PORT TOWNSEND — For East Jefferson Fire-Rescue’s Marine Division rescue team Wednesday, it was a clear case of being in the right place at the right time.
The team of Randy Bartholomew, David Aman, Erik Wennstrom and Steve Grimm just happened to be rescue training at about 3 p.m. in Port Townsend Bay when they were alerted to a sailboat trapped between gusting winds and the jetty near the entrance to Boat Haven Marina.
The boat was about 10 yards away from smashing into the jetty’s rock wall.
The unidentified sailor aboard the 30-foot sailboat was left helpless, without a cell phone or engine power.
“He was protecting himself by dropping an anchor, but it was dragging,” said Gordon Pomeroy, East Jefferson Fire-Rescue assistant chief of emergency medical services.
The rescue team was aboard Fire-Rescue’s steel-hulled vessel, The Volunteer, while westerly winds were blasting between 40 and 50 mph off the bay.
Rescue Team Member Erik Wennstrom jumped from The Volunteer to the sailboat and helped the man onto the rescue vessel, Pomeroy said.
The Vessel Assist team from Naval Magazine Indian Island was called to pull the sailboat to safety. It towed it into the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven marina.
The owner of the sailboat declined medical attention after he was brought to safety at the marina.
“They got a lot longer training out there today than they anticipated,” said Pomeroy, adding that it was at least a two-hour ordeal.
Just before they were told of the larger vessel in distress, the training crew had investigated the grounding of a smaller boat on the beach south of the marina.
The winds had apparently caused the smaller boat to break away from a vessel it was tied to, he said. No one was aboard.
