On Sunday, Nov. 2, the Coast Guard officially suspended its search for two lost fishermen whose boat No Limits sunk off of Matinicus.

Coast Guard air and sea boats and helicopters from Station Rockland and Air Station Cape Cod, as well as the Maine Marine Patrol, searched for more than 17 hours covering an area of 130 nautical square miles. 

The search for two lost fishermen whose boat No Limits sunk yesterday remains active, the Coast Guard said this morning, Nov. 2. However, with strong northeast winds and high seas, the Coast Guard boats remain in Portland and Rockland harbors until they receive word to head back out there. The same holds for the search helicopter, based on Cape Cod.

According to CG spokesman Ross Rudell, there is ice on Cape Cod.

The Guardian, Maine Marine Patrol’s boat, also remains in Rockland this morning.

Marine Patrol Sgt. Matthew Talbot said Sunday morning that the Guardian was out last night until 8 p.m. helping with the search.

Later in the night, a strobe light was spotted closed to the Nash Island shoreline and the Coast Guard investigated that, but found nothing.

Currently, a weather buoy on Matinicus Rock is logging sustained winds out of the north of 44 knots with gusts up to 50 knots.

While the storm is dumping snow on the mainland, it is raining offshore.

Rudell said he did not know if local fishermen are out today but said a Good Samaritan was assisting with the search last night.

“Right now it is too hazardous to send a boat out,” said Talbot.

She was back at the dock by 8 p.m., said Matthew Talbot. 

The Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol are looking for two fishermen in waters south of Matinicus following the sinking of their boat, No Limits. Two helicopters from the Coast Guard station on Cape Cod are assisting in the search tonight for the men.

Rescue boats dispatched from Rockland’s Coast Guard station, however, have been recalled to port, given the high winds and seas generated by tonight’s nor’easter, according to one Coast Guard officer based in Portland.

The search and rescue crews saved one person this afternoon.

Around 1 p.m. this afternoon, watchstanders at the First District Command Center in Boston received an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) distress signal from the 45-foot fishing vessel No Limits, home-ported in Cushing.

No Limits had gone out to check lobster traps, said one Coast Guard officer.

The command center crew contacted the master's family and confirmed he was under way with two others. 

A Station Rockland rescue crew aboard a 47-foot motor lifeboat, an MH-60 Jayhawk Helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod, and the Maine Marine Patrol launched. 

The air crew spotted a flare fired from a survivor inside a life raft and hoisted him aboard. He was flown to the airport in Portland and then transported to Maine Medical Hospital, in Portland. He was suffering from a head injury, said the Coast Guard.

"We safely recovered one crewman, and continue to search for the others," said Chief Petty Officer Aaron Clendaniel, the command duty officer at Sector Northern New England, in a news release.

A winter storm is bearing down on the coast tonight, with northeast winds expected to blow  30 to 35 knots, with gusts up to 50 knots. Seas will run 10 to 15 feet, with rain through Sunday.