Russ, AKA Kodiak, You were right, I loved the story. Isn't it a real hoot how when the roles are reversed (rescuer and rescuee) we stay to the script for that role? Pretty funny, also potentially dangerous, the static buildup can do more than make you jump like Mr. Volta's frog. Luckily you recovered and didn't have to depend on yor Bailey suit. You did carry one of those ugly mothers didn't you or was this adventure prior to their introduction/popularization?
My wife and I did ten years together working out of San Diego in costal search and rescue. We did a lot of training at the air sta but never involved directly in air ops. San Diego Coast Guard Air Station was our radio comms. We used to be some annoyed at the air guys. We'd get a call, hop aboard, and head out, then about an hour into the run a chopper would casually DASH out and take care of buisness, we were lucky if we got to continue and take the vessel under tow. Oh well, I got all the excitement I needed in just a few minutes getting a line on a 35 ft twin I/O just starting into the surf at ballast point with a family of 5 on board. In the troughs we were real close to hiting the bottom on the rocks. Another few seconds literally and we would havve had to abandon the attempt or lose our boat and crew. We got lucky. My wife was crewman towmaster that day instead of communicator or navigator and I was vessel master. I tossed the small line across their vessel and she directed them via the bullhorn to pull it in to retrieve the tow line and secure it to the anchor windlass. Meanwhile the assigned navigator, who was a whiz at manuevering the 50 ft twin diesel was doing a ballet with the throttles and shift levers to keep up close enough to work the case but not surf into the shore (real rocky). I figure we got lucky and took a strain on the line about 5-10 seconds before we either had to abandon them (no one on board liked that) or join them ashore if we didn't go down in the rocks on teh way.
I once got involved in building 20 each 38 ft single screw diesel fish boats for the Alaskan trade. All aluminum hulls. That was a hoot. A buddy was in charge of the electronics, RADAR, sounders, VHF, SSB, and on and on. He had installers from both the ranks of marine elctricians and electronic techs. What chaos, what a tower of Babel. Electricians use black for hot and white for neutral (return) while ET's use black for ground (negative) and the "other" color for hot. Lots of blown fuses, strained tempers, and little progress before he asked me to help with the RADAR installs/checkout/tuning since he was getting behind (I have commercial radiotelephone lics with ships RADAR endorsement). As soon as I figured out the problem was THE BLACK WIRE and how it couldn't be hot and ground at the same time and held a 5 min all hands seminar, everything was OK. Had to really be fastidious and absolutely insist that no wire scraps made it to the bilge. Copper, like a penny for instance, laying in the bilge would eat a hole in the aluminum hull with sea water as the electrolyte making the aluminum-copper battery. Mercury from a broken thermometer was a big no no too.
OK, just a couple more "sea stories"... San Diego Air used to tape all incoming emergency traffic and this tape got played at parties and such since it was to us, funny. Portuguese fisherman/captain on an older (wooden) tuna boat (not yet sunk to collect insurance) is taking on water and calls the Coast Guard. "Costa Guarda Coasta Guarda this is the (Witheld for privacy reasons), My boat she is a sink!!
CO of the air sta is up in a helo and has a portable drop pump. They find the vessel in distress and drop the canister packed pump straight down on the distressed vessel through the open hatch into the hold. Now in the USAF we call that a shack, i.e. ordinance perfectly on target but this wasn't a bombing sortee (well not supposed to be) Capt comes up on the VHF and says, "thanks a lot coasta guarda, now my boat shes a really sink.
I been on the other side too. Due to a late night fatique induced computational error I was a few degrees off course motoring up the coast from San Diego to Catalina Island, a trip I had often made and had stopped at many different intermediate harbours on different voyages. Anyway I ended up on the beach real close to the San Onofre nuclear poser station in a 34 ft full keel sailboat. Much luck, no rocks, no surf to speak of and the next morning at first light a Coast Guard cutter sent a rubber boat in, we ran a tow line, and at high tide with only me on board, towed the thing out through the small surf to deep water. Took a couple hits to the free standing spade rudder which bent the shaft getting through the surf but no leaks so motored to Oceanside and then to San Dieo with no further excitement.
As I taught navigation in public education courses and my wife and I were both qualified navigators for search and rescue ops, I was more than just a little embarrassed. As they say, stuff happens, even when yo aren't backing up a cart with a wheelbase much shorter than the tow vehicle (push vehicle?)
Patrick
