The California Maritime Academy’s 500-foot training ship Golden Bear rescued two California fishermen Sunday evening, August 17th, approximately 80 miles off the Monterey Peninsula.
The California Maritime Academy’s 500-foot training ship Golden Bear happened to be at the right place at the right time to assist two stranded fishermen 80 miles from shore giving cadets an opportunity to see the importance and value of their training. Photo courtesy of California Maritime Academy
Published: September, 2008
The two men departed the Santa Cruz area earlier that day in an open 17-foot skiff, equipped with a single outboard engine. They told authorities they were heading for offshore fishing grounds when their engine seized up. They then radioed for help to the U.S. Coast Guard in San Francisco.
The Coast Guard issued a call to vessels in the vicinity of the stricken boat asking if they could proceed to the scene. The Golden Bear was approximately 50 miles away at the time, heading northward on the final leg of her annual three-and-a-half-month summer training cruise to ports in the western and southern Pacific. Aboard were 200 students from Cal Maritime and the Texas Maritime Academy and approximately 40 staff and crew.
Vessel commander Captain Paul Leyda, who also heads the school’s Department of Marine Transportation, advised the Coast Guard that he was proceeding to the reported location of the boat and increased the Golden Bear’s speed. Upon arriving at the scene, the ship established radio contact with the stranded fishermen and asked them to fire a flare since their boat was too small to be seen on the ship’s radar. Once located, the Golden Bear pulled closer and launched its rescue boat, skippered by Chief Mate Bill Schmid, officer Mikaela Downs and cadets Hanna Reeves and Sam Thompson.
The two fishermen were transferred to the rescue boat and the disabled craft was towed to the ship and lifted aboard with a fantail crane, supervised by Deck Officer David Coleman and his crew. Golden Bear then resumed its homeward course, arriving in San Francisco early Monday morning. The rescued fishermen disembarked after arrival.
Cal Maritime officials said the decision to divert course is a given whenever mariners are at risk on the sea, regardless of the circumstances. They estimated the cost of the diversion, in terms of the extra fuel required to cover the distance at a higher speed, was between $5,000 and $6,000. Capt. Leyda had increased speed to assure arrival on scene before dark, which could have made location and recovery more difficult. In addition, the Golden Bear was itself on a tight timetable, since it was scheduled to go into dry dock in San Francisco Monday morning for routine maintenance work prior to the start of the 2008-09 academic year on September 2nd.
The participation in a real-life rescue at sea was a graphic illustration for the crew and the students aboard Golden Bear, of the importance and value of the training and skills they have been taught, both in classrooms and labs at the school’s Vallejo campus, and during training cruise exercises each summer.
The California Maritime Academy is a unique campus of The California State University, offering degrees in business administration, facilities engineering technology, global studies and maritime affairs, marine engineering technology, marine transportation, and mechanical engineering. Cal Maritime is one of only seven degree-granting maritime academies in the United States —and the only one on the West Coast. For more information, visit the Cal Maritime website at www.csum.edu or call 707-654-1000. To ride along on this summer’s training voyage, click the Follow the Voyage link on the home page to see reports, photos and videos.
Rescued skiff being towed back to the ship with Chief Mate Bill Schmid in the white helmet along with other helmeted cadets and crew assisting the two stranded fishermen. Photo courtesy of California Maritime Academy
