High Winds Yield Stranded Boaters

The strong winds continued Saturday, blowing much harder than I thought they would.  The forecast reported lower speeds, but that definitely was not the case.  I started my patrol on North Beach, locating a nest rather quickly.  I love having an egg in my hand before the sun comes up.  The wind had obviously erased some tracks, and pushed last night's high tide higher than predicted, so Steve and I had to be diligent (though we always are).  As low tide neared, I turned the Mule around to patrol North Middle.  As I neared the creek, I spotted a crawl at the very southern end of North Beach, but it would have to wait.  I continued on to North Middle, baiting the raccoon traps on my way.  We haven't had any problems lately, but with hatchlings just around the corner, we need to keep up the pressure.  As I drove south I noticed two odd things - the first a red buoy #4, drifting south with the wind (probably from Tybee Roads, the channel to Savannah River).  The second odd sighting was a small boat anchored off the north end of South Middle.  Steve and I have seen people do this recently.  They leave the boat to fish inshore.  The strange part about this time was that the water was very rough, seas 2-3 feet, the boat pitching with each wave.  I worried that its anchor would break free and the boat would be lost.  However, I was powerless to do anything so I continued on.  I thought I'd get off easy until I spotted a crawl at the very southern end of North Middle.  I relocated NM14 higher on the dune, and started back to check the rest of the nests.  Some of the nests in the high dune were eroding with the strong northeastern winds.  I moved sand around to fill in the gaps.  When the wind subsides, Steve and I will have some extra work relaying the screens.  (The boat, right side up is on the left)

I returned to North Beach, working the nest on the southern end.  I decided to relocate it as well, moving it just north of the Bradley Road beach access, to large dunes.  So far, the winds had been very strong, making  my entire effort twice as difficult.  I had to deal with sand blowing in my eyes, ears, clothes as I dug holes for relocation.  Worse, the screens wanted to blow off the roof as I needed to loosen the tie-downs to get one.  This became a problem for me the entire morning, and eventually was so frustrated that I threw the hook end at the ground, and instead, it landed on my foot.  Immediately, the pain was bad, I screamed, and soon noticed the bump grow on my right foot.  I limped around, finished screening the nest, and tried to radio Steve.  I was worried I'd need help, given the crawls I already had.  It turned out he was already home, so I told him to stay there.  I started driving north, with my left foot.  I didn't find another crawl until the myrtles, which turned out to be nest, and also had to be relocated.  I added it to Sea Turtle Row.   Soon, I was on the north end, seeing that the winds had changed the water current and have started eroding the bank.  I don't think it will last, but it's an interesting development.  After I checked the nests I headed home, where Steve patiently waited.  We spent the afternoon taking it easy.  When the hog boys came home, we enjoyed an Uno tournament.

Some time in the night, Steve went to the kitchen half asleep to get some water.  The boys told him they saw some drunk guy near the beach.  He told me, half asleep, and we nodded it off assuming it was campers over the July 4th weekend.

Sunday morning proceeded normally.  Steve took several extra screens in the truck to replace the metal screens on North Beach.  I headed to South Beach with the Mule.  I found a nest just south of the boneyard.  I was going to leave it in situ at first, but after some deliberation, decided it needed to go higher.  Considering the time of year, plus 60 days, the chance of storms is increasing.  I continued south, checking the nests as I went.  When I hit the south end, I pulled out my phone and noticed Steve had been trying to contact me.  He told me he found the guy the hunters saw last night.  Steve picked him up and took him to Andy's house.  the man, Jerry, was not drunk, but stranded, dehydrated, and scared.

The story, as I take it, follows:  the two men anchored their 25 foot boat of the north end of South Middle Beach.  This is the same boat I mentioned earlier as being in danger.  The men hiked inland to fish, only planning on staying an hour.  They stayed for two.  When they returned, they realized they were in trouble.  They tried swimming to the boat several times, each almost drowning, and eventually giving up.  They decided to wait until the next low tide to approach to boat.  In the interim, the uncle walked south (I suppose they both did).  South Middle Beach is long, almost 6km.  The uncle continued to the South Beach, hoping to find boaters at the south tip.  He eventually did, and unknown to Jerry, called SeaTow.  SeaTow responded, only after helping a fuel-less deserted boat.  Instead of picking the uncle up at 5PM, they picked him up at 10PM.  They tried to search with a spotlight, but the water was too rough.  Meanwhile, Jerry walked the beach hoping to find help.  At some point, he was spotted by our intern hunters, across the slough.  They shined the spotlight on him.  Given his rambling, about a boat, and uncle, and such, the boys said he was incoherent and assumed he was drunk.  They weren't sure what to do and left him, thinking he would return to his people.  It wouldn't be until early this morning when Steve would find the same man, who was indeed stranded.  Their boat, that was anchored by bow and stern, lost its stern anchor and flipped over during the night.  Steve drove Jerry to Andy's house to begin the rescue process.  That's when Steve got in touch with me.  At that point, nobody on our end knew what happened to the uncle.  I didn't see anyone on the south end, just lots of footprints.  Soon, we figured out that he was safe, with SeaTow.  Andy and Jerry eventually took the ATV up South Middle to get GPS coordinates so SeaTow could locate the upside down boat.  A white hull is hard to locate amongst the crashing waves.  Soon, the two men would head home, sorry for the day's events.  Steve and I feel horrible for what happened.  (The white image in the middle is the hull.)  Another note, the buoy, is now on land on South Middle.  Pictures soon.

After an afternoon discussing the morning's events, Steve and I finally digested the rescue and moved on to preparing for the July 4th party.  We had a bunch of food to bring.  The rest of the afternoon was spent with our fellow Ossabaw Island residents.  Games of Uno and Spades were played while watching the sun set over the marsh.  Andy and Amanda have the nicest view off their back porch.