Jan 25, 2012 11:59 AM

An East Quogue man whose body was recovered Monday afternoon in the marshy waters of Shinnecock Bay off Dune Road in East Quogue was an experienced, avid waterman, his family recalled this week.

John C. Lindahl, a 59-year-old who loved to duck hunt, set out alone in his 18-foot Maritime Skiff from his Marlin Road home Sunday night to check some duck blinds, but tragedy struck and he never returned home, his son, John B. Lindahl said on Wednesday morning.

The younger Mr. Lindahl, 37, started to say that he believed his father might have slipped while on board, but then stopped himself, saying he did not want to speculate on what went awry.

“He spent his whole life plying the waters, inshore and offshore,” he said. “He devoted his life to ensuring that his children and grandchildren appreciated every aspect of what the ocean had to offer. This was a tragic event.”

The younger Mr. Lindahl was vacationing in Florida with other relatives on Monday. His father had stayed on the East End because of his work obligations as a builder and contractor, he said. When they could not reach the senior Mr. Lindahl, his son, a former lieutenant with the U.S. Coast Guard, reported him missing to Coast Guard Station Shinnecock at about 12:20 p.m.

The Coast Guard initiated a search and discovered a white Maritime Skiff matching a description of Mr. Lindahl’s boat near Dolphin Lane later that afternoon, sometime after 1 p.m. The Coast Guard then notified Southampton Town Police and the bay constables, who continued the search, aided by a Suffolk County Police helicopter and other emergency workers.

Police located the body later identified as Mr. Lindahl in a marsh.

Mr. Lindahl’s body was recovered with the help of the Hampton Bays Fire Department and taken to the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office in Hauppauge, where an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death, police said.

U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher Billiau said the Coast Guard received a call at 12:20 p.m. from the junior Mr. Lindahl reporting that his father had gone out on his boat late Sunday night from Pine Neck and had not yet returned.

Lindahl family friends heard the description and told the Lindahls—Mr. Lindahl’s wife, Ilene, 58, his son, and his son’s children, Katlyn, 13, and John Nelson, 10, who flew back from Florida Monday afternoon.

The elder Mr. Lindahl is also survived by his daughter, Jennifer, 34.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m., with a funeral ceremony at 7:30 p.m., at Sinnickson’s Moriches Funeral Home in Center Moriches. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of John C. Lindahl to the Recreational Fishing Alliance, PO Box 3080, New Gretna, New Jersey, 08224, would be appreciated by family.

The younger Mr. Lindahl added that he “will continue to fish the deep ocean canyons” in another boat of his father’s, in his memory.