wife came back in the house and said, ‘Somebody is overboard,’” Michael Brown said. “I grabbed my flashlight and paddle and went to the water. I turned my kayak heading with the tide and I paddled along, shining my light and paddling.”
While Brown searched the water, Humphrey ran up and down the docks, looking for any kind of light source. He and Kappelmann decided to climb on the boat with the women, whom they described as hysterical. Wrightsville Beach fire crews arrived and proceeded to flag down and board another passing boat to help in the search effort.
Musick stood nearby, giving directions to the U.S. Coast Guard members as they rushed to the scene.
Chief petty officer Seth Haynes said his crews were able to respond within eight minutes of being notified by a 911 operator. He said it was a quick response considering they had to follow standard policy by gathering all necessary gear and navigating the 45-foot boat safely from the dock.
Just as the Coast Guard boat was approaching, Brown, who is hearing impaired, was still searching the waters on his kayak, heard a noise.
“I thought I heard a really faint sound,” Brown said. “I headed that way and then I could see her between the floating dock and the boat. I went around the boat and she wasn’t there anymore, she had floated under the pier. I angled under the pier and at that point she was head down in the water.”
Brown grabbed McDonald and, using a technique he learned in a senior lifesaving class, pulled her to shore. She was bloated and did not have a pulse. Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue Personnel Kyle Miess initiated resuscitation until EMS arrived.
“We have protocol in place that puts people doing specific jobs, whether it’s beachside or on the waterway,” Thomas Toby, lead fire equipment operator, said. “We don’t respond to calls like this very often … but everything went smoothly. The gentleman in the kayak was able to get under places we weren’t able to.”
Humphrey said there are not usually people on the water on a Wednesday night.
“We just happened to be pulling this boat out. If she would have fallen off 10 docks down or 10 minutes later, nobody would have responded.”
Although they described being haunted in the nights following the incident, they were also in awe of the chain of events that allowed them to save a woman’s life.
“From the time she fell overboard, everything went her way,” Brown said.
The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen will present lifesaving awards to Bryan Humphrey and Michael Brown Sept. 11.
Wylene McDonald declined to be interviewed, but wrote in a Sept. 2 text message she was headed for a full recovery.
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