Analyze it to death in this forum then at sea
I agree that legislating new laws to protect idiots at sea will be ineffective. There will always be people who will inevitable get themselves into trouble at sea and call the Coast Guard for help at the last possible moment, regardless if it puts others at risk. I believe this forum is to provide other sailor's opinion and to help new sailors. If some of us seem to analyze an issue to death, its because some of us are keenly aware that there are a lot of new sailors out there without a clue as to what seamanship is. It still bothers me that the guy sailed for seven hours oblivious to fact that he didn't know where he was or even what direction he was motoring. He motored until he nearly ran out of gas and daylight before he radioed for help. He risked the lives of the Coast Guard crews needlessly because of his stupidity. Here in the Northwest three US Coast Guard rescuers where lost five years ago saving a couple in a sailboat, it's something I hope I'll always remember whenever I'm in a situation where I might be over my head. Coast Guard, town grieve the loss of three crew members by Linda Keene Seattle Times staff reporter FORKS, Clallam County - Sandi Bosley cradled herself in her own arms yesterday, trying to understand why her husband - "my friend, my lover, my pal" - had died that morning in a Coast Guard rescue mission off the coast of La Push. "I still don't believe it is true," Bosley said of her husband's death and the capsizing of a Coast Guard rescue boat that also killed two other crewmen. "I can't believe he's not going to come wheeling down the road here, tear into the carport and walk inside." Her 36-year-old husband, Petty Officer 2nd Class David Bosley, was part of a four-person crew that was sent into a raging storm early yesterday morning to rescue a Bremerton couple from their sinking sailboat. The couple survived, but three Coast Guard crew members died and a fourth was injured. Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew Schlimme, 24, of Whitewater, Mo., and Seaman Clinton Miniken, 22, of Snohomish, also died in the accident. Nineteen-year-old Seaman Apprentice Benjamin Wingo of Bremerton, the most junior member of the team, survived. He suffered only cuts and a broken nose. The crew was sent out at about 12:30 a.m. in a 44-foot motor lifeboat that is designed to operate in rough conditions and right itself when capsized. A second rescue boat also responded to the distress calls from the sailboat, which was operated by Kenneth Schlag, a Navy lieutenant assigned to the USS Carl Vincent, and his wife. The couple were sailing from California to Bremerton when high winds and waves pushed their boat, the Gale Runner, into a group of jagged rocks called The Needles near the mouth of the Quillayute River. The Schlags were plucked from the boat in a dramatic rescue by a Coast Guard helicopter. Both were treated for minor injuries and released from the Forks Community Hospital yesterday. One of the rescue boats crossed the river bar safely, but communication with the other was lost. A red distress flare was spotted at 12:55 a.m., and four more flares were seen 15 minutes later as the crew on the surviving rescue boat tried to locate their missing counterparts. Where, exactly, the boat capsized yesterday isn't clear yet. Another mystery is how the capsized boat and three crew members, including Wingo, wound up deep inside a cove on James Island, just off the coast. Early reports are that the boat got caught parallel to incoming waves and, in the trough of two waves, rolled three times, said Coast Guard Chief Kurt Looser. Wingo was released from the Forks hospital yesterday afternoon and returned to the Coast Guard station in La Push, called the Quillayute River Station. There, he talked with Rear Admiral J. David Spade, district commander for Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. "This is truly a tragic day for the Coast Guard," said Spade, standing outside the small brick station, under a U.S. flag lowered to half-staff. He peered toward the ocean, where rocky James Island stood impassively amid the white waves. There, the 44-foot steel rescue boat was still pitched on its side awaiting an investigation that Spade said would begin today. "We know the boat rolled at least once - maybe three times," he said, noting that the boat righted itself each time, as it is designed to do. It was the first fatal capsizing for that type of rescue boat in its 35-year history. But the Coast Guard said yesterday it has been phasing such boats out of service and replacing them with faster, more stable aluminum boats. The crew members were wearing survival suits and were in communication with the second Coast Guard boat, Spade said. But they lost contact, and the second boat was unable to rescue members from the first. "I have told the coxswain of the second boat that he couldn't have done anything different," Spade said. Help also came from about 100 members of the Quileute Tribe, who live on the La Push Reservation and have formed a strong relationship with the Coast Guard. Early yesterday they fanned out on the beaches searching for survivors until the tribal police chief, Ken Lewis, was forced to order everybody off the beach because conditions were too dangerous. "The sea was just boiling," Lewis said. "It was raging. The last time I had seen it like this was when the Gambler went down . . . We had a massive search then." The Gambler, a 45-foot fishing boat, capsized in January 1990 off La Push, killing seven people. During yesterday's search, Lewis said the wind was so strong people couldn't hear each other talk. At least two people were injured on the shore during the search. It was the second boating accident in a week in the area. Rex Ward, 28, is still missing after his small skiff overturned in rough waters. To get another call within a week was tragic enough, Lewis said, "but to be told the Coast Guard rescue boat was lost, and the guardsmen were in the water, that was really a shock. Incomprehensible." That sentiment was heard throughout La Push yesterday as tribal members posted signs expressing their sorrow. "Our hearts, prayers and thoughts are with the Quillayute River Coast Guard families and friends," read a sign posted near a Coast Guard housing base. "It's a big tragedy and loss," said Quileute member Nancy Williams. "This community is so tight with the Coast Guard." At the town's Post Office, Postmaster Maureen McGarrett talks daily with many Coast Guard families. "This is hard on everyone," she said. "The Coast Guard families are so much a part of this community. So many wives volunteer at the schools, and the guys are always helping people." In the small timber town of Forks, just 15 winding miles from La Push, the tragedy was equally felt. At the hospital, clerk Jamie Schneider learned of one of the deaths last night. "Oh my God," she said when hearing the name of Petty Officer 3rd Class Schlimme. He was married to one of her friends, Christy Schlimme, who works at a Subway sandwich shop in Forks. "He was just wonderful, very sweet to everybody," Schneider said. "And they were just about to transfer back home." Schneider said the couple had been married several years and had no children. None of the guardsmen who died had childen. The Bosleys met in 1979 and had been "joined at the hip since then," said Sandi Bosley while sitting in her small Forks cottage. She slumped, looking at a picture of her husband. In it, he was holding a fish he had recently caught. He wasn't terribly social, she said, but he "did everything in the world for me. He was a wonderful human being. He was an awesome supportive individual." She shook her head, still disbelieving, her face hidden by long straight hair. Her comments swung between anger and grief, praising him for helping others and then angered that anyone was on the water in such difficult conditions. Then she recalled the events of the past day, when she was awakened by a friend who called, wondering if her husband was involved in the rescue mission. Concerned, she contacted the station. "I called and said, `This is Mrs. Bosley. Is my old man OK?' " Fair Winds. Clyde
