No one called Coast Guard to report missing windsurfer

coyoteandre · Joined: 20 Jul 2015 Posts: 57

This is posted for your benefit so you know what is going to happen when you are least prepared and park rangers fail their duty. The message is, we can not depand on anyone else, you are all alone when something goes wrong.
"What we've got here is a failure to communicate." (from the movie "Cool Hand Luke")
Coyote park rangers did not call the US Coast Guard about missing windsurfer at 8:00 PM (this is their duty, this is their job to do that) because the ranger did not notice my van still parked near the launch at closing time at 8:00 PM. Rangers took shortcut taking road 100 yards away from parking near the launch. Labor day 6-th of September at 8 PM was pretty dark. There is no axcuse for neglecting ranger' duties, we all pay for rangers to do their job. They must notifie Coast Guard, period. Rangers are the last hope for all of you out there if you are in trouble. If ranger neglects his duties than the next thing is your life, you live or die.
I want you to understand this.
Sailing with marine VHF radio may help, but not always, radio may not work.
The mast was in a great shape. I think I over-stressed or overloaded mast by applying too much downhaul.
Powerex mast 460, 50% carbon broke unexpectedly right after I left the channel during smooth sailing on Gastra Charger 6.0 m when I was about 4 miles North from Coyote Point. The sound was like a shotgun blast.
I was almost 5 hour in the water. During swim I kept an eye from time to time in the direction of Treasure Island if Coast Guard boat or any other boat was coming, there was nothing, no boat traffic at all. I jury rig by inverting mast top and jamming it in lower part of sleeve on the inside of boom. It was partial success as I could uphaul and slugg many times for a 20-50 yards with half of sail flopping, but I got tired of uphauling. Than it got dark. There was no rescue. The current took me 5 miles South to San Mateo bridge. Before the bridge I had bad luck going right through the area of large waves that we like so much off 3-rd Avenue. While under the bridge you hear every car driving over, echo there is something else. I yelled "help" and a bunch of owls started flying and circling over me, looked spooky. Imagination worked when I was thinking about being not in a coffin but being found two days later white and stiff on the mud flats of Newark or San Leandro. Than there was one more mile to the rocky shore of Foster City.
The last 1/2 mile while doing backstroke I was entertaining myself to kill the time by yelling a few creative obscenities but mostly it was "help!" and "Help! Call coast guard!" etc. I knew that nobody could hear me anyway, but somebody did. Several people who live close to the shore heard cries for help coming from the bay. A few (about 6, according to police) people even called Foster City police department about 10:25 PM.
The "Help!" was the loudest, I was told later by officers. Now I have a horse-voice from all that yelling.
The last 10 minutes a few police cruisers (squad cars) directed their headlights on me, which helped me a lot, uplifted the mood and gave me a boost of energy to swim the last 200 yards. I found out that backstroke with feet resting on the board works well if you have a floaty vest.
When I was three yards from the rocky shore I heard voices "grab the disk". I turned and saw a frisbee-like disk on a piece of line. The first thing on dry land I asked what time it was. It was 10:45. The second thing I asked officers to call Coast Guard to cancel the search. One officer said that this was already done (this was BS as Coast Guard did not receive any message that night about any missing windsurfer). Officers were very nice to me, they asked me if I was cold, if I was ok, took down information about me, handcuffed my rig with board to the pole with the sign "clean-up after your dog", one officer gave me ride to my van at Coyote about 11:30 PM. When I got home I called Coast Guard and found out that no report was made about any missing windsurfer.
related to:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/windsurfing-trip-turns-waterlogged-nightmare

devengadula · Joined: 14 Sep 1999 Posts: 24

We could open a website where we could keep an eye on each other's safety. Windsurfers and kiters could log in (whenever they wished to) prior to entering water and log out when they get to their cars. This way, is anyone does not log out (people could forget) there would be some emergency phone numbers to call, first to make sure the person was really missing, and then to notify designated people or coats guards.
Any interest in that? That site could be paid for by people who want to use it... I would... I got stuck out GG yesterday and had to park at a little beach at south tower. Things happen...
Deven.

jp5 · Joined: 19 May 1998 Posts: 3394 Location: OnUr6

cheap insurance: http://www.radioshack.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2032074

tswei · Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 17

Andre,

Why did you launch Coyote at 6:15 pm??

Georges · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 249

As soon as I leave the beach I understand that my life is in MY hands.

Gman Cool

Georges · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 249

elenna · Joined: 30 Apr 1998 Posts: 97

I'm going to take you to task on this in that it is not the responsibility of the park rangers to rescue you. Additionally, if you we're less attached to your gear, you would have abandoned your sail, mast and boom and made the paddle to shore. This would have taken maybe 2 hours or less and you would have been in before dark.

windsass01 · Joined: 09 Jun 2005 Posts: 26

two questions:
1. why didn't you ditch the rig and paddle back? sounds like you wasted alot of energy saving broken gear.
2. why would you expect a prompt rescue if you were sailing alone and had no buddies on the beach watching you?

I'm very sorry this happened to you and i'm glad that you're ok.

ShreddinEd · Joined: 27 Mar 1994 Posts: 172

Great to cast blame on others instead of being introspective.

Instead of taking pics of the San Mateo bridge, shouldn't you have been de-rigging and paddling? Actually, this happening in a flood was the best thing that ever happened to you. You coulda gotten back much sooner, you might have even made it back to your car.

Can I buy you a clew?

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

"As soon as I leave the beach I understand that my life is in MY hands."

I'm with you on this Gman. I think that it's a bit presumptuous to presume that others should be responsible for your personal actions. It's a good idea to venture out only as far as you're willing to swim in. A very sound policy to keep in mind.

Have you bought that radio yet?