A sailboat, first thought to be stolen, was found bobbing sideways in the shallow waters of Neroutsos Inlet.
On Aug. 24, Jens Neilsen, who had a 29 foot sailboat moored at the southern tip of Neroutsos Inlet, reported it stolen to the RCMP detachment in Port Hardy. Cst. Jong Kim arrived at the Rumble Beach Marina in Port Alice to investigate.
John Bolton, co-owner with Cindy Ross of the charter company J & C Pacific, took Kim for a run into the inlet to assess the situation. They found the sailboat leaning against a large rock, bobbing sideways in shallow water. They determined that it wasn’t stolen, but that it had dragged anchor and gotten caught up on the sea mound. After making sure there was no one on board, they returned to Port Alice and called it in to the Canadian Coast Guard.
The marina was contacted at 7:12 p.m. by duty officer Carl Snow, from Environmental Response of the Canadian Coast Guard, and the call was then passed onto Bolton. After hearing a description of the situation, Snow was concerned that the boat would get torn open at low tide and cause a gas or oil spill.
As it was starting to get dark, a trip by the Coast Guard around Cape Scott would have had them arriving at Rumble Beach in the middle of the night. Snow then asked Bolton if he would be willing to perform the rescue.
At first, the coast guard intended to send a crew out by land to help him; however, with daylight hours dwindling, that would have taken too long. A change in the weather and tidal conditions could have torn the boat apart at any time. Instead, a crew was assembled from people on the dock that included Mark Witts and Wayne Bartrim.
In shallow water with a good breeze of 10 knots (approx. 20 km/hr), Bolton carefully manoeuvred the large 70,000 lb Sea Ray 480 around the rocks to bring his bough over the sailboat. Bartrim hopped onto the sailboat and used a pipe pole to grab the boat’s anchor rope. He tied a loop around it with another rope while Witts secured the other end to the Vaporizer.
Bolton then carefully and slowly backed away, letting the rope slide down the anchor rope to pull up the anchor. Halfway through the process, the anchor got caught up. Unable to pull it, they cut the anchor rope and fastened it to the Vaporizer.
The sailboat was then slowly dragged away from the rocks into deeper water. After the Vaporizer was turned around, the crew tied the sailboat to the stern. The sailboat, fully buoyant, was towed back to the Rumble Beach Marina by 9 p.m. and tied to the dock. There was a large gash on the starboard side of the sailboat but, luckily, it didn’t go through—narrowly averting a minor environmental disaster.
According to Snow, boat owners are responsible for mooring their boats securely. If a boat comes loose from its mooring, owners are responsible for any environmental damage incurred.
– Debra Lynn article
