baptism by fire, part 2

So, we left off on Friday night where despite our best efforts we failed to make the save. We ended with a debrief during the ride back to the station. I was happy that we had brought a second coxswain because it allowed us to put him on Merrimack's boat and make the mission safer with his local area knowledge. The only real thing that could've gone better was the location of the accident which we obviously had no control over. The thing about the location was that it was virtually right on the AOR border between Gloucester and Merrimack River. Even then, this worked to our advantage because two boats subsequently responded instead of one.

I lost some sleep that night. It wasn't anything a cliche as "Oh, if I had just done this or that then that man would still be alive." The nature of his injuries and the apparent immediacy of his death made is so I didn't question myself. It was more the fact that on my first case as a coxswain we ended with a "01" in the "lives lost" column of the unit case log. I'm not superstitious but it still didn't sit well.

Things refused to slow down on Saturday. A boat called in taking on water after striking a submerged object. As I mentioned before, the 25' was an outstanding vessel for getting a dewatering pump on scene quickly. We launched with myself, one of our best engineers (they specialize in damage control and operation of the pump), and two reservists who were doing their weekend drills.

We flew up the coast of Cape Ann, milking every RPM and inch of trim we could afford out of the twin engines. The flight north was one that alternated between radio communications and the crew developing a game plan to act upon once we arrived. The P-6 dewatering pump sat secure on the aft deck, strapped in place and ready to be broken out for the job.

The harbormaster for the nearby port of Rockport had beaten us there. Nevertheless, they were glad to see us because our 250 gallon per minute pump outmatched the one they had brought. We tied up alongside and two crewmembers went over the gunwale of the cabin cruiser with the pump. The MK3 reported back that he could see the hull puncture, a respectable gash through the fiberglass.

The pump roared to life and quickly stemmed the flooding. We put over additional lines and put the vessel in alongside tow. We coordinated with the harbormaster and decided the best thing was to take the boat to a nearby ramp which was incidentally where the boat had been launched that same morning.

The duration of the alongside tow was enough where I got to do my next favorite thing to SAR, training. One of the reservists was breaking in as coxswain so I gave him some time on the helm while I spoke with the guys running the pump and went through my mental checklist of anything I might have missed (after all this only my second SAR case).

We made it to the boat ramp without incident and transferred it to its trailer. As the truck pulled her and the trailer out of the water, the damage looked much worse than we had originally thought. My engineer's assessment had been made from his view from the inside but with the boat out of the water we could see the damage to the exterior of the hull. There was a gash four to five feet long below the water line but luckily only a few feet had punched through the entire hull.

Just as we had the pleasure of working with another CG unit on Friday's case, we now got to shake hands with the Rockport Harbormaster. The Coast Guard offers that unique opportunity to constantly rub elbows with other agencies and organizations, whether they be federal, state, or even just local.

The weekend isn't over yet. Part 3 to follow...