Oh were it mine with sacred Maro’s art
To wake to sympathy the feeling heart,
Then might I, with unrivaled strains deplore
Th’ impervious horrors of a leeward shore.

— William Falconer, The Shipwreck

We don’t feel the impervious horrors of the leeward shore as once we did, now that we have diesel engines and metal hulls, but still it’s no fun to run aground, even on the soft, soft sand of the South Spit.

The U.S. Coast Guard was called in the wee hours of Friday morning to pluck five folks off the stranded hulk of the Miss Jessie, which had beached itself like a dying humpback for reasons unspecified.

This is what the Coast Guard had to say about that, but stick around after the jump for what happened after.

Press release from the United States Coast Guard Southwest District:

The Coast Guard rescued five people aboard the 37-foot commercial fishing vessel “Miss Jessie” after it ran aground south of Humboldt Bay near Eureka, California, Friday morning.

Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay watchstanders received the report at 12:02 a.m. via VHF-FM channel 16 from a crew member aboard the fishing vessel, requesting assistance after the vessel became disabled in the surf and ran aground.

Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and coordinated the launches of an Air Station Humboldt Bay MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew and a Station Humboldt Bay 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crew.

The helicopter aircrew arrived on scene at 1:27 a.m., hoisted all five people off the vessel and transported them to the Samoa Field Airport over two separate trips.

The vessel’s fuel tanks have a maximum capacity of 7,000 gallons, and there is an estimated 800 gallons of diesel onboard.

No injuries or pollution have been reported.

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Rescuing the mariners was relatively easy. The Miss Jessie herself? Not so much. According to an informant on the scene who wishes to remain anonymous, and who sent the pictures below, a team assembled to work round-the-clock to float the boat again.

This team included personnel from Figas Construction, Corbet Diving and Zerlang & Zerlang Marine Service, and it had to put together a whole land-sea plan to coax the Miss Jessie back into open water. This involved carving a huge ditch into the sand, waiting for the tide to come in, then pulling like hell with an offshore tugboat. 

“Good example of decades combined experience, and roughneck elbow grease at work to do something really cool, and return the beached boat to its owners,” our informant says. Agreed!

Enjoy his photos of the operation below.