South Sound Sailing Society Ship-to-Shore Letter:

Boarded!!

Koosah was returning from the Winter Vashon Race on December 6. I was loading the lasagna into the oven when out of the hatchway a US Coast Guard boat appeared with its blue light on! We had finished the race around 1530, dropped seven of the crew off at Tacoma Yacht Club, and four of us were returning the boat to Olympia. We were up against the shore near Point Evans in the Tacoma Narrows because the current was against us. Bodacious, also returning was about one mile ahead of us.

At first I thought the boat would zip right on past us in hot pursuit of some bad guys or a vessel in distress. Nope, they were interested in Koosah!

The boat paced us from our port quarter and one of the Coast Guard personnel asked if we had been boarded before. “Not Recently” was our reply. “We are coming aboard”, was the Coast Guard response. My first though was what were we doing wrong to deserve this? Then thoughts went rushing through my mind of what was wrong with Koosah!

The four Coast Guard personnel were professional and made clear to us what was going to happen. The Officer In Charge told us that they were going to come along our port side and three of them would board our boat. That happened. We knew that this was no drill; each had a 9 mm pistol on their waistband!

Once on board they immediately asked if there were any firearms or drugs aboard. Nope! Then the OIC asked for the boat documentation and identification for each individual. They were impressed that all of Koosah’s documents were enclosed in document protectors filed in a three ring black binder labeled: Documentation. The OIC wanted the state registration document. Meanwhile all four of us were fumbling through our wallets attempting to produce some sort of identification! Jim Rodeheaver was at the helm, Richard Bigley was sitting in the cockpit, Kelly Coon was down looking at the chart plotter and radar, and I was still breathing hard.

One of the personnel asked if I would go forward on deck with him. He wanted to inspect the state registration numbers and stickers.

Back in the cockpit another personnel was using a hand-held computer to enter in all of the boat registration information and individual identification statistics. All the time the fourth member was driving the 25' inflatable boat with an aluminum pilot house and M60 machine gun mounted on the bow about 100' off our port stern. There was continuous communication between the boat and the boarding party via VHF radio by the OIC. He also used a cell phone. The computer communicated with Coast Guard Headquarters, Pier 36, in Seattle.

1. It was a random boarding. We had done nothing wrong.
2. They inspected our throwable cushions to ensure there was a Coast Guard approval number on each one.
3. Same for our life jackets, suspenders.
4. They inspected all five fire extinguishers and found the Coast Guard approval numbers.
5. They wanted to see the Garbage Placard.
6. Same for the Discharge of Oil Prohibited placard.
7. They inspected our horns, both air pressure and reed horn, blow by mouth.
8. The head really got inspected! Koosah has a Type I marine sanitation device, it goes into a holding tank, is chemically treated, and then pumped overboard. This means that the discharge seacock is always open. The OIC had to return to his boat to check to see if we met the requirements. We did!
9. They wanted to see a Spill Response Kit. This amounted to the bilge sock in our bilge and the extra oil absorber sheets we keep on the boat.
10. They checked our navigation lights.

The inspection took about 30 minutes. They allowed us to continue motoring under the Narrows Bridge on our way home during the inspection. Koosah is a Category I boat. They were not interested however in inspecting our life raft, survival suits, lifesling, horseshoe/strobe/MOB pole, radar reflector, radio, GPS, LORAN, jack lines, rigging cutter, emergency tiller, first aid kit and other safety items on board.

They produced a printed certificate from that hand-held computer and gave it to me. We had passed the inspection with no deficiencies! I am going to have that certificate laminated and placed in the black documentation binder so the next time when they ask that dreaded question, I can show them the proof and encourage them to find another boat!

Dave Knowlton, Koosah