_{Thumbnail photo: A U.S. Coast Guard vessel and the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office’s patrol boat responded to a capsized boat near Battery Point Lighthouse on Wednesday. | Photo by Heather Polen}

The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a 63-year-old man whose body was recovered from the water near Battery Point Lighthouse early Wednesday afternoon.

A U.S. Coast Guard 47-foot motor lifeboat from the Chetco River recovered the body of James Eric Englehart after the sheriff’s office received a report of a vessel spinning in the water with no one on board near the lighthouse.

The call came in at about 11:20 a.m., according to Undersheriff Devin Perry. By the time the sheriff’s office deployed its boat about 15 minutes later they found that Englehart’s 12-foot aluminum vessel had capsized, but was still floating.

Englehart appears to be the vessel’s sole occupant, Perry said. 

Perry said it was a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter from McKinleyville that spotted Englehart’s body and its motor lifeboat that was able to get close enough to retrieve it.

Next of kin was notified as of about 2:50 p.m., according to Perry. The case is still under investigation.

“It didn’t appear there was any damage to the boat,” he told Redwood Voice Community News. “It didn’t look like it had hit a rock or another vessel or anything like that.”

Perry described conditions on the water during the rescue effort as fairly calm, though there was a little bit of wind chop.