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A Mild Rescue At Sea

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saribella
Captain

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USA
286 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/07/2006 : 23:15:15

The wind and waves were up this afternoon/this evening, and conditions were too heavy for sailing on Lake Michigan. Wind gusts exceeded 20 knots and were 15-20knots N steady from 4 pm until 930pm. Waves were measured at 3 to 5 feet and steep. I left the house around 4:00 and decided to grab my surfboard off of the rack in the garage, throw it in the back of the car, and headed out to the lake house. When I arrived my wife and daughter were already on the beach so I hurried to unload the surfboard and headed down the stairs. (The house is situated 40'on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan.) It was apparent the the waves were every bit of 3 to 5 feet and the wind was straight out of the north which created a nasty north to south current running 3 to 5 knots. As I greeted the family, I immediately noticed one brave soul had made it through the surf in a sunfish only to broach and capsize shortly thereafter about 200 feet from shore. About 50 feet from shore there is shallow sand bar with the water 2-5' deep, and drops off to only 6-9 where the sunfish was. After the third capsize in less than 5 minutes, out I went to assist. When I approached the sturdy lass, she had finally been pushed to deeper water, righted the craft, and headed to shore. So much for paddling like a madman on that surfboard to assist her. This is not the rescue to which the title eludes, just a near one.

Since there was a small craft advisory and no other boats were on the lake, I was very suprised to see 2 sailboats bearing north dead to wind when there was an obvious safe harbor 7 miles to the south. I surfed for about 2 hours and exited the water around 6 pm. I observed that one of the sailboats had heaved to about 1/2 mile from shore. After dinner, the sailboat was still anchored and bouncing up and down back and forth in the waves; I then grabbed the binos and headed out onto the lawn for a looksie. The lone sailboat appeared to be a 35-40' something or rather, and there was someone doing something on the bow in the pitching seas. Was thier anchor, fouled? Was thier a problem with the rhode? Probably none of the above. Regardless, they seemed to be in some sort of distress, hence the distress flag that was now being flown. Was it a lack of power? Why did they not just set sail and head the 1 1/2 miles north east to safe harbor in Lake Macatawa? A boat that size should have no problems performing that maneuver. After 10 minutes went by, I almost picked up the phone to call the Coast Guard, but then a 45-50' sailboat with a tallrig mast and mizzen mast appeared on the scene to the immediate north and headed straight for the distressed vessel. After a few cirles around the distressed vessel the larger saiboat trasferred 2 indivuals, and they all headed to the bow. It was apparent that the larger sailboat intended to tow in the smaller! This to me is incredible and equally as dangerous considering the conditions. After 15 minutes or so the anchor was up, the towline was set, and off they went making 2-4 knots bearing north/north east to Lake Macatawa. Despite the obvious dangers and caveats of one saiboat of size towing another in weather, I found myself so impressed that one sailor would go to such lengths and take such risks to help another; and equally as proud that I am a sailor and part of that same sailing community.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 08/08/2006 : 08:28:49

Glad you were watching, Matthew, but I have to say that when you saw that distress flag, you should have immediately called the Coast Guard. At the very least, they would have followed any VHF discussions between the distressed boat and the good samaritan, or summoned other help.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 08/08/2006 08:53:49

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.