That dreaded word. We know, fear, and respect that horizontal aluminum pole. We are taught to duck when we hear it.
But a moment of inattention caught me broadside. The boom picked me up, threw me into the water, and laughed at me as stars exploded in front of my eyes.
Thank God for crew members like Joe Campo and Alex Sodhi. They took control of the boat and got me back aboard. As you know with the winds gusting to 20 knots, sails whipping, and no one at the helm, getting me back into the boat was no small task. It was made more complicated by having an unconscious/irrational victim who did not have the capacity to pull the inflation cords on his life vest.
Joe Campo is a graduate of the Evergreen sailing program and had raced on Acquitted for several races. Alex Sodhi is a 14 year old Boy Scout who also had been aboard the boat several times. Joe and Alex were on the fore deck fighting with the whisker pole and head sail when Joe just happened to look back and see boom’s attempted decapitation of the skipper.
Joe quickly responded by moving the boat into position so they could get a line to me. It was Alex’s rigging a fender for a life buoy and Joe’s circling that hooked me. Alex’s first aid training helped make me comfortable until the EMTs arrived.
I do not remember much of the ordeal. My crew says that I did yell some instructions at them. There are only a couple of memories of getting heavy, fingers not working and going into shock. There is no memory of water temperature, the six to eight minutes in the water, being pulled out of the water or most of the police boat and ambulance trip.
Beside my crew who saved my life, my appreciation is extended to
Jack Shincke, skipper of Victory Rose which served as Committee Boat for the second race of the SSSS’s Spring Series on May 1, who called the Olympia Police Patrol Boat;
to the volunteers aboard the Police boat who quickly responded and got me to the hospital;
and to Keith Grant and his crew from Cygnet, who assisted my exhausted crew with the clean up and moorage.
Thanks to an alert crew and fellow sailors from SSSS, I defeated that damn boom, and I am not planning on a rematch.
Jim Lengenfelder, Acquitted