At my station we not only hear the departments fire dispatch radio for my battalion but, since we are one of the two rescue boat houses, we also monitor the Coast Guard hailing frequency. I was on the front office computer placing an ems order when I heard traffic over the CG radio. Now, most of what we hear over that channel are mariner notifications, vessels overdue, and other non emergency traffic as well as info for distant locales that aren't in our response area at all. This time what I heard was an unexpected Mayday distress call, not from the CG, but from a capsized boat with people in the water. A man and his kid in the water! In the water in our part of the bay!! My captain was walking by at the same time and as I started writing down the info he jumped on the phone to the BC to tell him we needed to respond. We got the go ahead and quickly loaded the boat and took off for the marina.
We launched the boat and I came up on step, speeding down the channel. I was able to do about 32-34 knots even though the water was pretty choppy. As I drove, the captain worked the radios, and my firefighter got suited up to go in the water. I was very grateful to have one of the regular water rescue captains that day since he had to listen to, monitor, and talk on three different channels: the fire radio (main channel and tactical channel) as well as the Coast Guard radio, responding to the BC, the CG, and the other responding rescue boat; very confusing. We got such a jump on this call that CG was way behind us in their response plus they were coming from farther away. The capsized vessel was reportedly a mile South of the bridge and it took us about 15 minutes to get there. The waters really changed on me as I got closer to the bridge. The swells dramatically increased to about 4 feet, the wind had picked up, and the tide was going out. It was like being in a washing machine there for a bit.
I was just slowing down to pass under the bridge when suddenly the CG helo flew over us and out past the bridge to try to get an eye on the vessel.
(Okay, maybe, it wasn't that dramatic, but it felt kind of like it.)
I passed under the bridge and the captain grabbed the binoculars to search for the victims. The CG helo was nowhere to be seen. After driving on a bit further we spotted the capsized boat off to our 11 o'clock.
( Kind of like this but way more 'sinky'.)
A second later we spotted the pair in the water about 200 feet off of our 2 o'clock. There was an adult male and a teenage female in the water. They both had life jackets on and were clinging to each other and just bobbing in the swells. I moved the boat toward them cautiously. The swells were big enough that they couldn't even see our boat until we were almost right to them. I stopped a short distance away and threw both motors into neutral and my firefighter went into action, "Swimmer in the water".
He swam out and made contact with the pair and had both of them hang on to our flotation tube. His plan was to swim them back to the boat but the current was just taking them all farther away and he couldn't swim against it. I had to power the motors back up and circle around to where we could throw a rescue rope to him. I put the engines in neutral again, we threw the rope and hauled them to the side of the boat. The captain and I pulled the two castaways aboard and our swimmer climbed in after them. The man and his daughter had been in the water for just about an hour, but other than being a little hypothermic they were fine.
We put them down in the cabin, gave them towels and blankets and water and cranked up the heater for them. Before leaving to bring them ashore I drove us up to the capsized boat and marked it's lat and long position. The captain radioed this info to the CG who would be able to come out with Vessel Assist and retrieve the boat.
Now, the title of this entry does not refer to my crew (though they did an outstanding job) but to the crew of the capsized boat. The father, in this case, made a very difficult but excellent decision that probably saved both of their lives. The seas got too rough for their tiny boat and they were heading home when they got caught in the swells. Their boat began to dolphin, nose diving into the waves, and took on water faster than they could bail. Eventually the whole thing went over sideways and they were tossed. They were able to hang onto the boat initially but all their gear was jettisoned and was now at the mercy of the current, including the small bag containing their marine radio.
They made the decision to abandon the boat and swim out together to get to the bag and the radio. There was no one out on the bay that day and if they had not retrieved that radio they would have been doomed. The other smart thing was that they stayed together. If the father had swam for the radio there was no way he could have made it back to the boat against the current and they would have been separated. So, I applaud him for not only being prepared but for making the right calls.
We delivered them to a dock across the bay, warmer and in good spirits (considering), where we were met by a fire crew from that city, two ambulances, a fire chief, a couple of cops, and a very friendly brown pelican who decided to join the circle of conversation.
We said our goodbyes and headed back home at a slightly less hurried pace. Once back in quarters we washed the boat, readied all the gear for the next call, and ordered ourselves a pizza. Needless to say I was pretty excited to get my first real legit water rescue out on the boat and that it all ended well. Makes for a great day at work.
