The Perfect Storm-4th of July 2017

[zinbaad]

so its been 7 years since ive been down to the ny macy fireworks display anchoring up on the East River opposite the United Nations and 1/4 mile from fireworks barges
. Coast Guard and NYPD decided it was an open channel and didn't allow anyone of the 80 boats to anchor ( although they closed channel about 8pm) so all boats had to circle an drift. I think bad decision.
but any way on to the perfect storm
july 4th 1130 pm
black night
inexperienced boater
Zero knowledge of used cork floating 23 ft Searay wine n cheese boat
bought boat 9 days ago
overloaded 9 passengers
Alcohol
4 people riding on Bow
Railing may have broken off
severe out going tide
Hells Gate Tri boro Bridge, worst location in Long Island sound/East River
Whirlpools And 4-5 ft waves super surges
the worst water I have seen since my first day of purchase n hurricane Sandy
deadly wakes from 80 boats, 14 ft to 70ft party boats exiting firework display rushing home
Absolutely no knowledge of boat,tides, locations,radio,boat handling ability
single screw vessel
4 people fall overboard screaming for their lives (thankfully life jackets on)
their boat bouncing and circling lunging into Whirlpools and waves coming all directions
unable to come alongside with single engine
as I enter HellsGate I see their boat in corner of my eye reversing course in channel ( something wrong) Mahalo is also bouncing, banging and weaving all over (i also have 10 passengers)
as I a approach 4 people are huddled together screaming for their lives waves cresting over their heads twisting in the whirlpool like conditions
I maneuver Mahalo about 50 feet from their bow with the four between us,in what in a normal situation would be down stream. I a split second a 30 ft speed boat flys straight between our bows directly over these poor 4 souls, DIRECTLY< never slows, never stops or hesitates. EVERYONE ABOARD IS SCREAMING, water thrashing, banging twisting!!!!!
I maneuver Mahalo, and pull 3, exhausted, choking, barely able to climb on to swim platform, the 3rd drfted off, threw off her life vest and luckily was recused by another vessel
It was like a horror movie. There is no way I could exaggerate this episode, my mind thought of jaws, pulling out half a body or the London Truck delibretly running down people
I can only say GOD was watching over these poor souls as the three I rescued had only a few bangs and bruises. There was no way I was going to transfer them back to their boat in those treacherous waters, quickly checked them out, wrapped in towels and headed toward safe port, Bayside Marina and dropped them off home. My Daugher, Lauren acted like a Champ in the rescue
God Blessed these kids this Day!!

[RobS]

Very Good work Ed (and crew). Thanks to you this will not go down in history as did the unfortunate Oyster Bay 2012 incident although it certainly had all the key ingredients.....

[DougSea]

Wow! So glad you and capable crew were there to help them out of a really bad situation! Hell Gate can be interesting during daylight hours. Can't even imagine what that was like!

[Nancy]

It was a bad enough situation before the speedboat came through . . . truly a miracle that no one was injured or worse. How you were able to figure out the situation and maneuver is a mystery to me. Well done.

[DesertAlbin736]

OMG, what a story! Can't imagine dealing with a situation like that. You're a hero for keeping your head in such a wild melee. Hats off to you! We learned long ago to avoid those July 4th events on the water like that. Too many bozos out there with no idea (and often no running lights) of safe boating practices. Bad enough in calm water, but in those conditions would be a recipe for disaster.

[zinbaad]

Perfect Storm- I must add some lessons I have learned from this since I have never experienced a situation of this magnitude. Because the 31 has high sides and a solid larger vessel never believe this could not happen to me. 3 things I should have done in the adrenaline rush to rescue others,,, Immediately radio Mayday 3x with more precise locations,,,,have all aboard Mahalo don life vests and three, immediately shoot several up flares. Perhaps there are other lessons I will think of as this event continuously rolls through my mind

[kerrye]

Good insights there. Do you think flares on the 4th of July would have attracted attention or would they have been seen as fireworks?

[zinbaad]

I was just running thought through my mind of what I could have done should l encounter an emergency. Yes, I was well aware of the 4th July and sending up a flare might be ignored . If it happened again I would shoot up a few flares reguardless as they might have thrown some light on the situation