Every rescue has more than one story. Here's the incident through the eyes of the two
captains who came together to lend a helping hand.
WNR Rescue 7.8.2026 …Chris Burkee’s Account
Weather was now predicting 4 WSW at 6pm, gusting to 8 with a storm in the mix, most
likely guaranteed, as I pack up work early and head home on my bike with rain already
threatening after the morning storm. No question my crew want to give it a go after
cancelling everything the week before due to the heat and lack of wind, along with
calling LATH the night before for lightning and light rain that showed no sign of quitting.
On the way, David asks if I’m going to race. “Yes.” He asks if I have heard from Paul, I
haven’t, maybe he wants to join our boat tonight? I call Paul and he wants to come out
but is on the fence with the heat, light wind, and unsure forecast, along with making
arrangements to be able to make it out. He asks about my crew and I say we
are starting to have a regular crew and are making a go of it. At the mention of Delaney,
he recounts her having a winch come apart, no fault of her own, during her first race on
Itch. I let him know we may have a pretty full boat, though a couple have already bowed
out for work, but we will make room. I do a crew count in my head, could be 7, as I pass
the back of the airport approaching the lake. John and I are there early in the heat and
windless steam walking out on the gleaming dock to begin prepping BeatIt as Delaney,
Joe and Stuart join us.
First order of business is to clean off the work of our local
swallows. Paul messages back that he will stay behind and thanks me for the invitation
with hopes of joining our boat again another day. Okay, I think that only leaves Ron
unaccounted for as we consider shoving off the dock to get an early look at the wind on
the course. I can’t reach Ron and no one extra has responded back needing a ride. We
head out with Scooter, Sweet Virginia, Ambush, Danger Zone, Hogs, Fast Freddy,
and possibly another hoping to race as the weather shifts. We see Ron on Sam’s boat,
where he is filling in until Sam recovers from his surgery.
We are occupied with new crew positions, me on foredeck of all places with John at the
helm, and are attempting to plan our race on the chosen full course as the race is called
minutes before the start for threat of lightning and storm. We have already voted on our
boat that we all want to run the course regardless, keeping an eye on the weather, and
position for a perfect start. Ambush has already taken off toward the rock buoy
early and David on Scooter spins around to join us seeing the race is still there.
Ambush is gone around the point as Scooter catches on windward and we have a good
drag race as we push him up on course. Realizing before us that we are being headed,
he ducks behind us and tacks off toward rock Island. We still think we are doing well
headed straight for the mark, but soon find the wind failing us as Scooter rounds the
mark first.
Ambush a full mark ahead, Scooter hoists its spinnaker as we round the
mark prepping to hoist. We soon tangle our spinnaker in the shrouds on hoist, having to
lower halyard and try again as we start lowering the genoa, now finding our spinnaker
sheets intertwined with one stuck under the boat. We quickly lower our spinnaker, raise
and trim in our genoa that is hanging over the water on starboard, about to become a
water anchor. In the middle of our recovery, we notice a couple of power boats on course,
some bobbing in the waves as our audience, and others beating to the Elm Hill Marina
as a rain line develops toward the dam. We also realize there is another sailboat off
coarse to port in the shallow rock zone that is not part of our race and seems to be
untrimmed with 2 crew and a dog in the water. We pass them, and it soon registers that
they are not in the water by choice and are likely in distress. We begin to circle back, as
Scooter has already started to do, and the radio comes alive with David’s voice asking if
we can hear him. We are busy in the commotion of trying to drop sails, gathering the life
ring buoy, a line and ladder, and deciding which person to head toward as I instinctively
wave back to David that we hear him instead of answering back on the radio.
We head toward the woman, floating away from the other two, as David is heading
toward the man and the dog. She answers that she is still doing okay as I throw the ring
to her off starboard stern, realizing she has no life jacket on. I tell her we will circle around
to pick her up as the boat is still moving with the rising wind against the hull. We come back
around, seeing David and crew attempting to pull the man and dog in their boat about
50 yards off our port, and throw a line to the woman who is able to hold on and swing
around to grab the transom ladder as we pull her toward it. She climbs up with
assistance and is soon onboard with a towel around her. She is shaken and a little cold
but doing okay and thankful to be out of the water. She goes down in the cabin to get
out of the wind and rest on a bench after we wrap her in an emergency thermal blanket,
serendipitously given to me by George Blue the night before at LATH off a suggestion
by Richard to have them on all our boats.
Seeing that the man and dog are aboard Scooter, we decide to raise keel and see if we
can rescue their boat before it runs aground into rocks near Cook Landing. Seeing how
close the boat is now to shore, and the rain line now with lightning sure to catch us, we
decide to run back full motor through the shallow rock field just behind Scooter toward
Hamilton Creek. We are soon soaked but excited and of good cheer as we cut back
home around the islands watching the lighting closing in. As we round the point into the
cove, we see an ambulance driving back and forth through the marina and decide to
follow Scooter into the ramp dock where the ambulance finds us. As we land, we see
that the man is in obvious distress with chest pain, questionable level of consciousness,
and cuts all over his body-likely from the dog trying to climb on him. EMS crew are
quickly assessing both people, realizing that the man appears to be in the most
immediate danger. The small cattle dog is pacing back and forth on Scooter, seemingly
okay, but obviously distressed by the situation. Delaney finds clothes for the woman,
and we make a leash from an extra line for the dog. The man and dog are taken away
by one ambulance and the woman by another.
We got our boats back in their slips and settled as best we could as the rain started
pouring again. We were all soaked but happy with our performance in this unexpected
adventure as we joined David’s crew on the clubhouse deck, all of us in amazement at
how lucky it was that we chose to sail that afternoon and how well the rescue had gone.
Well, do I even ask if we want to go to La Ha after all that? Yes, definitely.
We learn the next day that the couple had only been together a few days, and some
racers had noticed the man was upset as they tried to get their uncooperative boat to
sail out of the cove. I had coincidentally found out from Brian, as we had a few beers on
his boat after a LATH, that the boat on the next dock across from us with the couple on it
had been passed down through a few sales and aborted ownerships that the bulkheads
holding the chainplates were unsound in the boat. In the end, we learn that the man and
woman were released from the hospital that night, with the man back at the marina the
next morning.
7.8.2026 WNR Rescue from David Curtze
Wednesday night during our wnr at approx. 6:20 pm just northwest of the rock marker
that we use as a turning mark, we encounter a women and dog in the water swimming.
Neither had PFD’s on. There was an O’Day 220 sailboat nearby with sails up and one
man onboard. We asked the lady if she needed help. She replied yes. Wind was a
little heavier at this point and we were under full spinnaker moving at 8knts. We doused
the spinnaker, put the genoa up and headed back in the direction of the women. Beat It
was east of us and had rounded the mark. We were heading towards each other. The
O’Day 220 still had sails partially up and was being blown North towards Cooks
Landing. The man on the boat then jumped off the boat, abandoning it, I can only
assume in an attempt to assist the lady and dog. He did not have a PFD on and was
quite a distance from the women.
I radioed Beat It to ask for their assistance, as now there were three in the water. Chris
acknowledged with a wave of his arms and headed towards the women. Two crew
members on Scooter were spotters, one pointing to the women and one to the man.
Very hard to see people in the dark water with short chop. We headed towards the man
and dog. We doused the genoa and main with motor running. As we approached the
man, we threw a flotation cushion to him and circled around to the windward side of
him. I looked to make sure Chris had made it to the women. He had. Scooters crew
had their ladder in place ready for the man to board and safety line tied to boat ready to
throw. The man could not climb the ladder. Two crew assisted the man, highly
encouraging him to climb the ladder while pulling him up. The man did not have a shirt
on, so nothing really to grab ahold of. The man, once over the transom, could not
maneuver on his own. He was out of breath, barely conscious and bleeding. Two crew
assisted him over the traveler and to the wall of the companionway, where they propped
him up and tried to keep him awake. The dog was swimming around the boat and
wanted aboard. We could not reach the dog from the boat. One crew member threw a
long safety line in the water as another crew member jumped in the water with a PFD
on to assist the dog. Crew on board pulled the other crew member and dog back to the
boat via the rope, lifted the dog out of the water, and then assisted the crew member
back onboard.
We considered retrieving the O’Day 220, but the man appeared to be getting worse.
We covered him in a large dry towel and a rain jacket. We called 911 and asked them
to meet us at HCM and told them we were 20 minutes away. With one crew member
actively keeping the man awake, one crew member below attending the dog, one crew
member bouncing back and forth between helping the crew with the man and dog and
one a top helping me, we headed for HCM at full throttle with a storm chasing us.
On our way back, we determined that that man had water in his lungs that he could not
expel, a rapid heart rate with chest pain, was cut up and bleeding on his arms and
shoulders and was barely conscious.
As we arrived at HCM, the ambulance arrived at the same time. I told them there were 2
patients. They called for a 2nd bus. They stabilized the man as best as possible before
we all helped him to a gurney on the finger dock at the ramp. Chris pulled up and docked
with us. The women was alert and other than chilled, possibly pre-hypothermic, and a
little shaken, seemed to be in pretty good shape.
We checked the following morning 7/9/2026 with Summit medical and we are glad to
report that they told us that the guy (Steve) was released after 6 hours and was able to
walk out on his own. The women and the dog are fine also.