A Speck in the Sea

March 27, 2017
A Long Island fisherman spends 12 hours bobbing like a buoy in the Atlantic Ocean in this hair-raising true story. Childhood friends Aldridge and Sosinski, who co-own the lobster boat Anna Mary, detail their incredible story, which took place 40 miles off the coast of Montauk in the summer of 2013. The trip began just like any other, with the authors, along with third crew member Mike Migliaccio, setting out their traps aboard the 44-foot commercial fishing boat Anna Mary the evening of July 22, 2013. In the early hours of July 23, as Sosinski and Migliaccio slept, Aldridge fell overboard while recalibrating the boat’s new refrigeration system. Told from multiple viewpoints, the book takes readers into the water with Aldridge as he shares first-person accounts of shark encounters and the mind games he played while clinging to his rubber boots to stay afloat. Sections written in the third person recount the immense battle the U.S. Coast Guard, search-and-rescue aircraft, and a slew of volunteers (including singer Jimmy Buffet) waged against time to find Aldridge before the ocean claimed him. A rich backstory—including complicated personal lives and deep family histories—adds depth to this page turner.