Smith Point Sea Rescue (SPSR) correspondent Dan Benjamin recently reported crews responded to the following calls for assistance through the later part of the 2024 season.
August 18: At 6 p.m., Northumberland County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) notified SPSR a boat is in distress off Fleeton Point in a massive thunderstorm. The responding SPSR crews are delayed by the intense lightning and rain, but Rescue III and Skiff A locate a 24-foot Bayliner with five aboard drifting near the Fleeton Point Bar.
SPSR crews get the boat’s motor running and the boat into gear, escort the boat to Shell Landing and assist the family in loading the boat onto a trailer. The inexperienced vessel operator was unfamiliar with local waters, surprised by the storm and had never taken the legally-mandated safe boating course. Time on call: 1.25 hours.
September 18: At 9 a.m., SPSR learns that a deceased neighbor’s small boat is sinking dockside. SPSR dispatches Skiff A, plus a shore party, and finds the sunken vessel with scuppers clogged by leaves. Its bilge pump had tried to keep up with accumulating rainwater, but eventually drained the boat’s battery and shut down. The crews raise and pump out the boat and tow it to Shell Landing for haul out. Time on call: 2.0 hours.
October 12: At 9:45 a.m., SPSR receives a call from U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Sector Baltimore that a small center console is out of gas and needs assistance 1.5 miles south of Smith Point Light. Rescue I with a crew of five responds, locating a 17-foot Boston Whaler with two aboard, adrift in the middle of the main Chesapeake Bay shipping lanes. Sea Rescue delivers five gallons of gas and escorts the local fishermen to Smith Point Marina. Time on call: 2.0 hours.
October 23: At 9:36 a.m., NCSO reports a 45-foot sailboat hard aground in the jetties at the mouth of the Little Wicomico. An SPSR crew dislodges the sailboat, which was grounded at the entrance to the jetties in 2.5-feet of water—in a channel that is supposed to be dredged to a depth of 8-feet. SPSR suggests sailboats and larger power boats transit the jetties as close to high tide as feasible. Time on call: 4.0 hours.
November 14: At 5:45 p.m., SPSR is notified that a 31-foot sailboat is aground on Fleeton Bar. With a major nor’easter building, SPSR assembles crews for Rescue III and the shallow-water Skiff A. The crews locate the sailboat. After three unsuccessful attempts to deliver towline to the vessel and with wind and seas now beyond safe limits for Skiff A’s crew, SPSR calls for USCG to airlift people from the boat. USCG requests Rescue III standby as a safety boat for the grounded vessel until a USCG vessel can be dispatched from St Inigoes. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter subsequently arrives from Atlantic City and airlifts two crew and their dogs to safety ashore. Time on call: 6 hours.
November 15: At 9:45 a.m., SPSR returns to find a sailboat has been blown across the Great Wicomico and is on the rocks near Bussel Point at Cranes Creek. No attempt is made to remove the vessel because its hull has been breached and is full of water and sand. Time on call: 1.5 hours.
November 18: SPSR learns from the owner of the grounded sailboat that he has returned to seal the breached hull with expanding foam and pumped out most of the water. At noon, SPSR dispatches Rescue III to pull vessel off the rip-rap shoreline. With the assistance of Skiff A, delivering nearly 1200 feet of towline, Rescue III pulls the 31-foot Hunter off the rocks and with dewatering pumps at the ready, tows it to Jennings Boatyard for immediate haul out and repairs. Time on call: 2.0 hrs.
As it turns out, the vessel is a total loss. This is the third live-aboard sailboat of 2024 that has been lost in local waters due to hard groundings, costing the owners’ their homes. Sea Rescue urges boaters in distress to call sooner, rather than later, especially during the reduced daylight hours of early fall to early spring, said Benjamin.
December 10: At 12:40 p.m., SPSR gets a call from the NCSO that a sailboat has lost power in the Potomac River. Rescue II with a crew of four responds from Olverson’s Marina in heavy fog and rain, with visibility one-eighth of a mile or less. Relying on radar and other electronics, and aided by an accurate location reported by the sailboat’s skipper, the crew locates the 33-foot vessel adrift offshore of Sandy Point. Rescue II tows the vessel to Lewisetta Marina for repairs, passing through numerous commercial and recreational fishermen in the Coan River entrance channel, readily apparent on radar, but invisible except at very close quarters. Time on call: 3.75 hours.
December 16: At 4 p.m. NCSO receives word from a passing boater that a center console has lost power “near the mouth” of the Potomac River. SPSR responds with Rescue I and a crew of four from Smith Point Marina. In fading light, after an initial search with no success, SPSR speaks to original caller, now heading home. He agrees to turn around and lead Rescue I to the boat in distress, a 26-foot Trophy riding heavily at anchor in very choppy water—four miles up the Potomac. Rescue I tows the vessel to the ramp at Point Lookout State Park for haul out. The boaters on the Trophy have no ship’s radio and none of their cell phones have coverage in the area. Time on call: 4.0 hours.
SPSR is a volunteer rescue unit that serves boaters on the Potomac River from Coles Point to Smith Point and the Chesapeake Bay from Point Lookout south to the Rappahannock River, across to Smith and Tangier islands. The organization receives no regular governmental monetary support, depending solely on donations.
SPSR does not charge for its services and can be reached at VHF channel 16 or 911. Rescue I, Rescue III and Skiff A are based in Reedville; Rescue II and Skiff B, on Lodge Creek near Callao.