On one of our crossings from the Bahamas to Florida, our family got boarded by the Coast Guard.
Tyler’s grade school essay tells the story well.
The Time I Got Boarded By The U.S. Coast Guard
By Tyler Pehoski (at age 11)
It was just my family and I on a small 33-foot sailboat crossing the dreaded Gulf Stream. My family was crossing from the Bahamas back to the states after a month’s vacation in the Bahamas.
We were about halfway across, dead smack in the middle of the Gulf Stream, a very strong current that runs north off the coast of Florida when we saw a good size motorboat on the horizon.
A short time later, we heard over the radio “hailing small sailing vessel” it then went on to state our approximate coordinates, and then said, “This is the U.S. Coast Guard.”. My dad, who was the captain of our boat, responded. After a short correspondence on the radio, it was established that we were to be boarded by the Coast Guard. My dad was wondering if they would find everything in order.
After another half an hour, we saw the Coast Guard vessel now only a mere mile from us lowering a small inflatable boat over the side. Through the binoculars, I then observed the Coast Guard men load seemingly huge guns onto their fifteen-foot inflatable. Now we all really hoped everything was in order.
My dad hoped we had all the papers for my adopted brothers and sisters and that all those papers and everything was in order. That was probably the primary reason the Coast Guard decided to board us. They saw white and black children on the deck of our boat.
The boat our family owned at that time was a 33-foot Columbia sailboat named Bonair. With my family of eight living in a contained 33 ft space, it was very tight. We had just been cruising around the Bahamas for a month when we found we had to go back home, the summer was almost over and I had to go back to school and my parents back to work.
The small craft with all the guns on board came speeding across the water toward our boat. They came within twenty feet of Bonair and hailed us to keep our present speed and course and that they would come alongside us and board us. Within a few minutes, three men loaded with handguns and VHF radios had boarded our boat and climbed over the lifelines into the cockpit. The driver of their small craft was driving alongside us with plenty of firepowers still in his craft.
When boarding our boat, one of the Coast Guard men nearly fell overboard as he miss-timed his step from his boat onto ours. In the middle of the Gulf Stream, the swells can be 10-15 feet tall, on a calm day, so timing how to step from one craft to another can be difficult as they could be on slightly different swells.
Finally, with all three men on board, they asked to see our passports, boat registration, and identification for all onboard. After they saw all the papers and confirmed that they were all valid, they asked to go down below where they promptly started to search for anything illegal. They tore off cushions, looked under cabinets and storage lockers, apparently looking for drugs or anything we illegally brought over from the Bahamas and were trying to smuggle to the U.S.
After they searched every place in the main galley, they went back up in the fresh air of the cockpit and sent the youngest of the three, the rookie, down to look at the head, the ship’s bathroom. He went down into the confined space and a minute later came back up looking all green but told the others that everything looked A-O.K. down there. He really was a rookie. I went to the bathroom there all summer and never got sick, sure it smelled really bad, but it wouldn’t bother a real seaman. The men looked at a few more documents and then hailed the other guy in the small craft who was riding alongside us the whole time to come pick them up.
All three Coast Guard employees got safely on their boat and headed back to the Coast Guard ship. We had a safe journey the rest of the way back to Florida, but I’ll never forget the time we got boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Pingback: Conversation Snippets From Our Crew - Terrapin Trails
That can be scary! We had them board us off the coast of Puerto Rico. Great story Tyler!!
At first the experience was a bit tense, but once the officers realized we were a family and had everything in order then it became educational. They let our kids ask them a few questions before they left, very nice of them!
Great story!
Great line
“but it wouldn’t bother a real seaman”,
got a laugh out of that one.
Tyler is like you with a quick wit and great one-liners!