Rescued Sailors off Hawaiian Islands

Captains, You gotta like this story because the kid from Galesburg and his friend survive. They called someone ashore before it was too late, saved the last flare until they knew the helo would see it, and trusted the rescue swimmer. Too bad they didn't wait for a better day to go sailing in a 24 foot boat. The Sector Honolulu SAR planner sums it up pretty well. "Those two guys were fortunate." RDML W

Galesburg man saved at sea

SOURCE: WQAD, 30Nov09

GALESBURG, Illinois - Luke has always loved the ocean. But, his passion almost cost him his life.

He's surfed and snorkeled but in his 25 years, he's never sailed until last Sunday. His friend, Alfredo, asked Luke if he wanted to sail with him to take a boat back to it's owner - a 30 hour trip between the islands of Hawaii.

They set sail early Sunday morning. On Monday morning, Luke called his fiancée, Allyson, to let her know they ran into some rough waters and won't be arriving when they said and to call his parents, Jim and Beth. That night, Luke and Alfredo were facing waves up to 20 feet high. "It's the channel between Maui and the big island. It’s supposed to be the one of the most dangerous crossings on any of the oceans," explained Jim. Luke confirmed it was. "When we hit the channel, our rudder snapped off the back of the boat so we had no steering. That's when we knew we were in trouble," said Luke.

Moments later, the sailboat capsized. The men lost their cell phones and handheld radio. Alfredo rigged up some lights to put at the end of the mast to send SOS signals. They managed to save 3 of the 20 flares that was on board and shot off 2 of them when they saw a ship pass nearby, but it didn't stop.

Luke's parents were trying to call him all day on Monday. Then, decided to call the Coast Guard that night. Luke and Alfredo spotted the rescue plane. "It went by the first time and already past us. So he (Alfredo) held onto the flare. He knew how they fly the search pattern and know it'd be back in 20 minutes." They shot off their last flare.

“When we arrived on scene the two sails masts were in the water and the boat was swaying violently in the water,” said Lt. j.g. Jason Gross, an HH-65 rescue helicopter pilot.

“After we lowered a rescue swimmer onto the vessel, we determined the best course of action would be to have the two men swim away from the boat and then we lowered a basket into the water and hoisted them from there.”

“This one could have turned out much differently,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Sean Soule, a search and rescue planner with Coast Guard Sector Honolulu. “We received tremendous cooperation from the DLNR, Navy and Hawaii County officials and were able to cover a huge area and those two guys were fortunate.”

At 8:54 Tuesday night, the Harmons got a call from the National Guard saying their son and his friend had been found and are fine. They had to lower a diver into the water for the rescue because the waters were too rough.

After this near-death experience, Luke's passion for the ocean hasn't changed. "I'll probably do it again," Luke said. Then, he laughed and added, "But, I don't think I'll cross that channel on a 24 foot sailboat again'.