Wild Weekend of Rescues
Boating activities of all sorts increase on any holiday weekend, so we’d expect the tally of rescues to increase proportionally. But over the Labor Day Weekend, the range of potentially tragic incidents that occurred here in the Bay Area and elsewhere along the West Coast was a bit shocking — particularly on Saturday, September 3.
On that day, just south of the Mexican border the American commercial sportsfishing boat Invicta began taking on water near the Coronado Islands, threatening the lives of the 21 passengers and five crew aboard. Luckily, the motor vessel Sweet Marie was nearby, and took aboard all of Invicta‘s crew, who were later transferred to a Coast Guard cutter. Invicta was left adrift and eventually broke up against one of the Coronados.
On the same day at least two other capsizes were reported in Southern California, and just after midnight Saturday night, the moored, replica paddlewheeler Spirit of Sacramento began taking on water from an unknown source and eventually capsized. Her two crew were unharmed during the turnover, but an estimated 600 gallons of diesel in her tanks became an immediate threat to the fragile environment of the Sacramento Delta.
Here in San Francisco Bay, every local news organization seemed to jump on the story of a Sea Scouts vessel capsizing in the chilly waters of the Central Bay Saturday, not far from Aquatic Park. The adult skipper and all 15 crew — who reportedly ranged in age from eight to 18 — were safely rescued by Coast Guard personnel.
Although the scouts’ bright-red vessel was widely reported to have been a catamaran, it was actually an unballasted, double-ended, Monomoy-class whale boat rigged with a modern, two-spreader mast, which has little if any internal flotation or self-bailing abilities. We’re absolutely certain that neither the kids involved nor their adult supervisor need us to tell them that sailing the Central Bay in such a boat with 16 souls aboard is a bit much. That said, looking back at some of our own sailing antics, we can testify that the lessons learned during such life-threatening situations are imprinted permanently — and vividly — into our memories, never to be repeated again.
