excitement on the high seas

[huey graphite]

That's the subject line of an email I received from the president of our company. He's on a ship promoting our product. (That's a likely story)

 

Below are the contents.

 

 

Today around 2 PM the Captain came over the ship wide speaker announcing he was stopping the ship to pursue a small boat we had passed that appeared to be in distress.

Keep in mind we are in the middle of Caribbean Sea well south of Cuba and west of all the main Caribbean Islands - the middle of nowhere.

 

He backed up to the area (cruise ships don't exactly stop quickly) and a speed boat was dispatched from the ship to go over and check things out.

The boat appeared to be a 16 foot fishing boat with a makeshift sail.

As it turns out their engine had failed and they had been drifting for 7 days. The two people onboard were picked up and brought to our ship for medical care and attention. Needless to say they came with us and we left the boat behind.

God knows if we hadn't seen them what their fate would have been.

Edited February 28, 2008 by huey graphite

[lew]

We did the exact same thing back in '64 when I was in the Navy, Huey.

 

We spent several days south of Trinidad seaching for a broken down fishing boat that had been drifting with 3 men aboard and no food or water. They left from a small island with no radio so nobody even really knew where they were headed and only reported them missing when they hadn't returned home by the next day.

 

It was rough weather the entire time with seas running about 15-20 feet so that made the search that much more difficult, but eventually we found them and returned them to their island.

 

By the time we finally found them, they'd been adrift for 4 days in the blazing tropical sun and were all in pretty rough shape.

 

The memories of helping to save those boyz is something I'll always remember very vividly.

Edited February 27, 2008 by lew

[huey graphite]

Lew,

 

That's an incredible story and I'm sure only one of many from your time in the Navy.

 

Last year my family and I traveled out east to visit family in Saint John, NB and spent 2 days in Nova Scotia. My wife has a childhood friend who is a P.O. with the Canadian Navy and he took us on a full tour of the HMCS St John's. It was a great experience. He is one of only a few Canadians decorated twice with the Medal of Bravery. The 1st time was in 1996. He was dispatched in a zodiac in 7 meter waves to rescue a family with a young child whose sailboat had capsized. The family were forced to abandon the sinking sailboat and escape in a dinghy. They rescued the young girl and while attempting to save the parents, a rope from the dinghy got caught in the zodiac's prop. One of the seamen jumped in the water and successfully cleared the prop. They then towed the dinghy back to the ship before transferring the last 2 occupants.

 

One of many stories we heard during our short visit.

[Terry]

yeah I have a story like that

 

it was on lake simcoe, the weather was pretty hot the big boat was in the middle of the lake adrift on the front deck was 7 females lying lifeless, with the sun beating down and no clothes to protect them, yes they were lying there naked the poor poor girls

 

we starred for a long time wondering if they need help, if there was anything we could do the help this situation

 

we decided to board the boat and render any assistance that we could, well a few of them woke up and said they would survive without our help

but again we offered to oil them down or splash water on them to cool the burning bodies, but in their insanity from the heat they asked us to leave...........finally we left

but not with checking them out one more to to make sure they would be all right

 

 

I will never forget it

[huey graphite]

yeah I have a story like that

 

it was on lake simcoe, the weather was pretty hot the big boat was in the middle of the lake adrift on the front deck was 7 females lying lifeless, with the sun beating down and no clothes to protect them, yes they were lying there naked the poor poor girls

 

we starred for a long time wondering if they need help, if there was anything we could do the help this situation

 

we decided to board the boat and render any assistance that we could, well a few of them woke up and said they would survive without our help

but again we offered to oil them down or splash water on them to cool the burning bodies, but in their insanity from the heat they asked us to leave...........finally we left

but not with checking them out one more to to make sure they would be all right

I will never forget it

 

 

See! There are gentlemen amongst us. You must have been traumatized.

 

Doesn't that just get the adrenaline going?

[Tarzan's Jane]

yeah I have a story like that

 

it was on lake simcoe, the weather was pretty hot the big boat was in the middle of the lake adrift on the front deck was 7 females lying lifeless, with the sun beating down and no clothes to protect them, yes they were lying there naked the poor poor girls

 

we starred for a long time wondering if they need help, if there was anything we could do the help this situation

 

we decided to board the boat and render any assistance that we could, well a few of them woke up and said they would survive without our help

but again we offered to oil them down or splash water on them to cool the burning bodies, but in their insanity from the heat they asked us to leave...........finally we left

but not with checking them out one more to to make sure they would be all right

I will never forget it

 

well, had ya all been the Chipendales you'd likely still be at "sea".

[Greencoachdog]

yeah I have a story like that

 

it was on lake simcoe, the weather was pretty hot the big boat was in the middle of the lake adrift on the front deck was 7 females lying lifeless, with the sun beating down and no clothes to protect them, yes they were lying there naked the poor poor girls

 

we starred for a long time wondering if they need help, if there was anything we could do the help this situation

 

we decided to board the boat and render any assistance that we could, well a few of them woke up and said they would survive without our help

but again we offered to oil them down or splash water on them to cool the burning bodies, but in their insanity from the heat they asked us to leave...........finally we left

but not with checking them out one more to to make sure they would be all right

I will never forget it

 

 

I think you were trolling with too small of a "bait".

[mbac31]

yeah I have a story like that

 

it was on lake simcoe, the weather was pretty hot the big boat was in the middle of the lake adrift on the front deck was 7 females lying lifeless, with the sun beating down and no clothes to protect them, yes they were lying there naked the poor poor girls

 

we starred for a long time wondering if they need help, if there was anything we could do the help this situation

 

we decided to board the boat and render any assistance that we could, well a few of them woke up and said they would survive without our help

but again we offered to oil them down or splash water on them to cool the burning bodies, but in their insanity from the heat they asked us to leave...........finally we left

but not with checking them out one more to to make sure they would be all right

I will never forget it

 

I guess some people just dont want to be rescued.