Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop! for Seattle Harbor Patrol & Morgan

I didn't get much work done at home today. Not for lack of trying or desire, though. I just got hung up doing other stuff. I figured I'd have a good paddling practice and then be up working late tonight. Little did I know... We ended up with 7, but Tanja, not having a definite seat for the race Sat opted to head home and get out of the rain. That left us with Lianne, Meilee, Nancy, me, Jen, and Rives steering. And Clem went out on his OC1.

It was raining and quite windy. We headed out towards the dog park and around the point to the south. Once we made it around the point the swell really picked up, 1-2 ft, and washing over the bow and gunwales of the boat. Rives suggested that if it was feeling too gnarly we could turn around. Given my fall last Sat I gave her the signal to turn around after 5-10 minutes of going into that mess. Last time we were in wind like that I was leaning over towards the ama to help keep us stable and it really funked up my back, didn't want a repeat performance.

We made our turn and were headed back towards the point and we ended up beam to the swell. A wave picked up our ama and over we went before we realized it was happening! Wow, a huli in real life! I'd never done one in an OC6 outside the huli drills we have in the fall when the water is warmer. Everyone kept their heads, Jen gathered up the paddles. Nancy and I went to the off ama side of the boat. Lianne and Meilee pushed the ama up and Nancy and I pulled it back over. Then Lianne and Nancy got into the boat to start bailing. The only problem with that was every time they'd bail out a bucket full of water a wave would wash over the gunwale and replace twice as much!

I pulled out my cell phone in it's water proof bag and called Harbor Patrol, I have them on speed dial for just such situations. I'd hoped I'd never have to use it, though. They have to come over from Lake Union, about six miles or so. They said they were on their way and while we were waiting Lianne, Nancy, and Rives were in the submerged boat paddling gently trying to guide the boat towards shore. Clem had caught the bag with the pfd's, it would have floated off to Juanita otherwise. Finally the Harbor Patrol arrived, we were in the water around 30-40 minutes. Their faster boat was broken so they had to take the slower one, the inflatable zodiac type.

We got everyone into the Harbor Patrol boat and all the paddles. The guys tied a line to the OC6 and tried to tow it. Submerged as it was, with the wind and waves as they were, the boat was just not cooperating. They finally had to release the OC6 so they could get our shivering crew to shore. They promised they would come back for the boat and tow it over to the motor boat ramp at Magnuson Park. We were very reluctant to let it go, but, really, what choice did we have?

We got to SSP, waving to the kayakers who were looking quizzically at us. Their expressions said, 'um, aren't you missing something? a boat perhaps?' While the others dashed off to find warm, dry clothes I dashed off to find Morgan, the head of SSP and a pretty good guy. I told him we huli'd the OC6 and had to call Harbor Patrol. He asked why we didn't call him, he'd have come and rescued us. I said, "Honestly, I wasn't thinking that clearly, the Harbor Patrol number is at the top of my contact list, and without my glasses there was no way I could find your number." Living so nearby I often don't bring dry clothes down with me. Morgan lent me some ski pants and I had an extra fleece pull over in the car. A hot shower and dry clothes would have to wait until I got home.

We then set to figuring how to get the OC6 back to SSP. Our first plan was to hitch a trailer to Morgan's truck and load the boat onto it. A bunch of the kayakers offered to help us load even. By the time everyone had changed into dry clothes and gotten some hot tea from the SSP office the wind had completely died down. Morgan suggested we tow the boat back with one of the SSP motor boats. Seemed like a good idea to me.

I rode over with Morgan and Dave in the boat. Nancy & Mike drove Jen, Lianne, and Meilee over. Morgan rigged the lines to the OC6. Lianne sat 5 to steer, I sat 4 with the back up steering blade, and Meilee sat 3 and helped lean left to make sure we didn't huli again. Being towed back was really a lot of fun. At one point they started going a little fast-ish and we went off towards the right as if we were on a wakeboard, they slowed down after that. At one point it felt like they were trying to play crack the whip, Lianne was still trying to get things figured out though. After Lianne got the steering dialed in, we sped up again, this time she totally kept us in the middle! We got back to SSP, put the boat to bed, and headed out in search of hot showers and warm suppers.

Thanks everyone for keeping calm and cool under pressure. We were in a serious situation and we all kept our heads and worked together. It was key that we stayed with the boat, kept our paddles, and even though help was on the way we still worked towards saving ourselves. Had Harbor Patrol not made it we could have made it to shore, it would have taken a while and we'd have been a bit hypothermic, but we could have done it. Everybody made it back ok, the boat and paddles were all fine as well. Our only losses were 2 water bottles, a flip flop, a water shirt, and Nancy's GPS, not so bad, really.