Hope you're not in Immediate Danger... - July, 2021

We had a nice July 4 weekend on the boat with Davi and Ümlaut (Davi’s large black cat). My colleague from work let slip that he and his wife were going to be in Manistique over the holiday weekend, so I invited them to come over to Escanaba (50 miles by car) for the day and be Beta testers for the boat. Manolo’s an experimenter, so he agreed.

Manolo and Adrianna showed up with some nice booze, and we set out on a cruise, intending to circle the lighthouse set out at Minneapolis shoals, about 10 miles south of the harbor. The departure was smoothly uneventful, and Lori got us on a nice course heading out into Green Bay, where the wind picked up a bit and we were getting 3’ seas. We were having a fine time out on the deck when we heard the Coast Guard broadcast a notice over the VHF radio of a “small green and white vessel taking on water near Ford River.”

We were about 7 miles south of Escanaba, and about 4 miles due east of Ford River at that time. Not seeing any other boats in the vicinity, we scrubbed the light house course and redirected towards shore. The Coast Guard then broadcast the last known coordinates, and we jotted them down and made for that location. Our formerly happy guests and cat were now looking a bit less carefree imagining other boaters getting dunked into the 55-degree waters of Green Bay. The new course Lori was on placed us broadside to the wind and waves, causing the boat to pitch and roll a bit more. None of the humans on board looked bad, but the cat went from yowling to hurking up his lunch. Fortunately, Davi had already crated Ümlaut, so that mess was well contained.

As much as I wanted to broadcast “Perseverance responding at best speed” to reassure everyone that help was on the way, we did not answer the call. Although the Perseverance can go just about anywhere, it can’t get there fast. Best possible speed is 8.8 knots. That works out to a smokin’ 10 mph. It was going to take us 24 minutes to cover that distance. Plus, once we got there, we had no practical experience in how to rescue anybody or place a swamped boat under tow. Lori adamantly insisted that, while we should go try to help, those poor people in the green and white boat were undoubtably going to be in better hands being rescued by someone other than us. We were within 2 miles of last known coordinates and had spotted no-one when the U.S.C.G. came on the VHF again with the hoped-for message, “vessel now under tow, no assistance required.”

With a substantial feeling of relief, we changed course off of our rescue mission, and back onto Lori’s planned heading down wind, which settled down the boat considerably. We got back to the harbor entrance just as another VHF broadcast warned all craft to stand clear of Escanaba harbor “Until the boat under tow is secured.” I watched somewhat aghast as it sank in that both the Delta county Sheriff (based out of Escanaba) and the Coast Guard boat (out of Sturgeon Bay, WI) had responded to and arrived at the foundering green and white boat’s location before we could cover a handful of miles, and then had BEAT US BACK TO THE HARBOR while towing a swamped boat.

Moral of this story, …

We’ll definitely try to rescue you, but you’d better be prepared to tread water for a while.