Warning- This post is very long!

I’m not sure why I feel the need to share this story with you all, but these memories have been playing over and over in my mind for a couple of days. Many of you may or may not know that I was in the Coast Guard for several years. While I was in, I experienced a variety of things. Truthfully, there were very few experiences that were really scary or thrilling. The majority of my Coast Guard career was spent training for tasks that I never completed. In this story that I am writing about, I was actually still in training to become a Boat Crewmember.

The minimum crew that was required to operate and respond to any cases on the boat that I was working on consisted of three people, a coxswain (the person that physically drives the boat), the engineer, and the crewmember (who is responsible for line handling, navigating, and fire fighting). If I remember correctly, it was pretty early in my training experience. The day had been pretty gloomy and it was getting late in the evening. The radio watchstander received a call from a shrimp boat that was in distress. If you have never seen a shrimp boat before, they literally look just like the shrimp boat in Forrest Gump. And if you haven’t seen that movie, you should watch it and then continue reading this story! They have these things called outriggers about midboard on either side of the boat. They are metal, about 25 to 30 feet in length, are in an upright position when the nets that are attached to them are not in the water, and straight out from the boat when the nets are in the water.

As you can imagine, these outriggers are pretty heavy and make a dramatic difference in the way the boat rides depending on what position they are in. The shrimp boat’s distress was that one outrigger was upright and the other was stuck out to the side of the boat. The weather and seas were getting really rough. The crew of the shrimp boat was in a panic that the boat was going to capsize because the weight of the outrigger that was down was already causing the boat to lean to one side and the waves were pushing the boat further over. The decision was made that the crew from our Coast Guard station was going to go get the people off of the boat. Just to add a little more intensity to this story, the shrimp boat was about 20 miles from our Station. I don’t know if any of you have been 20 miles (one-way) in a boat, but let me tell you, it is a loooong ride! Factor in bad weather and conditions and it gets a lot longer!

Because we knew we were going to be fighting the bad weather and seas, it was decided to take several people in addition to the standard boatcrew. The crew that went out on this case consisted of Joe as the coxswain, Chris as the engineer, another Chris as the crewman, and Josh and I as crewman "break-ins". I was comfortable with the boatcrew. I had a lot of respect for the coxswain and viewed him as the second best boat driver that the facility had. The first best was the Chief that was in charge of the station and he wasn’t there that night.

We got underway and things were going as well as could be expected. The seas were fierce. Raging. Angry. I would suspect that ride was similar to what clothes go through in a washing machine. Waves were crashing in front of us, behind us, and on both sides of us. The water was churning and their was no pattern, rhythm, or consistency to them whatsoever. The seas were steadily building. We started with about 6 foot seas. Then it was 8. 10. Pretty soon the seas were easily becoming 12 foot from trough to crest. There was nearly constant communications happening on the radio between our station watchstander, out boat crew, and the crew on the boat in distress. There was constant clatter of the radio and the lapping of the waves against our boat.

I will never forget the sound of an aluminum boat slamming through a wave and onto the next. I will never forget the feeling of floating in air, hoping that we would land on the next wave without tipping over. I will forever feel the ache in my legs and knees as I struggled to stand and absorbed the shock of one wave after another. I have literally seen a wall of water crash onto the windshield that I am peering through with so much force, I’m not sure how I wasn’t wearing shards of glass and soaked to the bone.

The Coast Guard has pre-established weather standards that a boat that size can withstand. The limitation of seas for that size boat is 10 feet. Some mathematical formula says that anything larger than that dramatically increases the risk of capsizing the boat, ending in possible injury or even loss of life. Did I mention that the seas were approaching and even surpassing 12 foot?

The most difficult part about this entire scenario is that once our boat reached the limitations, it’s not like the seas would just give up and we would have a smooth ride home. No, we were going back the exact same way we came. There was no safe haven to hide in until calmer weather came around. We had nowhere to go to escape the intensity of the seas and weather. Unfortunately, we were instructed to return to base without being able to assist the vessel in distress. The seas had become too rough and the chances could not continue to be taken. The most frustrating and gut-wrenching part about the recall is that we had made it to within one mile of the boat. If the day were calm and still, we would have been able to see the boat from our position at the point we had to turn around.

I can still remember the feeling of terror and fear that overcame me when the guy I admired so much became so physically exhausted from trying to maneuver the boat that he had to take a break and let the engineer, Chris take over for awhile. See, it didn’t even really occur to me the exact severity of what we were dealing with until that point. I knew it was bad. I knew it was not ideal, but I honestly never thought about the fact that this could have had a negative outcome.

I am ashamed to admit that I never once prayed to God for His hand of protection. I put my faith into a flawed and imperfect human and never gave thought to the One who really protected us and allowed us to return home safely. It has taken me years to realize the protection that was covering us that night was completely God. I cannot express my thankfulness for the God who provides even when I don’t deserve it or acknowledge it. I don’t know that I will ever understand why people are put into the situations they are or why the outcomes turn out the way they do, but I know from this day forward I will give all of the glory to God for His power and grace.