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Nominators Name: David Forbes
Victims Name: Unknown
Rescuing Skipper: Brad Hillebrandt
What was the nature of this incident: Windsurfer rescue
Was any injury sustained by the victim: N
How much time did the victim spend in the water: 30 mins
Was electronic MOB function used to locate the victim: N
Was a rescue swimmer put in the water: N
Was a Lifesling aboard: Y
Was it used: N
Rescuing Crews Names: Laura Mooney
MOB Drills Pay Off.
My sailing partner Laura and I were recently on our second of two
successive weekend "shakedown cruises" before taking my boat
down to Mexico. We left on a Friday after work, for a night sail/motor
down to Monterey. We had a beautiful weekend in Monterey, then sailed to
Santa Cruz for a sunset barbeque at anchor adjacent to the wharf. The
next morning we got an early 4:30 AM start and headed back to Alameda.
The cruise home was uneventful except for our sightings of several
whales, and more dolphin than I have ever seen in northern California
waters.
We passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at around 4:00 in the
afternoon. When we were a little bit to the east of the Harding Rock
Buoy, we jibed onto a starboard tack to get out of the shipping lane
because there was a container ship heading out approximately two miles
away. It was at this point that Laura, who always keeps a sharp lookout
for sea life, noticed a man in the water, waving both his arms over his
head. We immediately went into our man overboard routine, but what we
ended up doing was not exactly a textbook maneuver. Because of the
proximity of the tanker, and the Mans’ position dead center in the
shipping lane, we felt we had to recover him as quickly as possible. We
used a combination of the maneuvers, but mostly, the boat handling and
judgment that we learned in our classes, which allowed us to approach
and stop as close to the man as possible.
I immediately headed up until we were abeam the Man and then tacked
the boat while Laura kept an eye on him. I started the engine just in
case we had a bad approach, and when I had him in sight, Laura furled
the staysail so that we would have less sail and sheets flogging when we
reached him. We approached him on a beam reach and began to slow the
boat as we got closer. We released the sheets and came to a stop about
ten feet from him. We dropped our swim ladder and threw him a line to
enable him to pull himself to the boat. The Man was an exhausted
windsurfer who later told us he had been drifting in the water for about
half an hour, unable to get anyone’s attention. He told us he sailed
out to this area and the wind had died down enough that he was unable to
keep his windsurfer up. He was so tired and cramped up that he had
difficulty swimming the ten feet to the boat and climbing up our transom
swim step. His windsurfer was tied to a line and towed behind the boat.
During our recovery, I also hailed the Coast Guard on channel 16 and
reported our dilemma. I told them that we were east of the center
channel buoy between Alcatraz and Sausalito, and they clarified that I
was at the Harding Rock Buoy.. I was trying to figure out if the ship
was going to use the north channel or the south channel because at this
point the ship was headed right at us and was about a mile away. To my
surprise, the Coast Guard said that they did not have that information
and would need to make a phone call to find out. I made the decision to
motor upwind to the Harding Rock Buoy, knowing that the ship would have
to go to the north or to the south. When it was obvious to us that the
ship was headed to the north channel, we set off for Chrissy field. We
let the Coast Guard know that the situation was under control and they
thanked us. As we sailed away, we watched as the ship passed right
through the area where the windsurfer had been stranded. We then dropped
him off as he thanked us profusely.
We’re very thankful for the training we received at Club Nautique.
We gained confidence from this experience and a sense of accomplishment.
In retrospect, Laura and my biggest complaint about our recovery was
that we neglected to throw out our lifesling. Lesson learned… I invite
Club Nautique to critique our procedures so that we, as well as your
readers, can learn from any mistakes that we made.
How did the victim get hoisted onto the deck: Swim ladder |
