Tonk, the whining in that article reminds me of a phone call to the local radio station during one of last year's hurricanes, Frances I think. We had Florida National Guard troops directing traffic at major intersections with their M-16's slung, them in their long sleeve uniforms baking in the hot Florida sun. God Bless them, they kept the peace and we had no trouble, the exact opposite of New Orleans. Everyone got the picture? What are you thinking? Safety, give them a hug, a thumbs up, buy them a cold one if you could? Well, that lib caller was whining about how the M-16's upset her and made her feel scared. Scared??? Sweet mother of pearl! Imagine her as the governor of your state!
Anyway, the whining in this posted article reminds me of that silly woman caller. Perhaps she was one of the ones on that boat?
Two 47' boat crews from my base spent all night Monday on this tragic case.
They were assisiting our Sister Station at Winchester Bay
I heard most of it on my marine radio.
Large wave capsized boat, survivor says- The Oregonian- Sept. 23, 2005
Sydney Mae II: - Inflated life raft was washed away from those struggling in sea
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1127473084172600.xml&coll=7
All afternoon, Jim Parker listened as warnings crackled over the radio telling the charter boat skipper not to try to make it over the Umpqua River bar, but the Sydney Mae II steered steadily toward the 15-foot swells until it was too late.
A wall of water slammed into the 38-foot boat, pitching Parker, Capt. Richard Oba and three other passengers overboard in the darkness Monday night.
The group had cut short its 15-hour tuna fishing excursion and was heading back to Winchester Bay after U.S. Coast Guard officials broadcast alerts that the river bar had closed as plunging breakers buffeted the jetty there.
Small commercial and recreational vessels were directed to head south to Charleston to calmer seas. The turbulent waters at the bar, where the river meets the ocean, make it tricky to navigate, especially at low tide when the flow out is at its fastest.
The captain initially told passengers that they would have transportation back to Winchester Bay when they reached Charleston, said Parker, a 59-year-old disabled Vietnam veteran from Springfield and an avid fisherman.
Now, as they drew closer to the river bar, Oba seemed to think the ocean had quieted down and he could make it safely across, Parker said.
"He said, 'I could probably make it,' " Parker recalled. "I said, 'The Coast Guard says it's closed.' We're getting closer, I stand up. We are 200 yards, maybe 100 yards out, and I turn around and I see this wave above me. With the deck lights, it was really illuminated. It looked like a big yellow wall. It would have taken anyone."
In an instant, the boat was on its side, full of water, Parker said. Only Oba wore a life jacket. Parker's friend, Bill Harris, 66, of Springfield, had on a floatation coat, Parker said.
Parker swam from the small cabin on the boat's flying bridge, where he had been with Oba. He didn't know what happened to the captain, but saw Ginger Strelow, the 64-year-old office manager for Oba's Pacific Pioneer Charters, float to the surface. He grabbed her.
Then another wave hit. He lost his grip, and Strelow was gone. The boat was sinking. Parker's foot got caught in the outrigger, a support that extends beyond the boat and is often used for balance. He went under.
"I thought I was going to drown right there," he said.
When Parker surfaced, he saw the charter boat's lifeboat still in its case, but its handle was caught in the outrigger.
"I'm pulling on this thing," Parker said. "I'm screaming, 'I can't get it open.' I could see the next wave coming" -- and then he thought of a friend, Patrick "Sully" Sullivan, who had called the Sydney Mae II earlier to warn it away from the bar. Parker hoped Sullivan was watching for the charter boat.
"I'm hoping Sully is up on the hill because the Coast Guard thought we were going to Charleston. There wasn't supposed to be anyone out there," he said.
Finally, with a loud boom -- which onlookers at the Umpqua River Lighthouse reported hearing -- the self-inflating raft erupted from its case. But just as quickly, a wave broke over it and carried it out of reach, Parker said.
Harris floated nearby, his floatation coat just barely keeping him above water, Parker said. Parker swam back to the boat, praying for help. Then, 3 feet away, he spotted a life jacket floating in front of him.
It was tangled, but he managed to get his arm through it and swim back to Harris.
"I grabbed ahold of him and hung on. Another wave broke," Parker said. "I lost him, and I never saw him again." Parker thinks Harris may have broken his ribs when the first wave slammed him into the boat's steering wheel.
Then Parker heard Oba call out to swim toward him, and the two swam for shore until Parker told him he couldn't swim any more. Oba told him there was a strobe light and a whistle in the life jacket.
Parker turned on the flashing light, and not long after, a Coast Guard boat appeared and plucked both men from the water.
Forty-five minutes after the boat had gone down, Oba and Parker became the only survivors of the wreck. The bodies of Harris and Strelow washed up later on the beach miles south of the bar.
The fifth person aboard, Paul Turner, 76, of Boise remains missing. Parker said the last time he saw him, Turner was asleep in the cabin below.
Oba hasn't returned telephone calls for comment, but his wife, Sydney Oba, said her husband was bound for Charleston as instructed when the boat capsized.
Directed away from bar
Oba was licensed to carry as many as six passengers on his boat. The Sydney Mae II was an uninspected passenger vessel, meaning it didn't require regular inspections but had to meet federal safety regulations that require safety equipment and life preservers on board, said Coast Guard Lt. Michael Block.
Parker is recuperating at home with bruises and scratches. He has a 21-foot fishing boat and often goes fishing himself at Winchester Bay. He also lived in Hawaii for seven years and said he's no stranger to high seas.
He had joined the captain on the bridge that evening because exhaust fumes from the boat were irritating his asthma when he was below the deck, he said.
"I heard several times on the radio that Winchester Bay was closing and the waves were building," Parker said.
About 18 miles out, as the sun was setting, Parker recalled that Oba said it looked like the ocean was settling down and he'd rather go to Winchester Bay. At seven miles out, Parker said Oba talked to the Coast Guard again, and Parker heard an official tell the skipper to go to Charleston.
One mile out, salmon fisherman Patrick Sullivan, who had gone up to the Umpqua River Lighthouse to look for the Sydney Mae II, talked to Oba on the phone. "It's on the speaker phone and Sully tells him, 'Don't cross the bar. It's very bad. Do not cross the bar,' " Parker said.
Parker kept waiting for Oba to turn the boat toward Charleston, but he said the Sydney Mae II continued at a fast idle toward the bar, where 14- to 15-foot waves were breaking nearly the full width of the entrance.
At one point, Parker said, he and Oba talked about the wreck of the Taki Tooo, the charter boat that went down off the jetty in Garibaldi in 2003 after a wave rolled it over, killing 11 people.
"He said the ones who had life jackets were the ones who survived that trip," Parker recalled.
Parker planned to ask for a life jacket when they got closer to the bar, but said he continued to believe that any minute Oba would turn the boat south. Oba hadn't explained where the life jackets and life boat were on the boat at the start of the trip, he said.
Before a vessel gets under way, federal regulations require the captain to provide a public safety briefing to make sure passengers know how to properly use life-saving equipment. Violators face license suspension and fines.
Parker said he expects to go back out to sea again, but next time he'll take all the safety precautions that he missed this time and caution everyone else to do the same.
"I want to warn everyone to have life jackets and a radio and everything they can to make them secure if something happens," he said. "Because if it does, it will happen so fast you won't have time to think or do what you should have done before it happened."
"Seems the jackboots are out in all their goose-stepping glory..."
Northwest Coast Guard Members Headed To Gulf
http://www.koin.com/news.asp?RECORD_KEY%5Bnews%5D=ID&ID%5Bnews%5D=4645
ASTORIA, Ore. -- U.S. Coast Guard members from Washington and Oregon are preparing to deploy to the Gulf Coast in anticipation of Hurricane Rita support operations.
Thirty-one members from Coast Guard Air Stations in Astoria and North Bend will be deploying Friday afternoon to Sacramento, Calif. They will remain there and be ready to deploy to the areas hit by the hurricane.
Air Station Astoria is sending four helicopter pilots, four flight mechanics and two rescue swimmers. Air Station North Bend will be sending five helicopter pilots, eight flight mechanics and two rescue swimmers.
The response comes after 58 Coast Guard members from Oregon and Washington have already been deployed for Hurricane Katrina relief. Nearly 30 members remain in the affected region for Katrina relief.
"Seems the jackboots are out in all their goose-stepping glory..."
Maritime Disaster Drill Planned- Kitsap Sun- Sept. 23, 2005
http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/local/article/0,2403,BSUN_19088_4103119,00.html
Bainbridge Island
Simulated terrorist attacks and emergency response exercises on Puget Sound this weekend may cause Bainbridge residents to sit up and take notice.
The marine disaster drill, funded by a $2 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security, involves the Port of Seattle, Washington State Ferries, the Coast Guard and several local fire departments and marine agencies.
The exercise is scheduled to take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, but on Saturday, pyrotechnical activity near Eagle Harbor in preparation for the drill may catch Bainbridge residents' attention.
"Well, that lib caller was whining about how the M-16's upset her and made her feel scared."
I lived in Turkey for a couple of years with my wife, one tour. She found it comforting that the cops (Jandarma) carried MP-5 submachineguns. Even after one of our Turkish friends was wounded by those same cops chasing a terrorist in Istambul. He was hit by frag from a grenade the cops threw to disperse the crowd so they could get the terrorist.
The Coasties have to worry about people using boats as bombs, now, a la the USS Cole's attackers. I'd much rather see them armed.