The story - rescue off Santa Barbara Island
We were at sea in an open inflatable dinghy. A stiff breeze pushing 8 foot waves was blowing us onto the rocky shore of an uninhabited island 50 miles off Southern California. Our motor was useless, drowned. Steve's rowing was just keeping us off the rocks. We were soaked through, hypothermia was setting in. Sunset, lost, unlikely to survive the night.
This is my story of being genuinely, improbably rescued. I did several things wrong to get into the predicament. I did one unusual thing right. I was carrying a waterproof handheld marine radio. In ten years working on the water, I never saw another person carrying one. Everyone carries a phone now. Not 20 years ago. Besides, we were way out of cellphone range.
Why did I have the radio? Sailing is risky, the ocean is deadly, People fall overboard. I promised Julie I would take every precaution to come home. I never fell overboard, the situation I imagined, but the radio saved my life nevertheless. I have an appreciation of my own risk profile. I tend to push the envelope. So I tend to take precautions.
This happened in 2002. Marc Hughston and I wrote about it several years later. Marc skippered the boat that rescued me. The story is what the link above points to. If my website stays up, the link will work. If not, you missed the best story I have.
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