Association Forum - Daring rescue at sea by Catalina 25

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

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.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Daring rescue at sea by Catalina 25

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Esteban
Navigator

Member Avatar

139 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/17/2004 : 19:17:43

Well ok - the middle of the Chesapeake doesn't quite constitute being at sea, but here goes nontheless. Yesterday afternoon (Monday no less) I was motoring back across an empty Northern Chesapeake Bay late in the afternoon when off in the far distance I spotted someone frantically waiving, sitting on something drifting about. Now mind you - not quite the open ocean, but far enough to lose sight of land in any direction. We immediately turn to starboard as we had thoughts of someone having fallen off a conatiner ship or something big. 5 or ten minutes later we coasted up to two guys on two broken down jet-skies, apparently the victims of water in their fuel or the wrong gas all together. They anxiously pleaded for us to call someone for help, but with sunset approaching I opted to tow them in. Now you have to picture this - a Catalina 25 towing two large jet-skies in tandem with riders on board. Ever seen that? Apparently they had been drifting about for close to two hours. No radio, no cell phone, no GPS, no flares, no compass, no warm clothing, no whistles, no horns, not even a paddle. Drifting away towards the shipping channel with nightfall just around the corner.

You can only imagine the looks of folks at their marina as we rolled in with them in tow. By the way - a nine horse power four stroke Honda did about four and a half knots. Not bad huh?

So the moral of the story is to check all your safety gear, think twice about your journey, keep good situatioanl awareness of what you are doing and always ask what if. What if this fails, what if that falls out on the water, what if you fall out on the water, what if mobby dick comes by, what if. Don't be afraid of the open water, but do have respect for the environment.

A very amused Esteban

Esteban Diaz
Tally Ho!

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 19:51:41

Priceless!

Good job, Estaban! BTW, when you speak of losing sight of land, do you mean because of fog or haze? I don't recall the upper bay being quite that big.

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 08/17/2004 19:56:22

Ben - FL
Admiral

Members Avatar

880 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 20:15:34

Chalk one up for the stick boats!
I towed a go fast bass boat once in the St. Johns R. The river is about three or four miles wide at that point and I could hear him blowing a whistle. When I came close I saw he had a kid with him. His motor had just gotten out of the shop. And he was the service manager at Sea Ray. When I arrived at the boat ramp some two miles away under sail with him in tow there was some heckeling from the other stink pots.

Edited by - on

Mark Maxwell
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
329 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 20:24:23

I guess I should say good job, but...... Why mess with natural selection?

The looks you were getting from the other marina folks was probably like the one you give your kids when they bring home a stray

Edited by - on

Esteban
Navigator

Members Avatar

139 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 20:46:57

Yup Dave - yesterday was a hazy day. I headed south for a while out of Talchester beach playing with what little wind I could find before I dropped sails and headed towards Middle River. Some clear days you can see as far as the bridge at Annapolis, some days you can't quite see land.

Esteban

Edited by - on

Jeff McK
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
389 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 20:58:05

Esteban,

Way to go!!! It's always good to help clean up floating debris & pollutants in the bay, even if it's still alive. :-D

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 21:32:06

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Jeff McK
 It's always good to help clean up floating debris & pollutants in the bay, even if it's still alive.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Edited by - on

Oscar
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2030 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 22:23:28

Nice going........should have made them promise to wear T-shirts saying "I am nice to sailboats" when running the little stink things before you threw the line...

Some big barges come through there very regularly.......that would have ruined their evening...

Oscar
C42 # 76 "Lady Kay"
C250 # 618 Currently FOR SALE
http://www.woodenshoemusic.com/C250WB

Edited by - on

jwilliams
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
357 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2004 : 22:49:48

Yeah, Esteban!

Buddy Paul Zell and me once encountered a speedboat at the Bay Bridge, strong tide, one guy and a short paddle at the bow. No hope for that type.

Yea, we towed them into Southbeach Marina and didn't even give them the raspberry...well, maybe later we did out of hearing. Who knows, maybe they'll tow us in someday.

Jim Williams
Hey Jude C25fk 2958
SF Bay

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 08/18/2004 : 01:27:14

I hsve towed disabled or out-of-gas powerboats several times, once on San Francisco Bay from Angel Island back to Gas House Cove. Towed jet skis a couple of times on Folsom Lake - they seem to run out of gas pretty fast, probably due to having such a small tank capacity in the first place. We may razz powerboaters, but you never know when the tables will be turned. The day may come when you run hard aground, get dismasted, or have an injured or sick crewperson needing medevac - and a powerboater will help YOU.

Edited by - on

Gary B.
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
969 Posts

Response Posted - 08/18/2004 : 02:30:54

You helped make the world right.......I must confess....about 2-3 weeks ago, a huge Jet ski pulled me off a sandbar when I was single-handing while it was blowing 24 knots or so on the Columbia River. He got there before I even had time to fire up the OB, or retract the keel or even come up with a plan. He put a line on the bow with what he called a "quick connect" and turned me around to deep water, pulled about 20 feet and away I went under my still raised 110 and reefed main.

I looked back once I got sailing and there he was behind be being towed BACKWARDS! The jet ski flipped over, off he went and I was towing the PWC for all I was worth....went forward to uncleat his line and it WAS NOT THERE on the bow cleats! Went back to the cockpit and, sure enough, there was the line coming under my boat. His girlfriend on a second JetSki screamed "cut the line!" to me as I stood there knife in hand. I yelled "Where's the line?" and she screamed "IN FRONT" ....Duh, I ran to the bow looked over the pulpit and sure enough the dude had clipped a caribiner over the EYE on the bow where the winch strap goes on the trailer.!!!! I reached over, cut the line, and got back to the cockpit. A fisherman had picked the guy up and got him quickly to his nearly stolen PWC. By the time I got under control enough to go back to thank him, he was LONG GONE, leaving me with a caribiner as a reminder that not all PWC folks are creeps......Not all that smart, maybe, but good hearts!

I am glad you were able to help square the world......what goes around long enough comes around all right.....

Gary B.
Vice Commodore
Encore! #685 SK/SR

Once towed a 28' Bayliner for miles with the C25 and 9.9 Yamaha High Thrust. Made about 3 1/2 knots, which I thought was pretty dang good, but the guy went nuts after about an hour...I dang near cut him loose and let him drift, he was so impatient and unused to going so slowly......Funny.....

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

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.