Man who spent 4 hours in ocean thanks Coast Guard for rescue

 View from a Coast Guard helicopter showing a boat near where the man was discovered. (Image courtesy of the US Coast Guard)

View from a Coast Guard helicopter showing a boat near where the man was discovered. (Image courtesy of the US Coast Guard)

20150802 rescue map 300A man who spent more than four hours in the ocean after he fell off his boat in a storm far off southern New Jersey thanks his rescuers.

Damian Sexton was reunited with a Coast Guard helicopter crew in Atlantic City on Wednesday.

Sexton and a friend were going fishing on his 39-foot boat when he fell overboard on Saturday night. His friend did not know how to operate the vessel and called for help on the radio.

Sexton treaded water about 44 miles east of Cape May until he was spotted by a cargo ship, which threw him a flotation device. He managed to swim back to his boat, but was too weak to get aboard.

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A rescue swimmer helped hoist Sexton aboard a Coast Guard helicopter early Sunday.

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