"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!"
I never thought I'd hear my own voice over a radio calling Mayday to all boats around.
Mike and I started our day early, texting about our up coming cruise.
"Let's get the shrimp gear on the boat about nine and then see what the weather is doing, and leave from there," I texed Mike.
"Sounds good," he immediately shot back.
We drove to the harbor and spent almost an hour packing shrimp gear and our hunting supplies to the boat. I had to run back home for outboard oil, kissed my wife goodbye, waved off her words, "Please be careful," and raced back to the boat.
"Untie, and we're out of here!" I shouted out the door, while firing up the computer and the navigation gear.
Mike and I were going to make a combination trip. We would take the weekend for shrimping, crabing, and deer hunting, and then roll right into the next dive opening at the bottom end of Peril Strait. That is the way to have a commercial opening pay for our play time. Fuel in Alaska is so expensive that one can not afford to just go on an only play weekend.
We chatted and poured coffee as we traveled down the quiet water channels. We had decided to make the shrimp and deer trip up to Hoonah Sound. Mike and I had not been there since last year when we filled our freezers with beautiful, great tasting shrimp.
I steered the boat past Poison Cove, and headed down Deadman's reach, realizing that I was not heading to our dive area of Peril Strait, but rather, Hoonah sound, I corrected hard to the port and laid out a new course.
Mike had been out on the deck baiting our shrimp pots. He must have felt me turn and came in the door. I zoomed the chart out and asked if we needed to cut inside Emmons Island or go around the end of it.
Mike zoomed out the chart to where we needed to go set our pots.
"Looks like we can cut inside the island," he said.
He went back out on deck and continued getting the pots ready for setting.
Mike finished up and came back inside.
"Coffee?" I asked, as I handed Mike the thermos of steaming hot coffee.
"You bet," he said and poured himself a cup.
We settled in for a nice smooth ride.
I started hitting some tide and wind chop and backed the throttle a bit. A South wind was pushing against a North tide and was stacking about a two foot chop on the strait.
I was in a big wide open stretch of water, land a good mile away on each side.
Crash! The boat lurched hard as the back of the boat smashed hard into something.
"Log!" I shouted as I backed the throttles into neutral.
Crash, bang, smash! The big boat smashed to a halt.
"Rock! We've hit a rock!" Mike shouted. He raced outside and was looking over the side of the boat.
I looked out the back window while trimming the outboards up out of the water. I could see an engine cowling floating quite a ways from the boat. I thought it was one of our engines.
"I've knocked an engine off the boat!" I shouted, racing to the back deck to look. Both engines were attached to the boat, but the starboard engine was missing the cowling. We watched as it floated away and later as it sunk.
We are both stunned.
The wind is blowing the two foot chop and the boat is bouncing up and down and rolling sideways, crunching and grinding on the rocks.
"We've got to get off the rocks!" Mike shouts. "Should we get out and push? How about we both go to the bow and see if we can float the stern off the rocks?"
"Mike, this a a huge boat, weighs tons. We are not going to move it or float it with just us two," I said to him, but did not have a better plan.
"We have the kicker motor to give us power if we can get off this rock pile," I said to Mike.
The boat was rolling and crashing constantly as the wind pushed the waves against us.
"Mike this boat might crumble out from under us," I said. "should I give out a Mayday call to the Coast Guard?"
"Yeah, I think we'd better," mike quickly answered back.
I grabbed the radio mic and gave out a mayday call. Nothing.
"You're using the wrong mic, Mike informed me." I look up to see that I'm using a back up radio that is not on the hailing channel.
I grab the mic on my other radio and calm my nerves.
"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! I calmly say. "Juneau Com center, this is the vessel Samantha we are at position 57 33.39 north 135 32.80 west. We have hit a rock and and are in need of assistance. Do you copy Coast Guard?"
"Samantha, Juneau Coast Guard. How many persons are on board?" I hear a broken voice on my radio. I crank up the volume to hear better.
"Two persons on board," I say back. Juneau, I see a crabber working across the way in Deadman Reach, if we could get him to help."
"Roger that," Juneau says back, "Break, break. Pan (pronounced pawn), pan calling the crab vessel in deadman reach, do you copy?"
"Yeah Juneau," comes a new voice over the radio. " this is the crabber ( he gives his name, but I'll call him "Assurance") I have stopped working and am on my way. I see the Samantha from here."
"Samantha, did you copy that?" Juneau Coast Guard asks me.
Mike is shouting things on the back deck and I'm running in and out trying to access our damages.
"Mike!" I shout out the door. "Open the hatches and see if we are taking on water. No wait, Get our survival suites out and on the back deck first, then check for water!"
Mike is scrambling to get things done.
"Juneau I copy I can see the crabber headed our way. I am not seeing any water coming aboard but the boat is really taking a pounding from the rocks with the waves smashing us about."
"Copy that, Samantha. What is your on scene weather, the color of your vessel and your life saving gear on board?" Juneau Com Center radios back.
I fill the coast guard in on our status, "We are a 25 foot light brown vessel we have survival suits ready and also an inflatable skiff ready to deploy should we need them."
"Good copy,Samantha," the coast guard calls back.
Two other boats are on the radio letting us know they are also in route to help us.
Mike yells in the door, "It looks like deep water on this side of the boat. I think we are floating off the rock!"
We are still pounding, crunching and grinding with sounds you hope you will never have to hear again in your life. It is hard to describe the sounds of a fiberglass boat being pounded to pieces beneath your feet.
The grinding stops. It is eerie quiet.
"We are off the rock!" Mike shouts to me.
I race outside and look into deep water, not a rock in sight. I race back inside and grab the radio mic again.
"Juneau Coast Guard Samantha," I say, "we have just floated off the rock. I am trimming down my engines to see if they will run and go into gear."
"Good copy on that, Samantha," the young man says back.
I fire up my starboard engine and it roars to life sounding like it is in bad trouble. I look back to realize that without the cowling to quiet it down, it is running good, but just very noisy without the cover on it. I throttle forward and it seems to go into gear.
I try and try to fire the other engine. It turns over but will not start.
"Juneau Com," I say, "I have one engine running and it seems to be in gear. I'm going to idle to point Marie in case we need to beach the boat."
Good copy on the Samantha, Assurance, did you copy that?"
"Yes Juneau," Assurance comes back on the radio, "I can see him idling towards the point."
"Thanks Assurance," I say on the radio, "It looks like I have power on one motor and we still see no water coming on board."
To be continued...
Some of the damage on the bottom of the boat
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