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TRAVELING MERCIES DOES SEARCH AND RESCUE
By David Cox
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“Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous” -- Doris Lessing
June 5, 2003. Although I had been laid low for about two weeks by a weird intestinal tract problem and all it implies, in April my wife Lauralee and I took our boat Traveling Mercies on a long-planned cruise from Everett to Port Townsend for Easter weekend. On Easter Sunday we walked up the hill for the 0830 church service. By the time we got back to the boat I didn’t feel like going anywhere, so rather than return to Everett as planned, we stayed over until Monday.
Monday morning we set out. We retraced our route across Port Townsend Bay and through Port Townsend Canal (often called Hadlock Canal), across Oak Bay and Admiralty Inlet, past Double Bluff and down to Possession Point, the south tip of Whidbey Island.
We had just passed the Possession Point Buoy when we saw a small rigid bottom inflatable (RIB) going around and around in circles. As I looked north into Possession Sound I could see a large Coast Guard vessel headed our way. Then I twigged on the Coast Guard radio calls we had heard, asking assistance from any vessel in the vicinity of Possession Point.
As I picked up the microphone to call the Coast Guard, we spotted a person in the water near the circling RIB. It was instantly obvious he had been thrown from the boat. Apparently, someone ashore had spotted the mishap and (I assume) called 911, setting a rescue operation in motion.
The approaching Coast Guard ship saw us and called, asking if we could safely assist the people in the water. It was then that we saw a second person in the water. We moved in and put our boat between the circling RIB and the victim nearest it. I was concerned that the RIB might hit him and chew him up with its spinning propeller.
A person thinks fast at times like this. I decided the best way to get him into our boat was to lower our inflatable dinghy but leave the Weaver Snap Davits attached. I swung the stern of our boat, a 2452 Bayliner Ciera Classic, with the inflatable attached and floating nearly level off the stern, over to the nearest victim. We tied a mooring line to a boat cushion and threw it to him.
Lauralee climbed into the dinghy. Using the dinghy as a more or less stable platform, she was able to help the man out of the water. He was very cold, but concerned about the other man, who had been injured when they were thrown into the water.
I maneuvered the stern of our boat over to the second man. He was in much worse shape and was going into shock, but Lauralee and the first man were able to drag him out of the water and into our dinghy.
By this time the Coast Guard Buoy Tender Henry Blake arrived on scene. I told them we had the victims on board but they needed medical attention. The Coast Guard asked us to come alongside the Blake, and began rigging fenders and a Jacobs ladder. During this time, the two men had been able to climb out of our dinghy and into our boat’s covered area, where I had the cabin heat turned up high.
So what had happened? They were out for a ride, and the driver decided to make a couple sharp turns, just fooling around. The shutoff lanyard was not clipped to the operator’s clothing. If it had been attached, in all likelihood there would be no story. The engine would have shut down when they were thrown out of the boat and they probably would have been able to swim back and climb in.
The men appeared to be in their late 20s or early 30s, and appeared fit. One was wearing a Sospender inflatable PFD (I was pleased to see it working well, as these are what Lauralee and I rely on) and the other man was wearing what appeared to be a kayaker-style PFD.
The second man, the one who was going into shock, had a nasty bruise with broken skin on one leg. He was convinced he was bleeding heavily, and was immensely relieved to learn otherwise.
With assistance, the two men were able to climb onto the deck of the Blake, where medical help awaited them. In the background, the RIB continued its endless tight circles. The men will be all right. We got to them only 10 or 15 minutes after the accident, and while life expectancy in 46-degree water isn’t very long, we were well within the window of good fortune.
I was still feeling very bad from my intestinal problems. We raised the dinghy vertical and clipped it home, and continued our trip to Everett. No other boats were in sight on this gray Monday after Easter. A few days later, feeling a little better, I went shopping for a throwing line. A mooring line tied to a cushion worked, but it is no match for a good throwing line.
And now I know why I had to get sick in Port Townsend and lay over an extra day. No coincidence here. These things happen for a reason.v
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