It was a Wednesday morning in August when Captain Maurice Scott and deckhand Anthony Lo Grande arrived at Island Chaffee on the Sause Brothers Tug “Redondo”, when the captain heard a woman’s voice.
Initially he thought he was hearing things, but then he heard it again – a very faint cry for help. He looked out of the pilot house window and to his surprise, saw a woman in the water.
He immediately mustered Lo Grande and made his way down to the deck.
The moment the woman saw Lo Grande’s outstretched hand she began to weep. Lo Grande reached down and grabbed her wrist, promising her he would not let go.
Due to her bodily fatigue, he was unable to pull her straight out of the water without her assistance. Instead, he pulled her towards the bumper rail as a platform to facilitate getting her out of the water. At that point Captain Scott arrived and together the men were able to pull the woman out of the water.
The woman was freezing cold, weak and dehydrated. They immediately covered her with a warm blanket, gave her a glass of water, called the Coast Guard and the Long Beach Lifeguard.
The woman explained she had been in the water since 5:00am that morning – it was a miracle she had survived the frigid waters for as long as she did.
A lifeguard vessel arrived first and took her to a waiting ambulance. It was a lucky turn of events that Captain Scott and Lo Grande’s outing was originally scheduled for later that day and had only just changed at the last minute.
Captain Scott and Anthony remind us that we should know what to do if we see someone in distress in the water, which is to shout for help, reach out a hand, or toss something tethered for the person can grab on to while you pull them to safety.
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