"My adrenaline was just pumping..."
We’ve talked about our own personal acts of surfing heroism here before, how we’ve lent a nub of wax to a stranger in need, how we’ve winced, empathetically, when witnessing a poor soul step on a stingray. Beneath the crust, the grump, there a gorgeous benevolence but have you ever been out, surfing a storm and seen a boat attempting to come in to harbor when its captain got pitched overboard?
What would you do if you had seen such a thing?
Wince empathetically?
Well, a Florida hell charger one-upped us all and let us read about the harrowing tale of hero Burt Garnsey
A Florida man was surfing alone at the Boynton Inlet when he saw the captain go over, clawing at the boat’s Bimini top before falling into a frothy sea the color of steel.
The captain was in the water and the boat, with eight charter passengers aboard, bobbed precariously Sunday in powerful waves heaved at South Florida from a deepening coastal storm off the Carolinas.
Burt Garnsey was surfing alone at the Boynton Inlet when he saw the Starfish Scuba captain go over, clawing at the boat’s Bimini top before falling into a frothy sea the color of steel. Garnsey looked to the bridge of the 34-foot vessel. The wheel was unmanned.
“I just started paddling toward the boat,” said Garnsey, an experienced mariner whose family has worked on the water for three generations. “It was still sideways.”
Garnsey, 51, was eyeing the horizon at about 10:30 a.m. when the Starfish came into view, got whacked by a wave that turned it parallel to the whitewater, and then another that threw Starfish Captain Bradley Williams off the bridge.
Garnsey bellied in a wave toward the boat. Concerned it would capsize with no one on the bridge, he climbed up on the dive platform, undid the leash that attaches him to his surfboard and ran to the wheel.
“My adrenaline was just pumping,” said Garnsey, whose family owns the Boynton Beach-based Sea Mist III fishing charters, which was also out Sunday.
How does the tale end? Heroically of course with Garnsey even finding his board on the beach later.
Butt Gurney https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Yep, that’s the one.
Fuck that’s heavy! Old matey sea captain owes Burt all the rum and treasure. He saved him, literally and also on some manslaughter beefs.
That’s a dangerous inlet esp. when there is swell, which makes Burt’s rescue even that much more heroic. Great job Burt – legend!
This guy could single-handedly ruin the reputation of Florida Man, that the captain has done so much to maintain.
What happened to the Captain and why didn’t he just climb back up the boat?
This shit is only believable cause the guy’s name is Burt. It’s fucking heroic just naming your sin Burt.
“Naming your sin Burt” is deep cut genius.
Reminds me of the time a fishing boat went down 300m from the beach right in front of the tiny village I lived in France . December 2006 . The last day of a huge swell which had lasted 6 weeks . The boat got hit by a wave on the outer banks and overturned . The captain jumped off and managed to swim to the beach through the cold water but his crew , sleeping below deck never made it . Locals surfers launched a jet ski and tried to rescue them but to no avail .
I remember reading a passage how fishermen from cold climates would not learn how to swim to make drowning easier ….. the next day I happened upon the grieving family of the lost fishermen walking along the beach ….. A few days later while surfing a beautiful bank created by the storm , parts of the wreck emerged eerily out of the water, like ghosts , grappling for air , right next to me on more than one occasion ….. Still haunted by this session , cloudy and grey …
I grew up at a notoriously dangerous rivermouth where as a grommet it was all too common to go down to check the surf and see an over-turned fishing boat. My oldman and uncles were all part of the local search and rescue unit and would have to go out there in stormy, chocolate coloured seas brimming full of logs and boiling kahawai (your salmon) and futilely search the wreck and area for survivors. Then you’d hear that two days later, ‘so-and-so’ found the bodies washed up.
The Sea giveth and most definitely takes away .
…and gumboots and rubber overalls will make a great anchor of a man.