It was about 1987, a really bad storm year.  It was just coming down rain really hard.  It was over 50 mph winds about 11AM.  I was in the station Downtown Marina in rescue boat two.  I was working with rescue boat operator, Birge Parker, and we got a call on the phone from US Coast Guard Group Long Beach. 

      They were saying they had a distress call from a 34-foot sail boat that was adrift with damaged sails and a swamped engine.  There were four persons on board all of them were sea sick and had minimal sailing experience.  They said that the seas were really rough and had fear of capsizing because they were taking on water over the stern and in fear of capsizing.

      The Coast Guard asked us to go find them.  Their last known position was 2.5 miles south of the long beach lighthouse.  We said that we would go try an take a look.  The sea conditions were extreme.  We couldn’t guarantee that we could get outside the breakwater of the harbor. 

      We started to head out.  The sea conditions in the inner harbor were six feet to eight feet swells.  As we continued out beyond the protection of pier J the seas increased to 10 to 12 feet.  As we made the opening in the breakwater swells increased to 14 to 16 feet.  Then as we got outside towards the Long Beach buoy we had 20 foot seas with intervals from three to five seconds.  They were real big green monsters. 

      The wind was howling.  The swell direction was coming out of the southwest and was coming across us as we headed south.  We had to make sweeping turns to head the direction we were trying to go because the way we wanted to go was putting us in critical condition possibly making our boat broach or roll on its side.  The conditions were nasty the wind and the rain coming down on the windshield.  The wipers couldn’t keep up with the water on the window. 

      We headed out in the general direction hoping to get a glimpse of something, a flare or something.  I went down below and got two of our life jackets and put them on our dash board.  It was the only time in my whole career I felt like I might not be coming back.  Even Birch said that was a good idea. 

      As we headed out past the Long Beach sea buoy I caught a glimpse in the horizon of what appeared to be a mast.  I said, “I think I see something over in that direction.”  We changed course a little bit to head for what ever I saw.  As we went further I saw it again and I said, “I’m pretty sure that’s a mast.”  We continued in that direction.

      It took about 15 more minutes to get to them because they were three quarters of a mile away from us when we saw them certainly.  We got there and everybody was in the stern of the boat.  They were stern to the seas.  The sails had been pulled down and shredded from the wind.  All four people were leaned over the back of the boat sick.

      We asked to get someone to the bow so we could get them a line.  The response was slow because they were all sick.  I had to repeat myself.  The owner of the boat finally heard me and managed to crawl to the bow. 

      It was a difficult situation.  As we were backing down a swell, they were surfing down the back of it.  I threw a rope to the guy and hit him in the chest with it.  He dropped it.  Birch backed the boat around the front and I threw it to him again.  It hit him in the hand.  He dropped it again.  I got it again and threw it to him another time.  He finally caught it. 

      We tied our tow rope onto the bow of his boat and let out about 250 feet of line so that when he was in one trough of a wave, we were in the trough of another wave.  We couldn’t tow him with the seas because it’s too dangerous.  We had to tow him into the seas.  As we turned to position there was a critical moment where we almost rolled. 

      We plotted our position and we figured out our course to try and go back in to Long Beach.  We figured at that point that we would not be able to make it into the opening at Long Beach due to conditions.  We made the decision to tow into the wind and into the sea with a more direct bow on position.  We had to go really slowly because the seas were so high we a\were literally climbing the big swells. 

      Twice from the force of the water coming over, the windshield would unsnap the canvas and water came pitching into the cabin.  So we called the Coast Guard and our dispatch and headed instead for the Los Angeles lighthouse. 

      We had to call in every 30 minutes to check in with them.  It took us 3.5 hours to tow them to the Los Angeles light. 

      We made the opening of the breakwater there.  Palos Verdes creates a windbreak.  The wind had died down a little bit and as we made the turn in the LA light we were able to make our way to the downtown marina in about an hour. 

      When we got back to the marina, the passengers jumped off the boat and began kissing the dock.  They got their boat tied up and we helped them to stabilize it.  They started hugging us and kissing us and telling us we were their saviors.  They couldn’t believe they got back alive and said they had made a stupid decision.  We got them dried off and they called family.

      They wrote this wonderful thank you letter and everything.