Coast Guard Rescues 2 Mt. Pleasant Sailors

Wednesday October 29, 2008 US Coast Guard reported that rescue crews from six different units, including three Cutters and three Air Stations, responded to a sinking sailboat with three people onboard approximately 102 miles southeast of Atlantic City N.J., Wednesday.



Rescued were Dr. Kevin Hogan, a 52-year-old dentist and Teresa Gravie, 44 co-owner of GLC Construction of Mt Pleasant, SC. Phil Rubright, a 65-year-old Detroit resident was recovered but pronounced deceased by the Atlantic County Medical Examiner Office in Atlantic City.


Dr. Kevin Hogan

The crew of Free Fall had been battling heavy weather and had just gone below because of the worsening weather when a rouge wave rolled the 44 foot sail boat, which after many frightening moments righted itself. During the roll the boat's EPIRB was activated and carbon fiber mast broke off just above the boom. The roll also filled Free Fall with up to six feet of water, shorted out the electrial system which made both radio and bilge pumps inoperatble. The crew would spend the next 12 hours bailing water.

The Coast Guard began its search after watch standers at the Rescue Coordination Center in Portsmouth received the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB)
alert now trasmitting from the severely damaged 44 foot Swan sailboat.

After obtaining the location and confirming the identy of Free Fall as well as location, Coast Guard rescue crews, aboard a C-130J and MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter were launched from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C.

(Questions remain as to why the Coast Guard didn't launch one of their helicopters from nearby Air Station Atlantic City in the first place. Further why the long delay from the time the EPIRB was active until, Air Station Elizabeth City launched the Jayhawk?)

Sailor Gail Bowdish recounts in her blog Shanti, building wind and seas 24 hours after she departed Mystic, CT. Bowdish was aboard Joy For All, a Farr 50 heading south as well and was approximatly 60 miles north of Free Fall when she first heard the USCG broadcast a PAN PAN PAN alert discribing an EPIRB signal indicating the vessel Free Fall in possiable distress.

At 21:00 on the 28th Sealand Pride was heading north for Europe on her regular bi-weekly run. She reported a position of 34.48N and 71.42W directly south of Free Fall. At the time she reported wind 260 at 52 knots and noted that a pressure reading of a very low 1000 mlb.

Upon hearing the same Pan Pan Pan hear by Gail Bowdish aboard Joy For All Sealand Pride altered course and began making way toward the stricken sailboat. It would take her another 9 hours to arrive on scene.

Around 1 AM, six hours after the rouge wave demasted Free Fall, the Elizabeth City rescue crews arrived on scene but were unable to hoist the three passengers from the FREE FALL due to the extreme weather conditions consisting of rain and 40-50 knot winds and 40-50 foot seas. Additionaly the pitching deck, which was covered with a tangle of rigging wire and lines increased the risk to an extreme level.

The rescue crew determined that in order to conduct a safe hoist the passengers and the rescue swimmer had to enter the water. The rescue swimmer and Mr. Rubright entered the water to attempt the hoist but the rescue basket and hoist cable were damaged by a large wave.

The helicopter crew then deployed a life raft and Mr. Rubright was placed in it. Reportedly another large wave hit and injured the rescue swimmer and tossed Mr. Rubright from the life raft. The injured rescue swimmer was unable to recover Mr. Rubright.

The helicopter crew employed the Emergency Recovery Device (ERD) to recover the rescue swimmer. This manual recovery device is only used during the most extreme circumstances and the person being hoisted must be trained and wear a rescue strap.

Without the means to recover Mr. Rubright, low on fuel after spending nearly 2 hours in the air the helicopter crew called for assistance and departed for Atlantic City to seek treatment for the injured rescue swimmer.

The Coast Guard then launched two MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter crews from Air Station Atlantic City along with a HU-25 Falcon jet and a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews from Air Station Cape Cod, Mass. The 270-foot Coast Guard Cutters Northland and Seneca, along with the 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Mako were also dispatched to the scene.

At 06:00 on the 29th Sealand Pride reported the wind at 270 at 42 knots, but she was still 39 miles to the south of Free Fall but was making nearly 10 knots where she was only able to make and average of 5.3 knots in the heavy seas that held during the previous 9 hours.

Once on scene at 39.06N – 71.42W she was reported winds that had eased to 27 knots. Two hours later having drifted along with S/V Free Fall she reported a position of 39.06N – 71.36 33 knot winds out of 280 and resumed her voyage.

The Atlantic City helicopter crews were able to relocate the stricken vessels crew and relay the position to the incoming Cape Cod rescue crews.

Upon arriving on scene the Cape Cod helicopter crew recovered Mr. Rubright at around 5AM from the water and flew him to Atlantic City where he was pronounced dead by the Atlantic County Medical Examiner.

A second MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter USCG 6041 from Elizabeth City was dispatched to the scene and hoisted Hogan and Gravie. Rescue operation was completed at 8:15 AM, and Hogan and Gravie were flown to Air Station Atlantic City where they were turned over to local EMS crews and taken to a AtlatiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City for treatment.

Below is video off the second rescue attempt shot from a USCG Doplin helicopter at 1000 AGL. The first part of the video is shot using nightvision and the second part in normal vision.


USGC Video of the second rescue attempt

Both Hogan and Gravie suffered from mild hypothermia, cuts, brusies and in the case of Gravie a possiable concusion but and are reported in good condition.


Hogan (standing) waits for paramedics to transport him to a waiting ambulance.


Emergency personnel transfer Kevin Hogan, 52, to an awaiting ambulance USCG Photo


Teresa Gravie, 44, is transported to a waiting ambulance USCG Photo


USCG Video of the USCG Jayhawk helicopter 6041 landing at Air Station Atlantic City



In addition to the rescue of the sailing vessel Freefall, the Coast Guard is reporting the rescue and assistance of 4 other vessels and and 7 sailors during the October 27 - 29 2008 storms off the east coast.

The death of Mr. Rubright, is tragic and no doubt the USCG will conduct an in depth investigation regarding the chain of events that happened aboard S/V Freefall and during the first rescue attempt.

It's not like the coasties to tell someone to enter the water and then leave the scene. I'm sure the rescue swimmer took one heck of a beating and was severely injured or he would not have left the water without Mr. Rubright.-LFB

Photos of S/V Free Fall a 44 foot Swan US-777 from YachtWorld.com prior to her being sold, the listing has since be removed.

Shrimp Boats at the Bailey Docks

Recently the town of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina closed the Bailey Docks on Shem Creek because of safety concerns. To many this comes as no surprise as the docks have been in disrepair for a number of years.

Still it reminds us that our seafood industry has fallen on hard times, due mainly to imported farm raised shrimp and soaring fuel prices. But it’s more than a few boats being forced off the docks; it’s a way of life and part of our South Carolina heritage that is being erased.

Years ago the "fleet" at Shem Creek might have been nearly two dozen strong. A forest of outriggers reaching skyward; nets hanging in the humid summer coastal air, boats docked sometimes three abreast at Shem Creek.



Shem Creek Circa 1976 Photo by Don Burbidge

The summer sounds of shrimp boats unloading the day’s catch dockside, men at work on boats often mixed with dishes clanking together and joyous conversation at seafood restaurants less than 20 feet away.

Shem Creek was the center of the seafood business in Charleston for the longest time and a natural location for seafood restaurants, many of which are now also gone.



Across the Carolinas, shrimp boats have plied the coastal waters since the early 1900's. Port Royal was once home to one of the largest shrimp processors in the state. Beaufort was once home to several builders of shrimp boats. But since 2000 the number of active shrimp boats in the state has declined by 50% and this year the number of boats is expected to fall by half again.

On Seabrook Island back in the 80’s my brothers and I would rise before day break and count the shrimp boats, that passed by less than 100 yards from shore. The sound of diesel engines would fill the air, bright deck lights illuminated the boats like it was mid day as we watched the deck crews going about their chores, our shore side voyeurism unnoticed. Each boat would slowly pass and then disappear into the faint light of a summer’s dawn.

The Rockville Fleet would be joined by boats from Edisto and Beaufort, Folly and Mt. Pleasant and further up the coast, Georgetown and Murrells Inlet. The lights of shrimp trawlers would greet the day and pace back and forth hour after hour, while beach goers enjoyed a lazy day in the surf.

Offshore the shrimp boats were always a beautiful sight, spotless white hulls and brightly colored pilot houses of red and green and blue, with names like Miss Liberty, Tina Marie, Jennifer Ann and Lady Eleanor. Like girl friends from the past, at a distance beautiful, but often rusty, faded and of poor repair up close.

They are work boats, and the men aboard these boats take pride in what makes a shrimp boat sea worthy, a sturdy deck and a solid keel with plenty of diesel power to keep going straight under the strain of her nets in the water.



A plastic snow globe from Myrtle Beach features a shrimp boat on a blue plastic ocean. When shook tiny seagulls circle around the trawler like wild snow flakes and then descend to back to rest on the bottom, only to be shook again and again, a tacky plastic souvenir from our cultural past and our heritage that is now being lost.

If you close your eyes you and still hear the sounds of seagulls, as they compete for scraps sent overboard, the rumble of diesel engines hard at work going out for another day of casting nets, sounds that once echoed throughout the low country early each summer morning not so long ago.

Breakfast

A cool rain has come to Charleston this morning. The forecast that was calling for strong winds and thunderstorms has been down graded to a steady rain, perhaps the first of many spring showers to come.

Now in early morning darkness Charleston has slowly begun to waken, and traffic is still sparse for today is Presidents day. Banks are closed as is the Post Office and many government offices but everything else is up and running including the sprinklers at the Coastal Carolina Savings Bank despite the steady rain.

I’ve always found sprinklers running in the rain one of mankind’s oddest achievements, like stoplights that show red for a painfully long time without another car in sight.

Long before sprinkler systems and traffic lights a plenty, a day of steady Low Country rain was a day off from work in the fields. Rainy days meant a time to catch up on some tractor maintenance or pull that starter off the pickup and fix the front door that has been sticking since fall.

A Monday rain was even better since week long projects had yet to be started and some things could wait. Years ago breakfast on a farm was an amazing adventure and many times I witnessed this daily occurrence that was normal to my farm raised cousins.

By 5:30 a half a dozen pick-up trucks were parked in the yard of the main farm house. As headlights illuminated the down pour, rain coats dashed up the gravel drive and were left in a red and yellow pile of dripping wetness just outside the side door that was well lit by a single light under the covered porch.

As best I could tell half of the young men who dripped their way into the large farm house kitchen were true family the other half adopted, but each gave my great aunt a quick good morning kiss on the cheek before sitting down to breakfast while outside the steady rain continued.

Of course this event happened on sunny mornings as well since tradition held that my great aunt fixed breakfast at the Coleman Farm every morning. Sons who lived down the road and next door came as did the hired help; all were treated like family, so for me it was sometimes hard to tell who was who.

Sausage, grits, scrambled eggs, coffee, biscuits and toast made the rounds. As a chair was pushed back and an empty plate removed, someone else would quickly fill the void. Most who departed did so with coffee in hand and a warm biscuit wrapped in a paper napkin in the pocket, which went a long way to make working in the rain nearly enjoyable.

One by one or in pairs they left heading out the door after a quick hug from my great aunt, into the pre dawn darkness. The sounds of bacon frying subsided and rain came harder as the last of the pickup lights twisted around the drive and down the road, at just after six in the morning, signaling the end to one of mankind’s greatest invention, breakfast.