This guy was one of my cruising idols, hugely experienced, made some awesome high latitude voyages to places like Greenland and Spitzbergen on his J-46 CEILITA...

Much of his voyaging was documented over the years in OCEAN NAVIGATOR, this guy was the real deal...

Sounds like he may not have been tethered when CIELITA suffered a knockdown, then damage to the steering system prevented maneuvering the boat back to him to effect a recovery...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/09/02/edmund-cabot-brahmin-scion-and-avid-yachtsman-drowns-off-newfoundland/o10CcgCVIIt74OQRmNKx9N/story.html