Rescue Mission

Paddled out late this morning, 0744. The northerly buoys were in double digits last night because of the storm moving through so I thought there would be some swell, just wasn't sure how messed up it would be from the moderately heavy weather. Waves were abundant from Sarges to GWs and beyond. There was plenty of post-storm warble and bump, but a lot of surfable shoulders and peaks. I surfed way off to the side of everyone at a peak that offered up some nice rides along with the closeouts. Got five waves before the rescue mission.

On my way over to G-dubs I noticed that 18' Hobie Cat I wrote about in a previous post beached in a small cove right in front of a massive cliff armoring concrete wall. (You can see the cat in the distance pictured over my right shoulder. This pic was taken the day before the big swell and rescue mission.) I thought, "that's the end of that boat." After I caught my fourth wave I saw a guy on the beach at the cat. I thought, "so that's the guy that owns that boat...or is he just some guy who's going to salvage it?" I paddled back out to the takeoff and he started towing the cat out through the breakers on his surfboard. He was about half way out to a safe place when I finished up my fifth ride which was near to him. I shouted to him and asked if he needed any help. And that started the mile paddle to the pier.

Deyess is a young guy who bought the boat for 250 bucks. He's been using it all summer to tour around. He even pitched a tent on it and slept there during the calm weather. The boat's anchor line frayed and broke last night when the swell came up. It washed ashore on the rocks and flipped over just inside GWs at 3:30 this morning. Deyess ran down, righted the boat and managed to get it into the cove before running back to safety. He kept an eye on it the rest of the night and when he thought the tide would be right he came back down to tow the boat out to sea. He would have had a rough go without some help as the steering gear was damaged and by himself he couldn't' get the boat to run in a straight line.

We threw our boards on the cat's trampoline and between the two of us we manage to lay flat on each outrigger and prone paddle the boat towards the pier. The going was slow. But the real breakthrough came when I tossed him my SUP paddle. With this young and strong surfer/waterman providing the horsepower via the Kialoa SUP paddle, and me steering and prone paddling, we made it to the pier in record time. We beached his wayward craft way up out of the surfline and I SUPed back to Sarges to complete a productive morning...mission accomplished. SUP to the rescue.

October 10, 2007 (W)
In: 0744
1st Wave: 0758
Out: 0915
Wave count: 5
WT=56
AT=56
Wx: Heavy rain cloud cover clearing to sunny with scattered cumulus
Tide: 3.1 Rising to 4.5'
Wind: Early onshore/sideshore to moderate to light offshores
Sea Surface: Post storm moderately bumpy with moderate warble
Buoy: NWS
0600: 11.2 @ 12.9 WNW
0700: 10.2 @ 12.9 W
0800: No data
0900: 9.2 @ 12.9 W
10'4" Angulo SUP
Reefs: Rock and sand
Waves: 10' @ 13 (approx. ave.) Storm Surf Buoy Model