A Recounting of a Sea Scout Rescue
In July, the Sea Scouts rescued a distressed kayaker who had been in the water for nearly six hours with no lifejacket and no wetsuit. Here is a recounting of that incident from Ken Shupe, the skipper of the Sea Scout ship Pegasus.
"On the morning of Friday, July 20, Sea Scout Ship 09 — and members from Troop 09 of Island Yacht Club — were cruising our two vessels: the Sea Fox (a 42-ft ex-Navy power vessel) and Pegasus (a 36-ft sailing vessel) on our annual summer cruise. I was the adult in charge of Pegasus. As we were getting underway from San Francisco, the Sea Scout on navigation watch heard the marine information broadcast pan pan, notifying vessels of an active missing person search. We continued cruising from Mariposa-Hunters Point Yacht Club to our next destination, Pittsburg Marina.
Just before 2:30 a.m. — as the scouts were rotating the watch — we crossed under the eastern span of the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge and noticed quite a few law enforcement vessels several miles to the west of us in San Rafael — the flashing blue lights were unmistakable from the water. The outgoing watch was sharing standing orders and directions with the on-coming watch, when I noticed something dark floating in the water about 100 yards off our port bow. I asked the helmsman, Kenny Kirwin, to please come left. Something didn’t look right, so I asked Scout Cole Harris, who was helping switch the watch, to come back up on deck to put another set of eyes on this strange object.
As Harris came on deck, I heard a voice. It was not clear at all. I gave Kirwin direct orders on how to steer closer to the object in the water. We came within 10 feet of the object, and only as we were right on top of it was it clear that a man was desperately clutching to a swamped inflatable kayak.
He said something, but it was incoherent, and he was not wearing any PFD. He was trying to speak and nodded his head. By this time, Harris had begun to slow the boat down by letting pressure out of the sails. I told the man, "I will come right back, I have to drop my sails! I will be right back just hold on!" I called out "Man overboard!"
Once the vessel was turned, I gave directions to Kirwin to drive up to the victim. He slowed the vessel and followed every direction given. By this time Johnny Amaden and Mason Ensley were on deck with boat hooks. We approached the victim on our starboard side and hooked his swamped vessel, while Kirwin kept the vessel safe and away from the abandoned piers, bridge and islands.
Harris and I tried to secure the boarding ladder. The holding bolt for the mount broke off, so we tied off the ladder using dock lines. We helped the man out of the water. His progress was slow and he was clearly sore, in pain and suffering from hypothermia.
Once he was onboard, scouts Amaden, Ensley and Harris wrapped the man in several ship’s blankets and administered room-temperature bottled water, and started a dialog to keep the man conscious. Once I knew that we’d secured the victim, I called the Coast Guard. Just after 3:00 a.m., a USCG vessel rendezvoused with ours and maneuvered to retrieve the victim, whose name was Oscar. He told us that two other vessels had passed him that night but hadn’t seen him or stopped. It was clear that Oscar, who was dressed in only an undershirt and shorts, had fallen out of his kayak during the day and was unable to reboard. The Coast Guard boat expertly came along our starboard side and we were able to transfer Oscar and his kayak. By this time, he had become more coherent and was blessing us. The Coast Guard departed right away and we continued on to our destination.
I have to say as a skipper, I am very proud of these four scouts. They acted quickly, followed every direction given by myself or the Coast Guard, and each one of them preformed a very critical part in saving Oscar. They acted according to their scouting training, and did it with a smile. They were even cracking jokes with Oscar and instructing him on lifejackets.
We practice these skills with the scouts hoping never to have to use them, but I am glad we have that practice. Because we saved a life that night.