Rescue at Outer Black Rock - Esperanza Inlet

Sushihunter

Sushihunter

Active Member
Had an interesting day fishing today.

Caught a few fish - Saved a couple of lives.

Started fishing off-shore out of Rolling Roadstead around 7 AM, picked up a Halibut, 3 small Coho, and a couple of Rockfish.

Got tired of bouncing around in the swells and wind so we headed inside to Rosa where we trolled around for a couple of hours.

I was taking photos of some of the boats fishing there, and caught this image at 12:39 PM:

rescue-01.jpg


by 3:41 PM we had picked these two fellows off the over-turned hull of their boat next to Outer Black Rock. They had spend 45 - 60 minutes in the water after a rougue wave broke over top of them and flipped their boat over.

rescue-02.jpg


Here they are after we delivered them safely to the dock at Zeballos.

One thing I would like to point out here is the fact that they did not panic, they thoughtfully considered all their options, prime among them was to STAY WITH THE BOAT.



Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
 
Nice Save!! Great to hear stories that don't end the other way. Is that a lake boat they are in?

Take only what you need.
3641877346_d9919f98d0.jpg
 
Good on ya Sushi!

Thank God for them boys you were in the neighborhood.
 
Good job Sushi, it's good to have people on the water like you.
That area out by outer Black Rock can get ugly and that doesn't exactly look like a boat I would want to be in when its rough
 
A big congrats to you sir on a job well done..

IMG_1021-1.jpg
 
good job jim, and a good point they stayed with the boat.

snagger
 
Good job Sushi, I don't think you were the only one picking up floaters yesterday. I was following another incident on the radio before noon up in johnstone strait, I believe it was an overturned gillnetter, just after the weather securite was issued around 10 am. Someone stayed out in the rough seas to pickup the two fishermen and waited for the rescue crews to arrive.

Glad everyone is ok in both incidents.
 
Sushi,

Great work! Kudos to you

Gov

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling - Izaak Walton
 
Thanks for all the kind comments. But we only did what anyone of you would have done in the situation. I'm just glad that we were in the right spot at the right time to help these guys out.

Now that I've caught up on my sleep. Here are a few details that got left out of the story I wrote late last night.

After coming inside to Rosa to get out of the rough water, we fished Rosa area for a couple of hours when it looked like the wave action on the outside had subsided somewhat.

We pulled our gear and ran out Rolling Roadstead again hoping to find some Halibut. Once we broke outside and cleared the blue lines on the chart, it was still pretty rough - just different. The big swells had laid down somewhat, but now the wind was up and there was a good wind chop on the surface. Jim Hicks (boat owner & skipper) decided to try a new jigging lure he had to see if we would be able to fish. It hit bottom, but the line was a long way from the boat due to the wind pushing us toward Low Rock. He did pick up a nice Lingcod almost as soon as it hit bottom, but it was obvious that we wouldn't be able to target Halibut in the deeper water.

We decided to try and pick up a couple more Coho to finish up our limit, so we set the downriggers out and put two lines in the water. Jim's son Sam hooked another Lingcod.

After a bit we were down between Low Rock and Outer Black Rock. Jim was looking toward Black Rock and said "What's that?"

I looked over to where he pointed and saw a bright red/orange "ball" pop up from behind a wave. Suddenly, I saw two arms wave from waist height to directly overhead and back to waist height again before disappearing behind the next wave.

Sam and I ran to the back deck to pull the fishing gear and as soon as the downrigger ball cleard the water, Jim hit the throttle and ran over behind Outer Black Rock where we found the two guys sitting on top of the bottom of the hull of their boat. They had a couple of ropes which ran from the bow to the stern that they were using to hold onto.

Jim manouvered the boat in and I threw them a line and we were able to get them onboard without any problem.

I called Tofino Coastguard to report what had happened. After a bit of discussion with the guys, we took them to the dock at Zeballos where they were much relieved to be.

There are a couple of lessons in this whole situation - the least of which is how much simple luck plays in how these situations turn out.

Both of us had decided to go back outside because it looked like the weather had improved. It hadn't. We were considering going back to the Lighthouse at Friendly Cove instead - we didn't. It happend at a time when there were not a lot of boats on the outside because of the weather - they had all come in by that time. After we picked them up, there was one boat heading out, about 2 miles away - would they have seen them if we hadn't been there? Jim and his son missed their flight out of San Francisco on Thursday and almost decided not to make the trip at all, but ended up catching a later flight. We decided to fish Esperanza instead of going back to Nootka on Saturday.

When things go wrong, it is often the accumulation of a lot of small things that add up to the making of a disaster. The same seems to apply when things go right.

Luckily, one of the guys was an experienced diver and was used to being in the water. Which was good as he had to dive under the overturned boat to get his Mustang floater jacket.

Another lesson to learn: Just becuase you spent the previous day installing a new VHF radio and antenna doesn't mean you will get to use it in an emergency. Same thing with the box of flares that you have stashed in a drawer somewhere onboard. Something to be said about having a pocket full of VHF handheld, flares and a whistle.



Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
 
Great job Sushi! Consider changing your name to
Jim's Fishing Charters and Rescue.

I am way more comfortable fishing when I have a buddy boat out there.
Those two guys were damn lucky things turned out OK.
GLG
 
Nice to read about a rescue mission and not a body recovery. Great work Jim! I'm sure the two men's families are very happy to see them alive.

Reel Chaos
 
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