Hello All Stations...
Something happened on Christmas Day that is still bothering me. My wife and i live on South Hill overlooking Bellingham Bay in the Pacific Northwest, close to the Canadian border. We have good binoculars and a spotting scope to keep tabs on what happens in the bay--who is coming and who is leaving. Normally it is a fun hobby.
However, yesterday afternoon we both saw a small (30 feet?) sailboat that looked like it was dragging its anchor. We had a strong wind storm that morning and it was still blowing up to gusts of thirty or so knots. White caps in the bay. Wind direction was broadly south to southwest.
It appears that the sailboat had gotten its anchor hooked under the keel and was broadside to the prevailing wind sawing its way back and fourth. This has happened to me once before. It was clearly dragging and had probably been anchored off Boulevard Park which is on the east side of the bay and lies under a group of condos. There were white caps in the bay.
Both Lynn and I agreed it was dragging so I called 911. I told them what was happening to the boat and they immediately connected me to the Coast Guard Station in Bellingham. After five rings CG Bellingham answered. [an aside: why do military units (not just the Coast Guard) answer the phone in such clipped voices and speak so fast ?] I told them there was a sailboat dragging its anchor and would either hit the freighter that is docked or hit the Georgia-Pacific breakwater. The person answering said they had already had several calls about the boat but he could not give anymore information at that time.
The Bellingham Coast Guard station is probably less then a quarter mile from these two sites. They have a number (I've counted five at one time) of forty foot inflatables with three Honda outboards in the stern at the ready. It would have taken less then two minutes after boarding their boat to reach the scene. Twenty minutes later the small sailboat hit the breakwater and started pounding on the rocks. At that time I called 911 and asked for Coast Guard once again. A female voice answered--I told them the boat was pounding on the rocks and someone needed to get it off. She told me there were readying a crew as we spoke.
I never saw a Coast Guard Crew approach the small boat during the next hour however, it was now getting dark. Perhaps they came out and decided they couldn't do the job. I really don't know. Since then, I've talked to a retired Coast Guard chief and he told me the CG mission has changed and they don't save boats anymore. Pity.
What ticks me off is the lack of concern that I got with the two phone calls to the CG station. It almost sounded like boredom.
But I am ticked with myself as well, perhaps even more. Had I know that the Coast Guard wasn't going out to save the boat or they felt it was too rough or for whatever reason I wish they had told me on the first phone call. I would have found someone to help me and taken my boat out. It wasn't that bad and I could have backed up to it before it hit the rocks, put a line aboard and cut the anchor line (assuming it wasn't all chain) and towed it into the harbor.
Damn, but it is sad to see today the mast sticking out of the water by the breakwater. The sailboat is now at the bottom of Bellingham Bay against the breakwater. This incident didn't need to happen.
I am now going to lobby the Port of Bellingham that we now have a Vessel Assist (BoatUS) in our harbor. I don't trust the Coast Guard anymore. But perhaps I don't know the whole story either.
A sad, sad day in northwest boating.
Les
Les Blackwell
CG license (I'm embarrassed to say)
H27, Trumpeter
Something happened on Christmas Day that is still bothering me. My wife and i live on South Hill overlooking Bellingham Bay in the Pacific Northwest, close to the Canadian border. We have good binoculars and a spotting scope to keep tabs on what happens in the bay--who is coming and who is leaving. Normally it is a fun hobby.
However, yesterday afternoon we both saw a small (30 feet?) sailboat that looked like it was dragging its anchor. We had a strong wind storm that morning and it was still blowing up to gusts of thirty or so knots. White caps in the bay. Wind direction was broadly south to southwest.
It appears that the sailboat had gotten its anchor hooked under the keel and was broadside to the prevailing wind sawing its way back and fourth. This has happened to me once before. It was clearly dragging and had probably been anchored off Boulevard Park which is on the east side of the bay and lies under a group of condos. There were white caps in the bay.
Both Lynn and I agreed it was dragging so I called 911. I told them what was happening to the boat and they immediately connected me to the Coast Guard Station in Bellingham. After five rings CG Bellingham answered. [an aside: why do military units (not just the Coast Guard) answer the phone in such clipped voices and speak so fast ?] I told them there was a sailboat dragging its anchor and would either hit the freighter that is docked or hit the Georgia-Pacific breakwater. The person answering said they had already had several calls about the boat but he could not give anymore information at that time.
The Bellingham Coast Guard station is probably less then a quarter mile from these two sites. They have a number (I've counted five at one time) of forty foot inflatables with three Honda outboards in the stern at the ready. It would have taken less then two minutes after boarding their boat to reach the scene. Twenty minutes later the small sailboat hit the breakwater and started pounding on the rocks. At that time I called 911 and asked for Coast Guard once again. A female voice answered--I told them the boat was pounding on the rocks and someone needed to get it off. She told me there were readying a crew as we spoke.
I never saw a Coast Guard Crew approach the small boat during the next hour however, it was now getting dark. Perhaps they came out and decided they couldn't do the job. I really don't know. Since then, I've talked to a retired Coast Guard chief and he told me the CG mission has changed and they don't save boats anymore. Pity.
What ticks me off is the lack of concern that I got with the two phone calls to the CG station. It almost sounded like boredom.
But I am ticked with myself as well, perhaps even more. Had I know that the Coast Guard wasn't going out to save the boat or they felt it was too rough or for whatever reason I wish they had told me on the first phone call. I would have found someone to help me and taken my boat out. It wasn't that bad and I could have backed up to it before it hit the rocks, put a line aboard and cut the anchor line (assuming it wasn't all chain) and towed it into the harbor.
Damn, but it is sad to see today the mast sticking out of the water by the breakwater. The sailboat is now at the bottom of Bellingham Bay against the breakwater. This incident didn't need to happen.
I am now going to lobby the Port of Bellingham that we now have a Vessel Assist (BoatUS) in our harbor. I don't trust the Coast Guard anymore. But perhaps I don't know the whole story either.
A sad, sad day in northwest boating.
Les
Les Blackwell
CG license (I'm embarrassed to say)
H27, Trumpeter
