Multiple Agencies Assist in Rescue of Couple on Sailboat Caught in Hurricane Lee Swells

Two men in distress aboard a 25-foot sailboat tossed around in high surf from Hurricane Lee in the ocean waters off Westhampton Beach were pulled to safety after a dramatic helicopter rescue carried out by four members of the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod on Friday afternoon.

The small boat, which the rescuers estimated was no more than five feet wide, was first spotted by an individual walking on the shore at Coopers Beach in Southampton Village, who put out a 911 call, which went to the Suffolk County Police Department. County Police transferred the call to the Southampton Village Police Department, which had officers down on the beach within two minutes, according to Police Chief Suzanne Hurteau.

The pair were ultimately plucked from the waters next to their sailboat by a trained Coast Guard rescue swimmer, who guided them, one at a time, into a rescue basket that was pulled up to the MH-60 helicopter hovering nearby, before taking them and the crew back on the 20-minute flight to the station on Cape Cod.

The harrowing rescue required the coordination of several different agencies from two states, and Hurteau said on Saturday morning that the boaters were “lucky to be alive.”

Because neither of the two men on board the vessel spoke English, the rescue required additional assistance from a translator from Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound, which Lieutenant Commander Alex Martfeld, who flew the rescue helicopter, said was key.

The rescue effort began at 10 a.m. on Friday morning, when the Southampton Village Police Department, Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance, and Southampton Fire Department were all activated after the 911 call. One Village Police officer followed the sailboat from the shore, in a truck, trying to keep track of it, as the boat was initially only about 200 feet offshore.

Another officer deployed the department’s drone, which provided closeup footage of the boat and allowed the department to ascertain that there were two people on board, including one who appeared to be having difficulty navigating the boat.

Hurteau said the work of the Southampton Village dispatchers was crucial in the rescue operation, which unfolded over the course of several hours.

“When our drone was put up, our dispatcher called Suffolk Aviation, and it located the vessel,” Hurteau said. “They were in contact with the Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard was in constant contact with the captain of the boat.”

The boat captain confirmed that they were in distress and were also low on fuel. The other individual on board was also reported to be severely seasick.

The Coast Guard Station in Cape Cod handles all maritime emergencies from the New York City area to the northeastern tip of Maine, near the Canadian border, keeping the rescue helicopter stocked and ready to go, with a crew on call, 24/7. Once deployed, the helicopter took only 20 minutes to arrive on the scene from the Cape Cod station, and Martfeld said the presence of the Suffolk County helicopter hovering in the area until they arrived help cut down on the time it would have taken to locate the sailboat. By the time the Coast Guard arrived, the boat had drifted much farther out to sea from where it was originally spotted off Coopers, and was in the Westhampton Beach vicinity.

It quickly became clear to Martfeld and his crew — which included his co-pilot, Lieutenant Tanner Evans, Aviation Maintenance Technician Second Class Gary Hardigree (the hoist operator), and Aviation Survival Technician third class Gregory Gibson (the rescue swimmer) — that the men on board needed to be pulled to safety immediately.

Figuring out the best way to do that required some adjusting, but they got the job done.

“While we were en route, the translator told us that they wanted to come off the boat, and that they were running low on fuel, and weren’t able to sail anymore and were disoriented,” Martfeld said, adding that the men had initially set sail from New Rochelle and had made it through the sound and around Montauk before running into trouble in what was an attempt to get back to their home port in South Amboy, New Jersey.

“We noticed as we were flying along the south shore of Long Island westbound that there was pretty big breaking surf right on the beach. The swells offshore were big, but there was a long period between each wave. It wasn’t too rough, but the swells were just large enough that it would make it hard for them to see land.”

Martfeld estimated that the swells were roughly 10 foot when they arrived, with strong but steady winds. The steadiness of the wind enables the helicopter to hold a “good, steady hover,” Martfeld said. The initial plan was to send Gibson down onto the boat and rescue the men, one at a time, directly from the boat using the rescue basket.

But that plan A did not pan out.

Through the translator, they tried to ask the men to get underway to optimally position the boat for the rescue, but they struggled to do that. Eventually, they witnessed one of the men toss a paddleboard that had been on the boat into the water and saw him approach the ladder in what looked like an attempt to get off the boat on his own. At that point, Martfeld said they decided to send Gibson into the water, so he could assist the men from there, rather than attempt to do the hoist directly from the boat.

Gibson then swam over to the boat, got on board, and helped the older gentleman into the water with him, getting him to an area where Hardigree was able to lower the rescue basket. Once he was pulled up and into the helicopter, Gibson swam back over to the boat and assisted the other passenger. Finally, Hardigree lowered the harness clip and pulled Gibson back up to the helicopter, leaving the scene to fly back to the station in Cape Cod around 2 p.m.

“Our rescue swimmer and flight mechanic did an excellent job," Martfeld said, adding that it was Gibson’s first in-water rescue.

While the rescue was certainly a harrowing ordeal that the men on the boat will never forget, it is not necessarily an uncommon occurrence, according to Martfeld.

“As far as difficulty [of the rescue] goes, no two search-and-rescue cases and no two hoists are the same,” he said. “This my third tour; I’ve served in Astoria, Oregon, and Kodiak, Alaska, so I’ve seen a lot of rescues similar to this one. I don’t keep track of how many folks I’ve pulled out of the water or how many hoists I’ve done, but it probably happens five or six times per year.”

As for the local agencies on the ground that assisted in the early stages of the rescue, they agreed it was a good coordination of efforts, and effective utilization of different tools they had at their disposal.

Hurteau said the Village Police drone came in particularly handy. “It was really helpful,” she said. “We have two officers who carry it at all times for situations just like this. The footage was so clear, and it let us know that two people were on board.”

Hurteau also praised the multiple agencies that were involved or assisted in coordinating the rescue, and said the dispatchers in particular were key in pulling it all together.

“This was all possible because our dispatchers were really on top of getting aviation out right away,” she said. “They notified the Coast Guard to get a crew together behind the scenes, working the radio and phones.

“It was a true crisis,” she continued. “They were instrumental in getting all the crew out there. They really are the backbone of any emergency situation for us.”