Father, Daughter Rescued After Sailboat Flips

The father and daughter were on a sailboat ride in the Delaware Bay in Cape May when the boat overturned

A father and daughter were missing for about two hours Friday afternoon off the coast of Cape May.

Jeff Middleton, his 21-year-old daughter Mariel and her boyfriend were in the Delaware Bay when their sailboat capsized around 3:00 p.m. Her boyfriend was able to stay on the boat and get it to shore.

Middleton, 51, thinks the wind was to blame for what happened, but says they never panicked.

"At first we thought we might be able to swim to the shore. But when we realized we couldn't fight the current and the wind in that direction we just waited," said Middleton, of Philadelphia. "I was so confident in the Coast Guard station here that neither of us could get really worried."

Both were wearing life jackets and say they just waited in the water until they were spotted by the Coast Guard.

"I'm really happy they saw us. There was a boat earlier, maybe an hour, maybe 40 minutes earlier that came pretty close to us and we thought they'd be able to see us and they didn't, so we were happy that the Coast Guard did," said Mariel Middleton.

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