Puget Sound is cold
For refreshment, a rescue story. I love rescue stories.
Seattle tour boat captain rescues paddleboarder in distress
“I think on three occasions, [I’ve seen] humpback whales and on about six occasions, orca whales,” said Captain John Darmody, who has been a captain with Argosy Cruises in Seattle since 2021.
While being the captain for a private charter Wednesday, Captain Darmody chose to take a different route than normal due to high winds and the wind direction. “We went out past Alki Point and down towards Lincoln Park, which we pretty much never do,” said Darmody.
That’s where he saw something much more alarming than the normal sightseeing views. “I had noticed a paddleboarder earlier in that area paddling, and then on our way back, like out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the paddleboard, but I didn’t see anyone,” said Darmody. “So that was when I got my binoculars.”
He saw a man unsuccessfully trying to get on his paddle board multiple times, even going under water in the waves despite having a life jacket. “I got on the loudspeaker system to announce to the crew that we were going to assist a person in distress,” said Darmody.
There’s video of the moment the guy is pulled aboard. The captain looks about 16 years old.
That’s what we call a miracle; someone who was doomed, being rescued by someone who wouldn’t normally have been anywhere near him. Of course, the weather conditions were what prompted the captain’s decision to divert from his usual route, and were also the cause of the paddle board rider getting into difficulty.
There is a ferry route in that area, so it might be possible that he would have been spotted by passengers or crew…but then again maybe not.
Exactly. His chances were minuscule, but not nil. I was just ruminating on the mindset (which I can still recall having myself) that would attribute his rescue to divine direction; but, had he died, his demise would have been blamed on the weather, and poor judgement in going out in it.
Oh I was just ruminating too. I do that with rescues a lot. Last summer a small plane pilot did a forced crash landing on the water around the corner (that is, on the other side of Alki Point) because his engine failed. That side of Alki is a popular beach and some people swam out to pull him out of the plane before it sank. Lots to ruminate on there.
It boggles the mind to think how often life and death hinge on chance events like this, though maybe not always so dramatic and obvious. This sort of thing must happen all the time. There are any number of ways in the course of every day where we might easily have died but for actions or inactions delayed or hastened by seconds or less, to which we’re often completely oblivious.