Captain Don loves to fish on our bareboat cruises. His favorite is towing a line behind the boat when we are on our long sails. He has been known to take crew members to South Beach while on layover at Miami Airport just so he can pick up fishing gear from his favorite tackle shop. He has done this more than once! He even rented a car once because it was cheaper than taking a taxi.
We were on a trip from St. Lucia to the Tobago Cays. The second day in to the cruise we were headed South from St. Lucia toward Bequia. Lisa wanted Lobster Pizza from Mac's so our goal was Admiralty Bay by sunset. My guess is that we were roughly 5 hours into the sail when we hooked a nice sized King Fish. Everyone jumped up and we dragged the fish on board. It was kicking and flopping around at first, and as usual we were a little taken off guard. Captain Don knocked the fish out, and asked me to go down below into the galley to get a pail to rinse to cockpit out. The fish was somewhat messy, as Captain Don was beginning to filet the fish.
I was not even to the galley when I heard a shriek up above. Sister Lisa was screaming. When I got back up top, I found out why. Captain Don was about 100 feet behind the boat. Lucky for him he was wearing a red Tee shirt. Lots of things were running through my mind. First - we were under full sail and the boat was on autopilot. I grabbed the wheel and pulled the autopilot release arm. As I spun back around I noticed that Dad was disappearing with each wave. He would only be visible on the crests. He was already about 100 yards back. I asked Troy and Sara to point their finger at him so that I would know where to go. Always point your finger and don't drop your arm (provides a reference when he disappears).
It was about this time that Captain Don realized that he was in the open ocean with a knife in one hand, and a bleeding King fish in the other. He let go of both and watched the mast as it moved away.
Back on the boat Lisa is screaming to drop the sails. I consider this for a fraction of a second and decide that would take WAY to long, we would lose him. Option 2 - come about and head down wind of him. We were on a Southern tack with the wind off the port bow. I came about and headed back North, but ran down wind to the North West (Wind was out of the ESE that day). I kept watching Sara and Troy's arms to know if I was making headway toward the target. My plan was to get directly down wind of him and run straight up wind toward him with the aux engine on. This took about 4 -5 minutes. It seemed like an eternity... Once directly down wind I fired up the diesel and headed up toward him. It was about this time that I realized that this was going to be a little harder than I anticipated.
We were in 6 -8 foot waves and Dad was still disappearing in the troughs of the waves. The wind was moderate, and was creating a lot of luffing of the sails (noise and potential to catch the wind and draw the boat in one direction or another with a wind change). The motor was running, and the bow was diving into the waves. I realized that if I headed directly to him I could either drop on top of him or catch him with the prop. I decided the safest thing was to head slightly downwind in case the wind caught the sails and took me North. As we got closer, Dad was passing to our South, along the Starboard side of the boat.
It was about the time he was perpendicular to us that I realized that I was too far away. He was swimming toward us, but the wind was taking the boat away too quickly, and the waves were pushing him toward the stern. I was thinking I would have to take another pass, or maybe take the sails down so that they could not interfere with the rescue, when Steve grabbed the genoa line and threw it to Dad. It was the perfect throw, and the right length. He grabbed the line and was dragged behind the boat. Sara and Troy were on the step transom. The pulled Captain Don in and little Sara (130 lbs) pulled Dad straight up out of the sea - one arm and single handed.
Now you would think that the story was over.... Wrong! MaryAnn had thrown a seat cushion toward Don when we were floating by him. This was about 20 seconds before Steve brilliantly threw the line. The cushion was blown away faster than Don could swim for it. Now, it was down wind and moving fast. Don decides that the $100 dollar cushion is not worth losing, so he drops the dinghy in and chases it down in the open ocean.... Getting the dinghy back on board proved to be more of a challenge in 6-8 foot seas than we bargained for. Hind sight 20/20 we should have left the cushion go. Oh well, life is an adventure!
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