Rescued

“This is the second time I’ve rescued your butt, dad!”

I know what you’re thinking–Jayleen rescued her father twice, but that assumption would be false. Jayleen’s father has two wonderful children. One is a boat captain/business owner and the other a physicist/mathematician.

According to the metadata recorded from the pictures, the first rescue took place on July 10, 2011, when Jayleen’s brother Jason was 14-years old. Captain Jayleen was 18-years old and busy doing whale watching tours out of the Auke Bay Harbor in Juneau while her father (Jay) and her Uncle Jim took advantage of the beautiful day and planned an early morning, all day photo safari in the M/V Little Patch of Heaven.

Uncle Jim and her father photographed a Sitka black-tailed deer on Admiralty Island,

…..a pod of humpback whales bubble feeding off Cordwood Creek, Admiralty Island….

….and commercial gillnetters fishing about three and a half miles east of Vanderbilt Reef (the reef where the SS Princess Sophia sank in 1918) near Benjamin Island.

While the guys were photographing the commercial gillnetters, the 20-hp Yamaha outboard on the M/V Little Patch of Heaven sputtered, coughed, and died. With no cell phone signal, Jay handed the only paddle in the skiff to newly recruited crewmember Uncle Jim and gave the command, “Paddle north until we reach cell phone coverage.”

Fifteen minutes later with sketchy cell signal, Jay called Jayleen’s mother (Eileen) who was working in her garden at their Shelter Island cabin and begged, “Please come rescue me!” Then the call went dead. “Can you hear me?” “Can you hear me now?” The tidal current had carried/drifted the Little Patch south and out of cell phone coverage. With Uncle Jim paddling hard, Jay was able to get through on the fifth try and hurriedly said, “The engine broke down, we are safe, we are 15 miles north of our cabin, a half mile east of North Island and a bit north of Benjamin Island in Lynn Canal, the weather is flat calm and we have terrible cell phone reception! Can you come and tow us home?”

“Yes/Okay, but how will I do that?” Eileen asked.

“Tell Jason his dad needs him to rescue Uncle Jim and his father with the 14-foot Crestliner skiff, (even though Jason doesn’t like to admit it he is very good and capable at operating boats) but you should go along for moral and navigational support. And, Eileen, we may not have cell phone reception-so-good luck-see you soon-love you-bye!”

“Jason is not going to be happy about this, but we will be there as soon as we can-love you-bye.” Eileen replied.

With the M/V Little Patch of Heaven broken down, Jayleen’s Uncle Jim and her father stayed busy taking pictures of the commercial gillnet fishery going on all around them.

And so, Mad Captain Jason, navigator Eileen, and crewmember Merlin rescued the broken down M/V Little Patch of Heaven, Jayleen’s father, and it’s salty crew, Uncle Jim. Mad Captain Jason ended up doing a 30-mile round trip rescue. Thank You Captain Jason!

The second rescue took place on May 26, 2018. Jayleen was busy doing spring maintenance work to her whale watching boat the M/V Alaskan Girl at Fisherman’s Bend Harbor in Auke Bay and Jay was scheduled to pick up Eileen at 8:30 am at the harbor in the M/V Little Patch of Heaven. Southeast winds to 25-mph and seas to 4-feet, it wouldn’t be an enjoyable trip from Shelter Island to Auke Bay but it was doable and Eileen was anxious to return to the island after spending the last two weeks in Juneau helping Jayleen’s Grandmother.

After helping his father launch the M/V Little Patch of Heaven at 8:00 am, Jason drove the four-wheeler and boat trailer up the beach and returned to the cabin, tended to the wood stove, wrapped up in a  fluffy comfy blanket, snuggled into the living room recliner and continued reading Michio Kaku’s book, Physics Of The Impossible.

Four-foot whitecap waves crashed and a stout southeast wind blew as the M/V Little Patch of Heaven rounded the sand point at South Shelter. The Little Patch pounded into the waves. Jay worked the throttle, quickly speeding up and slowing down, turning to port then to starboard, dodging the biggest waves and making slow progress, and constantly being sprayed in the face with cold wind blown saltwater. A mile past the sandy point the new 30-hp Suzuki outboard on the Little Patch died. Jay checked the engine oil, the gas tank/filter/line, and the emergency kill switch, all looked fine. Ten-minutes later Jay’s cell phone rang.

“Is that you bobbing around in the rough seas between Shelter Island and Admiralty Island?” Gene asked. Gene is a good friend of Jayleen’s family and lives at the sandy southwest point of Shelter Island, Gene had been watching the Little Patch making its way into town.

“Yep that would be me, the new 30-hp Suzuki outboard just stopped working and I can’t get it started.” Replied Jay.
“It’s pretty rough out there, are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, I can throw out the anchor if I get close to shore, or tie up at the Haines dock if I drift that far. Jason is at our cabin and if I can’t get this piece of junk started, I’ll call him to come and rescue me.” Jay said.
“It’s too rough here on my beach or I would launch my boat and tow you in. I’ll keep an eye on you. Good luck!” Gene said.

Twenty minutes later – “Hi Jason, can you hitch up the Honda four-wheeler to the 18-foot Bayrunner, launch and come rescue me please?” Jay begged.
“I thought you went into town to pick up mom, where are you?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, the motor broke down and I’m floating between our cabin and Admiralty Island and drifting toward Barlow Islands.”

“This is the second time I’ve rescued your butt, dad!” Jason said with a big smile!

Thank You Captain Jason!

By jay beedle

Jay is the author of South Shelter, a book about raising a family on a remote island in Southeast Alaska, it can be purchased at Hearthside Books in Juneau. A kindle version without pictures can be purchased on Amazon or on Jayleen’s Alaska whale watching tours. 

This article could not have been written without help from: Eileen and Jack. Thank you!